Murça Municipality (Portugal)

Concelho de Murça, Distrito de Vila Real

Last modified: 2016-01-04 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: murca | chief | grapes(yellow) | olive tree | sculpture |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• About the Flag
• Version without Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Murça
• Etymology of the name Murça

• Murça Communes
• Portugal

• Page about Murça at the Portuguese Municipalities’s Association website (incl. image of the arms)
  reported by António Martins, 18 Nov 2001
• Murça at the English Wikipedia
  reported by António Martins, 20 Jun 2007

About the Flag

It is a fairly typical Portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a yellow and black quarterly field.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2007

The arms are Argent an olive tree vert fruited, stalked and eradicated Sable between two bunches of grapes Or leavedVert, in chief Sable a representation of the “Murça sow” megalith Argent. Mural crown Argent with four visible towers (town rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters ""
Meaning:
The “Murça sow” is an ancient sculpture, from the lower Neolithic period. They call it a sow but it portraits a male animal, either a boar of perhaps a bear. On an image the Wikimedia Commons (context) you can see it in greater detail and how tackyness prevails: Unearth a thousands-year old carving and tow it to the town’s square up on a late 19th century pedestal.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20/21 June 2007

Flag and arms adopted and published in the official journal Diário do Governo : I Série on 12 March 1936
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2007

Version without Coat of Arms

Presentation of Murça

Murça municipality had 6752 inhabitants in 2001 and consists of 9 communes covering 189,36 km². It is part of Vila Real District, traditional province and 1999 ref. adm. region Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, C.C.R. / NUTS II Norte, and NUTS III Alto Trás-os-Montes.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2007

Etymology of the name Murça

There are different opinions:
Correia de Azevedo (Lisboa 1968) claims that the name is derived from a former village, having either the name of a Moor named Muça or it is derived from "Muçauns", African Arabs having invaded Lusitania long before the Moorish conquest between 713 and 716. On the other hand David Lopes (Lisboa 1968) claims that the name is derived from the Hebrews referring to old forms of Moses like Moisés, Musa, Muza e Muça. Both are based on a collection of Arabian names in Portugal, collected by José Pedro Machado (Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa, 1ª ed., vol. II, p.1557-1558) says, it is of uncertain origin derived from Castilian word "muceta", which J. Coronias (Dicionário Crítico Etimológico de la Lengua Castellana, S.V.) connects with a Latin word "almucia" or "almucium" of uncertain origin. Other etymologists say that the name is derived from "ursa" (Latin: the she-bear), which is connected with the legend of the "sow of Murça". The name appears in various forms like "Muça", "Muçam" and "Mussa". For further information read: António de Morais Silva: Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, 10ª ed., cor. E ac., vol VII. Lisboa: Confluência, 1954, pp. 110f.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Jan 2016

back to Municipalities of Portugal click here