This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Cabrália Paulista, São Paulo State (Brazil)

Last modified: 2013-01-05 by ian macdonald
Keywords: sao paulo | cabrália paulista |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors



Cabrália Paulista, SP (Brazil) image by Dirk Schönberger, 6 October 2012
Source: http://www.cabralia.sp.gov.br/simbolos.htm


See also:

About the Flag

A blue-white vertical bicolour, bearing the municipal arms in the centre.

Official website at http://www.cabralia.sp.gov.br
Dirk Schönberger, 6 October 2012

The municipality of Cabrália Paulista (4,365 inhabitants in 2010; 23,910 ha) is located 350 km northwest of São Paulo.

Cabrália Paulista emerged around 1915 as a settlement named Mirante, founded by Antônio Consalter Longo and Manoel Francisco do Nascimento. The chapel of Senhor Bom Jesus do Mirante was inaugurated in 1920. The district of Mirante was established by Law No. 1,893 of 16 December 1922, as part of the municipality of Piratininga, renamed Cabrália Paulista by Decree No. 9,775 of 30 November 1938, and renamed Pirajai by Decree-Law No. 14,334 of 30 November 1944. The municipality of Cabrália Paulista was established by Law No. 233 of 24 December 1948.
http://www.cabralia.sp.gov.br/historia.htm - Municipal website

Article 4 of the Municipal Constitution of Cabrália Paulista, adopted by Municipal Law No. 6 of 5 April 1990, prescribes the municipal symbol, without further description, as the coat of arms, the flag and the anthem.
http://www.cabralia.sp.gov.br/leis/lei%20organica.pdf - Municipal Constitution

The coat of arms of Cabrália Paulista was adopted on 27 February 1978. The coat of arms is "Per pale, 1. Argent two goats purpure per pale, 2. Azure a cross flory argent. The shield surmounted by a mural crown argent ports sable. The shield supported dexter by a branch of coffee fructed proper and sinister by a branch of mulberry fructed proper and with silkworm cocoons. Below the shield a a scroll inscribed with the name of the municipality in letters argent."

The dexter part of the arms is the coat of arms of the family of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the discoverer of Brazil and the town's namesake. The origin of Cabral's arms is discussed as follows by James Roxburgh McClymont ("Pedraluarez Cabral (Pedro Alluarez de Gouvea) - His progenitors, his life and his voyage to America and India", Bernard Quaritch, London, 1914 - http://archive.org/details/pedraluarezcabra00mccl):

"According to a family tradition the Cabraes were descended from a certain Carano or Caranus, the first king of the Macedonians and the seventh in descent from Hercules. Carano had been instructed by the Delphic Oracle to place the metropolis of his new kingdom at the spot to which he would be guided by goats, and when he assaulted Edissa his army followed in the wake of a flock of goats just as the Bulgarians drove cattle before them when they took Adrianople. The king accordingly chose two goats for his cognisance and two goats passant purpure on a field argent subsequently became the arms of the Cabraes. Herodotus knows nothing of Carano and the goats. Another and a more probably true tradition is to the effect that this family is descended from a Castilian one - the Cabreiras - and the origin of the Coat of Arms is thus explained. A certain fidalgo who was commander of a fortress at Belmonte was with the garrison being starved into submission by investing forces. Two goats were still alive in the fortress. These were killed by order of the commander, cut into quarters and thrown to the enemy, whereupon the siege was raised as it was considered by the hostile commander that it was of no use to attempt to starve a garrison that could thus waste its provisions. It is also narrated that the son of the Castellan was taken prisoner and slain and that the horns and beards of the heraldic goats are sable as a token of mourning in consequence of this event. Examples of the coat of arms could be seen in the church of São Thiago at Belmonte and, almost wholly effaced, on a flat tombstone opposite the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary in the north nave of the Old Cathedral of Coimbra and in the Sala das Armas of the Palace of Sintra. The last-named escutcheon was painted during the reign of Emmanuel. We are not to suppose that the navigator used these arms. That privilege would belong to his elder brother, João Fernandes Cabral."

The sinister part of the arms is a tribute to Jesus Christ, the patron saint of the town. Coffee and mulberry were once the main crops in the municipality.
http://www.cabralia.sp.gov.br/simbolos.htm - Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 31 December 2012