The coat of arms of Portugal is the main heraldic insignia of Portugal. The present model was officially adopted on 30 June 1911, along with the present model of the Flag of Portugal. It is based on the coat of arms used by the Kingdom of Portugal since the Middle Ages. The coat of arms of Portugal is popularly referred as the Quinas (a quina being a group of five things).
Design
The present model of the coat of arms of Portugal was designed by the painter Columbano, member of the commission appointed on the 15 October 1910 to present the project for a new National Flag, following the establishing of the Portuguese republic on the 5 October 1910. The models chosen by the commission were approved by the Provisional Government of the Republic on the 29 November 1910, confirmed by the Constituent Assembly through the decree of 19 June 1911, with its details being specified in the Diário do Governo (official journal) no 150 of 30 June 1911.
Three versions of the coat of arms were established, intended for different types of use. All three include, as its central element, the shield of the traditional Portuguese arms placed over a golden armillary sphere.
The basic version consists of only the Portuguese shield over the armillary sphere. This version was intended to be used on the National Flag and on the naval jack. From the 23 September 1911, this version was also used on the naval distinctive flags of the President of the Republic, ministers and other state authorities, latter being also used on some governmental and state flags created afterwards. Occasionally, this version is unofficially referred as the "lesser arms of Portugal".
The second version consists of the Portuguese shield over the armillary sphere, with this being surrounded by two branches of laurel, tied in the base with a white scroll with the Camões verse Esta é a ditosa Pátria minha amada ("This is my beloved merry homeland"). This version was intended to be used on the regimental colors of the military units.
Finally, the third version is similar to the second one but the scroll does not include the verse and is usually represented in red and green. This version was intended to be used in seals, coins and other emblems.
Charges
Quinas
Quina (plural quinas) is the Portuguese word for quincunx.
After the official recognition of the Kingdom of Portugal as a kingdom in 1143 (it had been self declared as so in 1139), silver bezants were added to the blue cross of the shield, symbolising coins and the right of the monarch to issue currency, as leader of a sovereign state. Eventually, and given the enormous dynamism of medieval heraldry, it is believed that the shield degraded and lost some elements in battle, eventually losing the cross format. This is how King Sancho I inherited the shield from his father, Afonso Henriques, with the cross replaced by escutcheons with the silver bezants. A traditional legend explains that these escutcheons represent the five moor kings defeated by King Afonso I of Portugal in the battle of Ourique.
The number of silver bezants in each escutcheon varied extensively, with versions having represented from four up to eleven. In the late 14th century however, the number of bezants was fixed in five. Late explanations interpret them as the five wounds of Jesus Christ and/or the thirty pieces of silver (with the five bezants in the middle escutcheon counted twice).
From the fixation of the number of bezants in five, the groups of the five escutcheons, each with five bezants of the Portuguese shield became popularly referred as quinas. By synecdoche, the term "Quinas" came to be used as an alternative designation of the coat of arms of Portugal and came even be used as a reference to anything that represents Portugal (e.g. the Flag of Portugal being often referred as the "Flag of the Quinas").
Castles
The red bordure featuring golden castles (not towers, as some sources state) was added during the reign of Afonso III. Although the number of castles could vary between eight and fourteen, Sebastian I fixed them at seven definitively. They supposedly represent the Moorish castles conquered by Portugal during the Reconquista. Their origin is probably Castilian, as a matter of fact, Afonso III was the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal and thus was not expected to inherit the throne, which first went to his elder brother King Sancho II of Portugal. Afonso III combined both the arms of his father and the arms of his mother Urraca of Castile, thus the Castillan red border with golden castles, around the Portuguese arms inherited from his father.