Vila Nova de Gaia Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2012-04-13 by antónio martins
Keywords: vila nova de gaia | coat of arms (tower: black) | tower (black) | grapes: 2 (yellow) | escutcheons: 2 | quinas: 2 | quina: 13 plates | hornblower | waves: 2 |
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• About the flag
• Version without the coat of arms
• Previous flag
• Presentation of Vila Nova de Gaia VNG

• Municipalities of Portugal
• Portugal

• Page about the municipal flag and coat of arms of Vila Nova de Gaia at Sérgio Horta’s website (in Portuguese).
  reported by Jorge Candeias, 29 Feb 1999
• Page about Vila Nova de Gaia 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 fairily typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centered on a black and yellow gyronny (city rank) background. These arms and flag are in use upon the upgrade of the municipality seat to city status in 1984.06.28 but not yet officialized (according to Sérgio Horta’s website) and are a trivial change of the former arms and flag.
António Martins, 10 Apr 2007

Coat of arms

The arms are Argent above two barrulets wavy Azure in counterchief a tower Sable open and litten Argent with a hornblower issuant from its top dressed Gules and playing Or between two bunches of grapes Or leafed Vert and two inescutcheons Azure charged with 13 plates each set 2+3+2+3+2+1 in chief. Mural crown argent with five visible towers (city rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "Vila Nova de Gaia".
António Martins, 10 Apr 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

Previous flag

The former arms and flag were adopted and published in the official journal Diário do Governo : I Série in 1934.09.10. These included the usual town attributes: four visible crown towers and yellow and black quartered flag.
António Martins, 10 Apr 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 Vila Nova de Gaia

Vila Nova de Gaia municipality had 288 749 inhabitants in 2001 and consists of 24 communes covering 170,82 km². It is part of Porto District, traditional province Douro Litoral, 1999 ref. adm. region Entre Douro e Minho, current C.C.R. / NUTS II Norte, and NUTS III Grande Porto. Vila Nova de Gaia, or simply Gaia, is on the left bank of Douro facing Oporto. Spelled "Cale" in Latin, its name originated the word "Portugal", from "Portus Cale(m)", "the harbour of Cale/Gaia".
António Martins, 10 Apr 2007

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