C�mara de Lobos Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2001-09-14 by antonio martins
Keywords: c�mara de lobos | coat of arms | anchor (yellow) | seal (animal) | canting | monachus monachus | mediterranean monk seal |
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• Municipal website, containing law quote and coat of arms image.
  reported by S�rgio Horta, 27 Nov 1999, and Ivan Sache, 18 Feb 2001

The municipality coat-of-arms is a blue shield, golden anchor between to �sea wolves� of natural colour facing each other. Silver mural crown with 5 towers. White scroll with black lettering "C�MARA DE LOBOS". Flag is a yellow over blue gyronny. Rope of gold and blue. Golden pole. The seal in conformity with the law with the lettering "C�mara Municipal de C�mara de Lobos".
translated by S�rgio Horta, 27 Nov 1999, from the Municipal website

"C�mara de Lobos" means "Wolves� Chamber" (here "chamber" meaning "inlet", "harbour" or "bay"), the beasts on the coat of arms are seals, and those are canting arms. That is because in Madeira the local seal species (Monachus monachus, the Mediterranean Monk Seal) is called Lobo-marinho, meaning sea wolf (portuguese mainland biologists usually say Foca-monge do Mediterr�neo, but this is fading away).
Ant�nio Martins, 26 Nov 1999

In English heraldry, a sea-wolf would be a mythological animal � Fox-Davies would actually call it a �monster�, not without reason � half wolf, half fish. That supposing there is any instance of a �sea-wolf� recorded at the College of Arms. The English blazon of C�mara de Lobos would hence mention �seals� and the arms would no longer be understood as canting, except of course an appropriate reference to the Portuguese terms be made.
Santiago Dotor, 29 Nov 1999

In A Glossary of Heraldry [prk70], Parker wrote:

Seal: It seems to have been fancifully called by some heraldic writers the sea-calf and sea-wolf. The whole animal, however, does not appear to be represented; only the paws and head, and then but rarely.

This is a city that belongs to Madeira, has a 53 sq. km area, 4 freguesias (communes) and about 31 000 inhabitants.
S�rgio Horta, 25 Nov 1999

C�mara de Lobos is located on the southern coast of the island (and autonomous region) of Madeira, ca. 10 km West of Funchal, the capital city of the island.
Ivan Sache, 18 Feb 2001

An other page of the same website says that It was founded on 25 May 1835 and locally established on 4 October 1835. The freguesia [commune] of C�mara de Lobos had been created in 1430, Estreito de C�mara de Lobos in 1509, Curral das Freiras on 17 March 1790, Quinta Grande on 24 July 1848 and Jardim da Serra on 5 July 1996. Estreito de C�mara de Lobos was upgraded to the status of vila [town] on 3 August 1996 and C�mara de Lobos was upgraded to the status of cidade [city] on 3 August 1996 as said above.
Ivan Sache, 18 Feb 2001

The coat-of-arms� current configuration dates from September the 9th 1997 and replaces the one approved on January 4th 1957 changing only the mural crown from town to city, because of the status upgrade of the municipality head, occurred on august 3th 1996.
translated by S�rgio Horta, 27 Nov 1999, from the Municipal website

Well, this means that the previous flag was probably a quartered flag in yellow and blue and that the coat of arms had certainly a 4-towered mural crown. The flag is uncertain because, by law, could also be monocoloured, with all likelyhood yellow.
Jorge Candeias, 19 Feb 2001

An other page of the same website says that the concelho [municipality] of C�mara de Lobos is made of the freguesias [communes] of C�mara de Lobos, Estreito de C�mara de Lobos, Curral das Freiras, Quinta Grande, and Jardim da Serra.
Ivan Sache, 18 Feb 2001