Flag of Portugal
The national flag of the Portuguese Republic, often referred to as the Portuguese flag, consists of a rectangular bicolour with a field divided into green on the hoist, and red on the fly. The version without laurels of the country’s national coat of arms stands in the middle of the Portuguese armillary sphere and shield, centered over the colour boundary at equal distance. The flag was announced in 1910, following the 5 October 1910 revolution, inspired by the colours of the Republican Party and the design of radical conspiratorial society the Carbonária.
Its presentation was done on 1 December 1910, after the downfall of the constitutional monarchy on 5 October 1910. However, the official decree approving this flag as the official flag was published on 30 June 1911. This new national flag for the First Portuguese Republic was selected by a special commission whose members included Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, João Chagas and Abel Botelho.
The conjugation of the new field colour, especially the use of green, was not traditional in the Portuguese national flag's composition and represented a radical republican-inspired change that broke the bond with the former monarchical flag. Since a failed republican insurrection on 31 January 1891, red and green had been established as the colours of the Portuguese Republican Party and its associated movements, whose political prominence kept growing until its culmination following the Republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the ensuing decades, these colours were popularly propagandised, green represented the hope of the nation and the colour red represented the blood of those who died defending it; this happened to endow the colours with a more patriotic and dignified, therefore less political, sentiment.
The sphere and shield in the middle of the current flag are an integral part of the design, which has historically been centred on the royal arms, usually over fields of blue and white. Since the country's foundation, the standard developed from the blue cross-on-white armorial square banner of King Afonso I, through progressively more complex designs, which did incorporate green and red, to the liberal monarchy's arms over a blue-and-white rectangle. In between, major changes associated with determinant political events contributed to its evolution into the current design.
Design
The decree that legally created the republican flag was approved by the Constituent Assembly and published in government journal no. 141 on 19 June 1911. On 30 June, this decree had its regulations officially published in government diary no. 150. Nevertheless, the new flag had been first presented in 1910, on the national holiday of the Restoration of Independence, which was rededicated as the Day of the Flag, although this new designation did not erase the previous one.Construction
The flag's length is equal to times its width, which translates into an aspect ratio of 2:3. The background is vertically divided into two colours: dark green on the hoist side, and scarlet red on the fly. The colour division is made in a way that green spans of the length and the remaining is filled by red. The lesser version of the national coat of arms —a white-rimmed national shield on top of a black-highlighted yellow armillary sphere—is positioned over the border between both colours.The armillary sphere has a diameter equal to the height and is equidistant from the upper and lower edges of the flag. The sphere, drawn in perspective, possesses six edge-embossed arcs, four of which are great circles and two are small circles.
The great circles represent the ecliptic, the equator, and two meridians. These last three are positioned so that the intersections between each two arcs make a right angle; one meridian lies on the flag's plane, while the other is perpendicular to it.
The small circles consist of two parallels, each tangent to one of the ecliptic-meridian intersections.
Vertically centered over the sphere is the national shield, a white-rimmed curved bottom red shield charged with a white inescutcheon. Its height and width are equal to and of the sphere's diameter, respectively.
The shield is positioned in a way that its limits intersect the sphere:
- at the inflection points of the distal edges of the Tropic of Cancer's anterior half and Tropic of Capricorn's posterior half ;
- at the intersection of the lower edges of the ecliptic's posterior half and of the equator's anterior half ; and
- at the intersection of the upper edge of the ecliptic's anterior half with the lower edge of the equator's posterior half.
The white inescutcheon is itself charged with five smaller blue shields arranged like a Greek cross. Each smaller shield holds five white bezants displayed in the form of a saltire. The red bordure is charged with seven yellow castles: three on the chief portion, two in the middle points of each quadrant of the curved base, and two more on each side of the bordure, over the flag's horizontal middle line. Each castle is composed by a base building, showing a closed gate, on top of which stand three battlemented towers. In heraldic terminology, the shield's blazon is described as Argent, five escutcheons in cross azure each charged with five plates in saltire, on a bordure gules seven towers triple-turreted Or, three in chief.
The specific shades of each colour are not set out in any legal document, varying from display to display, even among digital government sources. Jorge Sampaio's presidential archive displays a version with bright, "pure" colours; while the official website of the president of the Portuguese Republic uses darker, mellower hues.
Background
The Republican revolution of 5 October 1910, brought a need to replace the symbols of the overthrown monarchy, represented in the first instance by the old national flag and anthem. The choice of the new flag was not one without conflict, especially over the colours, as partisans of the republican red-and-green faced opposition from supporters of the traditional royal blue-and-white. Blue also carried a strong religious meaning as it was the colour of Our Lady of the Conception, who was crowned Queen and Patroness of Portugal by King John IV, so its removal or replacement from the future flag was justified by Republicans as one of the many measures needed to secularize the state.After the presentation and discussion of the many proposals, a governmental commission was set up on 15 October 1910. It included Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, João Chagas, Abel Botelho and two military leaders of 1910: Ladislau Pereira and Afonso Palla. This commission ultimately chose the red-and-green of the Portuguese Republican Party, delivering an explanation based on patriotic reasons, which disguised the political significance behind the choice, as these had been the colours present on the banners of the rebellious during the republican insurrection of 31 January 1891, in Porto, and during the monarchy-overthrowing revolution, in Lisbon.
File:A nova bandeira hasteada no Monumento aos Restauradores - O Occidente.png|thumb|right|The new national flag is hoised for the first time on the Monument to the Restorers, in Lisbon, on 1 December 1910
The commission considered that red should "be present as one of the main colours, because it is the battling, warm, virile colour, par excellence. It is the colour of conquest and laughter. A singing, burning, joyful colour... Recalls the idea of blood and urges to achieve victory". An explanation for the inclusion of the green was harder to come up with, given that it was not a traditional colour of the Portuguese flag's history. Eventually, it was justified on the grounds that, during the 1891 insurrection, this was the colour present on the revolutionary flag that "sparked the redeeming lightning" of republicanism. Finally, white represented "a beautiful and fraternal colour, into which all other colours merge themselves, colour of simplicity, of harmony and peace", adding that "it is this same colour that, charged with enthusiasm and faith by the red cross of Christ, marks the Discoveries epic cycle".
The Manueline armillary sphere, which had been present on the national flag under the reign of John VI, was revived because it consecrated the "Portuguese epic maritime history... the ultimate challenge, essential to our collective life." The Portuguese shield was kept, being positioned over the armillary sphere. Its presence would immortalize the "human miracle of positive bravery, tenacity, diplomacy, and audacity, that managed to bind the first links of the Portuguese nation's social and political affirmation", since it is one of the "most vigorous symbols of the national identity and integrity".
The new flag was produced in large numbers at the Cordoaria Nacional and was officially presented nationwide on 1 December 1910, on occasion of the 270 years of the Restoration of Independence. This day had already been declared by the government as the "Flag Day". In the capital, it was paraded from the city hall to the Restauradores Monument, where it was hoisted. This festive presentation did not mask, however, the turmoil caused by a design chosen single-handedly without prior popular consultation, and that represented more of a political regime than a whole nation. To encourage a greater acceptance of the new flag, the government issued all teaching establishments with one exemplar, whose symbols were to be explained to the students; textbooks were changed to intensively display these symbols. Also, 1 December, 31 January and 5 October were declared national holidays.