Chaves Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2010-09-19 by antónio martins
Keywords: chaves | coat of arms (bridge) | bridge: 3 arches | keys: 2 (golden) | escutcheon: portugal moderne | waves: 5 |
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• About the flag
• Version without the coat of arms
• Presentation of Chaves CHV

• Municipalities of Portugal
• Portugal

• Page about the municipal flag and coat of arms of Chaves at Sérgio Horta’s website (in Portuguese).
  reported by Jorge Candeias, 29 Feb 1999
• Page about Chaves 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 typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centered on blue and white gyronny (city rank) background. Flag and arms adopted and published in the official journal Diário da República : III Série in 1987.11.11, a remarkably late date.
António Martins, 03 Jul 2007

The arms are Azure issuant from a campaign wavy of six fesses Argent and Azure a three-arch bridge Argent masoned sable and in chief between two keys Or with their wards upwards and inwards an escutcheon charged with Portugal modern. Mural crown argent with five visible towers (city rank), white scroll reading in black upper case letters "Cidade de Chaves" and collar of the Order of Tower and Sword.
António Martins, 03 Jul 2007

The keys in these arms are canting, for "chaves" means exactly "keys". It was named Aquæ Flaviæ in Roman times.
António Martins, 04 Jul 2007

Version without the coat of arms

Plain (monocolored) portuguese subnational flags are not allowed to have armless variations: plain flags always carry the coat of arms.
Jorge Candeias, 18 Jul 1999

Presentation of Chaves

Chaves municipality had 43 667 inhabitants in 2001 and consists of 51 communes covering 590,42 km². It is part of Vila Real District, traditional province and 1999 ref. adm. region Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, C.C.R. / NUTS II Norte, and NUTS III Alto Trás-os-Montes. Chaves is one of the 40 “ancient” (pre-1973) portuguese cities.
António Martins, 03 Jul 2007

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