^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Iacanga, São Paulo State (Brazil)

image by Dirk Schönberger, 7 November 2012
Source: http://www.iacanga.sp.gov.br/index.php/a-cidade/nossa-bandeira

About the Flag

See also:

About the Flag

A white field with five large U-shaped curves, four extending of the bottom of the flag and the municipal arms in the centre.

Official website at http://www.iacanga.sp.gov.br
Dirk Schönberger, 2 November 2012

The municipality of Iacanga (10,013 inhabitants in 2010; 54,803 ha) is located 380 km of São Paulo. The municipality of Iacanga was established in 1925, seceding "not without difficulties" from Pederneiras. In 1948, the district of Soturna seceded from Iacanga, forming the municipality of Arealva.

The flag of Iacanga is prescribed by Municipal Law No. 300, adopted in 1990.

The flag is white, charged in the middle by the municipal coat of arms surrounded by five curved blue stripes. The stripes are of equal width and separated of each other by a space of the same which. Their upper part is "cut" by (fictitious) diagonals that cross the upper corners of the shield. The curvature of the stripe starts 9 units from the upper edge of the flag, and follows the curvature of the shield.

White is a symbol of peace, purity, temperance, truth, frankness, integrity and racial synthesis. Blue is a symbol of nobleness, friendship and loyalty. Blue also represents river Tietê and its tributaries, which link the neighbouring municipalities. The five stripes represent the bordering municipalities, starting from the coat of arms: Ibitinga, Arealva, Reginópolis, Itajú and Borborema.

The flag is prescribed into seven sizes. Size No. 1 includes a panel of 45 cm in width, size No. 2 includes two such panels,..., and size No. 7 includes seven such panels. However, flags of "extraordinary" sizes, with bigger, smaller or intermediate dimensions may be manufactured for specific use, provided the proportions are respected.

Photo of the flag http://firstsite2.travelnet.com.br/40/template.php?pag=MontaTextoImagem.php&codGrupo=2272

The coat of arms of Iacanga, imagined by the São Paulo-based poet Guilherme de Almeida and designed by Renato Zambon, is prescribed by Municipal Law No. 385, adopted in March 1962. It was officially unveiled on 15 April 1962. "Portuguese shield, azure a scallop argent pouring water of the same. The shield surmounted by a four-towered mural crown or ensigned by an eagle displayed sable barruly of six argent armed and beaked gules. Below the shield a scroll azure inscribed with the motto 'SEDAT NEC CEDIT' sable."

The Portuguese, rounded-off shield, traditional in Brazilian municipal heraldry, recalls the discoverers and builders of the country. Azure means loyalty, wisdom and clarity in the archaic language of French chivalry. The scallop, a most noble charge, is common in Portuguese-Brazilian armorials (see for instance the canting arms of the Vieira family with six scallops ["vieiras"] or). The pouring water represents medicinal and baptismal water. According to Batista Caetano and Martius, Iacanga means in Tupi "a fountain". The scallop appears as an ex-voto to the patron saint of the town, St. John the Baptist, "under whose patronage the settlement of Ribeirão Claro was founded", according to the local historian Joaquim Caldas de Sousa. The mural crown should surmount the shield in the São Paulo municipal heraldry. The eagle is a stylized representation of the São Paulo flag, evoking the support of the town to the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution (aka Paulista War).
Ivan Sache, 10 November 2012