Ponte de Santa Clara - Coimbra, Portugal - Municipal Flags on Waymarking.com

Along the bridge over the river there are 14 flags of Coimbra's municipality.

From Coimbra's Municipality website, about the heraldics of the flag:

"The current coat of arms of the City of Coimbra are defined by the ordinance no. 14 of the 14th of November of 1930, which states:


“In view of the opinion of the Heraldic Section of the Association of the Portuguese Archaeologists and in view of the representation of the Administrative Commission of the City Council of Coimbra: The Government of the Portuguese Republic through the Minister of the Interior requests that the heraldic constitution of the coat of arms of that municipality be the following:



“Red with a golden goblet highlighted in purple, accompanied by a winged serpent and a battling lion, both of gold and with their tongue out in purple. On the top, a bust of woman crowned with gold and dressed in purple and with a cloak of silver, accompanied by two old small shields of the Quinas. Tower’s Necklace and Sword Flag with a square meter, quartered of yellow and purple. White lace with black letters. Spear and rod of gold.



“Hall of the Government of the Republic, of the 14th of November of 1930. The Minister of the Interior, António Lopes Mateus “.



The coat of arms of the City, which for centuries knew various forms was then fixed.



The earliest known representation of the coat of arms of Coimbra was found in a 1278-year-old document (dated of 1240), which has a red wax seal on which can be seen a bust of a female figure crowned with a cloak, having around it another robe or glow.



Still in the thirteenth century, the coat of arms of Coimbra are already different: they present then the bust of a crowned maiden flanked by two shields with the Quinas, having underneath it a snake and a goblet and still a flower. This representation remained until at least the end of the fourteenth century since it is still on the pending seal that authenticates, alongside others, the acclamation of D. João I, which took place in Coimbra on the 6th of April of 1385.



There are no documents that allow us to know when the figure of the lion was introduced in the coat of arms of the City. It would be at the end of the fourteenth century, or in the course of the fifteenth century. What is certain is that it already exited in the sixteenth century, as attested by the coat of arms that adorns the Manuelino foral with the date of 1516, and several stone coat armors affixed in rented houses of the City Council of Coimbra. The representation of the coat of arms of the city is not uniform, appearing sometimes a snake, sometimes a winged serpent, or even a dragon, either to the left or to the right of the female figure, the top of which also without uniformity, with crowns of various shapes.



From 1867 onwards, there was a uniformity in the representation of the coat of arms of the city, being the whole topped by a ducal crown. With the proclamation of the Republic, the ducal crown is replaced by a mural crown with four towers, and in 1919 was added the necklace of Ordem da Torre e Espada with which the city was awarded on that date. Finally, in 1930, the coat armor of Coimbra was given the present form having recovered the old national shields that it had once wore.



The meaning of the figures that make up the coat of arms of Coimbra has been, in a fanciful way interpreted by several authors. Thus, Francisco de Sá de Miranda, in the work written in Castilian entitled “Fábula do Mondego” narrates the unhappy loves between a young man by the name of Diego with a nymph from the Monda river, which would eventually give rise to the current name of the Mondego river. One of the interpretations would be the female figure representing the nymph guarded by a dragon and a lion. Another interpretation variant was added to that, according to which the maiden would be Pirene, whom the desperate love for Hercules caused her to be shattered by the beasts.



In his turn, Gil Vicente, in his Comedy about the borders of the City gives the version of damsel Colimena, the daughter of the king of Córdova Ceridon, who was imprisoned by the barbarian Monderigon and released by a serpent and a lion. When, later, the one king founded the City of Coimbra immortalizes the event on his coat armor.



Inácio de Morais, in his work “Conimbricae Encomium”, also interprets the coat of arms of Coimbra. Thus, according to him, Hercules seduced the young Pirene, who took refuge in the woods to hide the seed of their love. But instead of a child, she gave birth to a winged serpent. Desperate, she ran away, being torn by the beasts that inhabited the woods that only spared her bust, which is what Hercules found. And when he founds Coimbra, he gives it as a coat of arms the broken figure of his beloved surrounded by the serpent that was the seed of his love, and the lion, representing the beasts that broke her.



We also find in the work of Frei Heitor Pinto, “Imagem da Vida Cristã”, an explanation: the devil presents himself in two ways, sometimes as a lion, when he tempts souls with violence, sometimes as a serpent, when he tempts them with meekness. If the soul conquers the temptations of the devil, it is crowned. Hence the explanation of Coimbra’s insignia: the city, as the head of Portugal, who “overcame the moors, enemies of God and watered its fields with the blood of the barbarians”, who personify the evil would be represented with the figures that symbolized that fight.



Pedro de Mariz has left us in his “Diálogos da Vária História” another version: having assigned to Hercules, the Egyptian, the foundation of the city, the crowned figure represented the City that, in the fights against their enemies had never been beaten, wearing, thus, the crown of victory. And the lion and the serpent would represent their enemies, sometimes the Castilians, sometimes the Arabs.



In a printed sermon in October 1625, in order to solemnize the canonization of the Holy Queen, Frei Jorge Pinheiro, after alluding to some of the current interpretations, intended to see in the coat of arms of Coimbra the glorification of Santa Isabel whose crowned figure would interpose, in a conciliating manner, promoting harmony between the Lion of Castile and the Serpent that represented Portugal.



But of all the versions that the coat of arms of Coimbra aroused in the imagination of the most varied authors, the most publicized would be the one that was formulated by Frei Bernardo de Brito in “Monarquia Lusitana”. According to this author, Ataces, king of the Alans, while building the city of Coimbra was attacked by Hermenerico, king of the Suevi who sought revenge for the defeats suffered. The combat was fierce, with Hermenerico having been again defeated and persecuted. Forced to beg for peace, he offered the hand of his daughter, Cindazunda to the victorious king, who, enchanted by the beauty of the maiden, accepted her. The city being founded, in its coat of arms was forever marked the memory of the facts, the feminine figure representing the princess, the goblet symbolizing the weddings while the lion personified Ataces and the dragon Hermenerico, who for the love to Cindazunda went from being enemies to allies. It is certain that this version has been the most glossed over and followed in the most varied forms, having inspired the most diverse literary works."

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