Caldas da Rainha Municipality (Portugal)

Concelho de Caldas da Rainha, Distrito de Leiria

Last modified: 2015-10-31 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: caldas da rainha | bordure | shrimp-catcher | pelican | coronet |
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• About the Flag
• Version without Coat of Arms
• Presentation of

• Caldas da Rainha Communes
• Portugal

• Page about Caldas da Rainha at the Portuguese Municipalities’s Association website (incl. image of the arms)
  reported by António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 Nov 2001
• Leonor of Viseu, in the English Wikipedia
  reported by António Martins-Tuválkin, 9 Jun 2008

About the Flag

It is an atypical Portuguese municipal flag, with the centred on a field gyronny of eight of purple and yellow (city rank) background). The existence of a tradition of atypical (and “illegal”) representations may account for the fact that this coat of arms and flag are not yet made official, though they are in use for many decades.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Mar 2007

The arms are those of Leonor de Viseu (1458-1525) as Queen-Consort of Portugal (1481-1495): per pale Portugal and Portugal defaced with a chief of Aragon and Two Sicilies. Flanking the shield two smaller shields argent bearing this queen’s and her husband’s badges Or: a pelican in her piety dexter (João II) and a shrimp-catcher. The main shield is topped by a royal coronet.
The usual representations of these arms, both as the queen’s and the city’s, are simplified to have only one single file of castles on the central part of the conjoined borders, the whole arms being discribed as Argent between two crosses of five escutcheons each charged with five plates per saltire a pale Gules charged with five castles Or and on a bordure Gules ten castles Or (etc.) with the aragon chief reduced to a fesslet couped fretty Sable and Argent.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Mar 2007

Meaning:
"Caldas da Rainha" means "queen’s spa" (or "queen’s bath") and the arms are not just canting about her, they’re her arms: Caldas da Rainha was chosen by this queen to build a thermal hospital, which is still open.
António Martins, 21 Mar 2007 and 22 Mar 2007

Version without Coat of Arms

Presentation of Caldas da Rainha

Caldas da Rainha municipality had 51 403 inhabitants in 2001 and consists of 16 communes covering 255,87 km². It is part of Leiria District, traditional province Estremadura, 1999 ref. adm. region Ribatejo e Oeste, C.C.R. / NUTS II Centro, and NUTS III Oeste.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Mar 2007

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