Setúbal - Portugal

Setúbal is the fourth largest city in Portugal with around 118 thousand inhabitants. The city can be found south of Lisbon, the distance between them is 48 km (30 mi). Also Portugal's third seaport in size and once very big in the fishing industry but that is gone, only some fishing remained. Shipbuilding is going well in this coastal town, very close by are many beautiful beaches to enjoy. People like nature can go to the Arrábida hills, when visited the place can have an idea visiting Dalmatia. The 175 km (109 mi) long river Sado enters an estuarium near Setúbal were an group dolphins called the place home. Most famous son of this city is José Mourinho an successful football(soccer)manager, won many prices over the years. Born in Setúbal when his father Félix Mourinho was goalkeeper at local side Vitoria Setúbal, became an cult-figure in those days. So lets take an look at the flag.

The flag had pizza slice looking triangles and kind of shape are called gyronny, there are eight of them in the colors white and purple. Gyronny flags to be used only by cities(cidades) but there are few exceptions. In Portugal they consider an city with at least 8000 inhabitants. And always with Portugese municipal flags there must be an coat of arms in the center. Lets start with the mural crown an symbol of cities in an republic and counting the towers you can tell of the coat of arms is an city, town or village. In this case there are five towers and that means an city. Three towers for an village and four for an town. The shield is divided in two parts lets start with the upper part. The shell and two Cross of Saint James are symbols of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword (Portuguese: Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada). The cross looks like an sword, in this matter it suits the military-order. The order have its headquarters in the town of Palmela close to Setúbal. The shell correctly an scallop is an symbol of the pilgrims to Santiago d Compostella. The lower part we see an castle, two sailboats and the sea with three fishes. The boat, sea and fishes represented the former fishing industry. And the castle represented Setúbal and its port. Finally we have an Portugese text in the ribbon with "city of Setúbal". Typical Portugese flag thats kind of busy bit traditional.