Portugal - district flags

Last modified: 2003-04-05 by antonio martins
Keywords: district | district governor |
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• About Portuguese districts flags
• List of current Portuguese districts (clickable map):
  • Aveiro District
  • Beja District
  • Braga District
  • Bragança District
  • Castelo Branco District
  • Coimbra District
  • Évora District
  • Faro District
  • Guarda District
  • Leiria District
  • Lisboa District
  • Portalegre District
  • Porto District
  • Santarém District
  • Setúbal District
  • Viana do Castelo District
  • Vila Real District
  • Viseu District
• Former districts in Azores (Horta, Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo)
• Former Funchal district in Madeira

• Subdivisions of Portugal
• Portugal

Only three district flags are known for the moment (Aveiro, Santarém and Viseu). The question is: are they part of the law on the local and regional emblems?
Pascal Vagnat, 28 Jul 1999

The law is not explicit about which entities it may apply — and districts may be either in or out its scope. At any rate, however, none of the known district flags follow the pattern prescribed by that law.
Antonio Martins, 30 Jul 1999

Other districts may have flags still unseen by us or none at all. All of those very seldom seen — district governors (also very seldom seen themselves), in “institucional pose”, usually appear in front of (or by the side of) the portuguese national flag.
Antonio Martins, 30 Jul 1999

It is odd that in Portugal the locally elected bodies (commune and municipality goverments / parlaments and the once to be regional ones) have their arms approved (and in prectice chosen) by a central government entity, who also sets severe rules for the flags — and yet seems that the district goverments, that are appointed by the central government and not locally elected, make up their own flags as pleased... Odd.
Antonio Martins, 30 Jul 1999

There is also a district governor flag (2:3 white swallowtail with green horizontal stripe and the portuguese arms over all). Though this is a naval flag, designed to be used in Navy ships when a District Governor is on board, it is known to be used alson on land, incl. indoors.
Antonio Martins, 30 Jul 1999 and 08 Aug 2001

Note that the portuguese division distrito has nothing to do with the current meaning of the english cognate word. Portuguese districts are 18 in the continental part. Before becoming autonomous regions, Madeira was one district (Funchal) and Azores had three (Horta, Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo).
António Martins, 07 Jan 1998

The two municpalities of Macao are not attached to any district, and East Timor had it’s portuguese administrative entities in a void during the indonesian occupation (1975-1999), these consisting of the district of Dili (covering the whole territory) and the local municipalities (13) and communes (64).
Antonio Martins, 30 Jul 1999 and 29 Feb 2003