Belmonte Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2005-04-29 by
Keywords: belmonte | coat of arms | tower (silver) | hill |
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• About the flag
• Version without the coat of arms
• Presentation of Belmonte

• Municipalities of Portugal
• Portugal

About the flag

It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centered on a background quartered (meaning town rank) of green and white. The coat of arms is gules, on a mound vert, a two storey castle tower argent, opened void. Mural crown argent with four visible towers (town rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "VILA DE BELMONTE". This should be one of the “cleanest” coats of arms in portuguese civic heraldry, which unfortanately is often too “busy”. The name "Belmonte" means "Fair hill" ("fair" in the sense of "beautiful"), so that is the hill on the coat of arms.
António Martins, 21 Mar 1999

The tower stands for the medieval castle of Belmonte, part of the 2nd defensive line of the border.
Jorge Candeias, 21 Oct 1998

Version without the coat of arms

Quartered of green and white.
Jorge Candeias, 24 Jul 1999

Presentation of Belmonte

Belmonte is a town located in inner Portugal in a mountainous area (wich can be guessed by itʼs name: the contraction of the words "belo" and "monte", meaning "beautiful" and "hill", respectively) in the north of the Castelo Branco District (old province of Beira Baixa and future region of Beira Interior). The municipality is small (114,6 sq. km), scarsely populated (less than 7420 inhabitants in 5 communes, as of 1990) and poor, being itʼs major economical resources the agriculture, as far as I know.
Jorge Candeias, 21 Oct 1998