CIRCA - 1910 🇵🇹 - vertical bicolor of dark green (hoist-side) & wider crimson (fly-side) with coat of arms centered over the boundary

HISTORY: Variations of Coats of Arms ⛨ have been on the national flag since 1495, (always on a white field until blue🔍 was

added, creating a bicolor in 1834)

The individual elements; red & white ⛊ escudo (shield) & castles etc. are all present on royal

flags by 1248, with blue & white beazant + quinas (small ⛉ shields with dots) displayed on

heraldic banners as early as 1143.

After the 1910 revolution, an armillary ⚛ sphere was added (featured on naval & colonial flags

since ~15c) and the blue & white bicolor was replaced with green & red, from historical republican

movements, like the 1891 uprising, plus earlier banners, such as those of the Order of Christ during the Age of Discoveries.

VEXILLOLOGY:* Testifying to revolutionary optimism & a continuity of historic battle-based symbology over the centuries;

• The GREEN Band signifies hope & the promise of national progress - (Sometimes linked to Portugal's verdant landscapes)

• The CRIMSON stands for blood 🩸sacrificed by patriots, particularly during the republican uprising & prior struggles against Iberian dominance.

  
  

• RED & WHITE COAT OR ARMS ⛨ speaks to a long tradition of unique national identity & sovereignty

  • With the WHITE associated with the divine & representing hope for a ☮︎ peaceful & prosperous nation, filled with smaller ⛉ shields in a...

  • CROSS of 5 QUINAS, representing the legendary Battle of Ourique c.1139, where Catholic King Afonso I, ("The Apostle of Kongo") purportedly defeated 5 Moorish kings - the BLUE symbolizing victory & divine protection

    • ...containing 5 WHITE / SILVER ⚄ BEZANTS, (• dots), meant to be coins, symbolizing authority through the right to issue currency.**

  • All surrounded by a RED ⛊ BORDURE (boarder) with 7 CASTLES that represent fortified Moorish strongholds captured during the Reconquista, particularly the conquest of the Algarve region completed in 1249.

• The ARMILLARY ⚛ SPHERE evokes pioneering innovations like a celestial orbit model for astronomical navigation in the Age of Discovery, (15-16c)

* The STUDY of FLAGS; their history, symbolism, usage, and design. From Latin vexillum - referring to a Roman military standard / flag (from velum= cloth/ covering/sail/curtain

[PIE🔍 root weg = to weave / to cover]) + Greek suffix -logia = study]

** Alternatively the shields are said to represent either the Five Holy Wounds of Christ on the Cross, or else the five wounds suffered by Afonso Henriques in the Battle of Ourique & the

bezants to represent the pieces of silver received by Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus