Sines Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2001-08-16 by antonio martins
Keywords: sines | coat of arms | waves: 4 | towers: 3 | tower (white) |
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It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centered on a background quarterly (meaning town rank) of red and white. The coat of arms is per fess or and vert: on the top, two fesses tenne, over all and issuant three towers argent masoned sable, windows tenne, the central tower higher, with a door of the same and with a second floor (above the crenels) extending upwards, between each tower a wall or, uncrenelled and unmasoned; on the bottom, three wavy fesses argent. Mural crown argent with four visible towers (town rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "VILA DE SINES".
Ant�nio Martins, 03 Aug 1999

The coat of arms is quite unusual in its details and is probably incorrect. Andr�s image is quite accurate compared with the usual recent depictions of these arms (although the orange / tenne color is usually much more darker), but some details make me think that someone once drwan an incorrect version which simply widespreaded uncritiqued:

1. First of all, the partition per fess, which shouldn't be, according to the rules that regulate portuguese civic heraldry � instead, the wavy fesses (six of them, vert and argent) should simply be in point, like in the Set�bal arms. However, this coat of arms is usally shown with a stright line limiting the upper green wave (that's why I blazoned it as party per fess).
2. Second, the castle is definitively strange, with the "chimney" extending upwards to the central tower and those yellow areas in the place where one would expect to see a �[castle] wall argent masoned sable�. I have a dim recollection of an older version of these arms with a propper castle on it � so maybe this (new?) design is an improvisation of turning a castle into three isolated towers. I seem to recall some connections between these towers and the local industrial facilities, notably an oil refinary and a coal power central, with their unheraldical towers...
3. As for the unusual (and unheraldic) tenne / orange color, my guess is that it was originally red and someone goofed along the way. In fact, it must have been so, because since the flag is red and white, there must have been some gules charge on the coat of arms.

Sines municipality had 12 450 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 2 communes, covering 199 km². It belongs to the Set�bal District and to the old province of Baixo Alentejo.
Ant�nio Martins, 03 Aug 1999