Monchique Municipality (Portugal)

Concelho de Monchique, Distrito de Faro

Last modified: 2014-08-09 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: monchique | moor(head) | king(head) | fountain | mons cicus |
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• About the flag
• Version without the coat of arms
• Presentation of Monchique

• Monchique Communes
• Portugal

• Page about Monchique at the Portuguese Municipalities’s Association website (incl. image of the arms)
  reported by António Martins, 18 Nov 2001

About the flag

It is a fairly untypical Portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain white field.

Coat of arms

The arms are vert, a fountain effervescent argent, accompained in dexter chief by a christian king’s head proper , and a moorish king’s head proper in sinister chief . Mural crown Argent with four visible towers (town rank), ornamented on its base with the inscription "MONS CICVS", and red scroll reading in white upper case letters "VILA DE MONCHIQUE".

The inscription "MONS CICVS" (hill something) is the roman name of the town, whose corruption by late latin, visigothic, mozarabic and andalusian arabic delivered the current name.
The unusual features on this flag are the colour of the scroll and the inscripion on the base of the crown. The white background is not as uncommon as it is often said — there are four or five of them in Portuguese municipal flags.
António Martins, 25 Feb 2000

Version without the coat of arms

Plain (monocoloured) portuguese subnational flags are not allowed to have variations without arms: plain flags always carry the coat of arms.
Jorge Candeias, 18 Jul 1999

Presentation of Monchique

Monchique municipality had 6840 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 3 communes, covering 395 km². It belongs to the Faro District and to the old province of Algarve.
António Martins, 25 Feb 2000

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