São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões United Commune (Portugal)

Last modified: 2025-04-26 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: s.pedro do sul(freguesia) | varzea(s.pedro do sul) | baioes | bridge | pillory | cross(patty) |
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União das Freguesias de São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões, Concelho de São Pedro do Sul, Distrito de Viseu

• São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões United Commune
• Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões
• Former São Pedro do Sul Commune (until 2013)
• Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of São Pedro do Sul
• Former Várzea Commune (until 2013)
• Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Várzea
• Former Baiões Commune (until 2013)
• Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Baiões

• São Pedro do Sul Municipality
• Portugal
• Portuguese WIKIPEDIA

São Pedro do Sul, Várzea e Baiões

The commune either has not yet proper symbols or they are unknown. Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 3 Apr 2025

Former São Pedro do Sul Commune (until 2013)

Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain blue field.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 Apr 2025

Coat of Arms

Shield Or two keys Gules set saltirewise and tied Azure, issuant from flanches and from abase wavy Azure and Argent barruly wavy a two-arch bridge Sable masoned Argent. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case serifed letters "FREGUESIA DE S. PEDRO DO SUL".
Meaning:
Both known images show the bridge´s arches to be unequal, the one at sinister visibly larger. This assymmetry matches a local bridge. The former railway bridge has unequal arches, but many more than two. Both are masoned, argueable Argent, but neither is Sable. The crossed keys are an attribute of St. Peter, local patron saint and name giver of the commune.
Sources: this photo, this photo and
Ralf Hartemink´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 Apr 2025

Published in Diário da República: III Série on 28 March 2006
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 Apr 2025

Presentation of São Pedro do Sul

São Pedro do Sul was one of the nine communes of São Pedro do Sul Municipality affected by the 2013 changes. It had 3697 inhabitants in 2011 and covered 12,32  km².
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 Apr 2025

Former Várzea Commune (until 2013)

Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of yellow and blue.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 Apr 2025

Coat of Arms

Shield Azure a fountain Or playing Argent, on chief a cross patty Argent, on base wavy Argent a barrulet wavy Azure. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case serifed letters "VÁRZEA - S. PEDRO DO SUL".
Meaning:
The phrase "várzea" means "floodplain" (used mostly for those of smaller rivers). The arms are not evidently canting. However, up to the mid 19th century, this commune, as a standalone municipality, was known as Banho, a word which means "bath", refering the famous spa — and for that these arms are indeed canting.
Sérgio Horta quotes as symbolism for this coat of arms indeed the fountain as standing for the spa, the cross patty as standing for Dom Afonso I of Portugal, who stayed at the spa in 1169 for after-battle recovery, and the three waves as standing for the Vouga River, at this spot freshly engorged by the confluences of Sul River (right bank) and Troço River (left bank), immediately upstream. This latter symbology is the same as that of the municipal coat of arms.
Source: Ralf Hartemink´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 Apr 2025

Published in Diário da República: III Série on 19 October 2000,
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 Apr 2025

Presentation of Várzea

Várzea was one of the nine communes of São Pedro do Sul Municipality affected by the 2013 changes. It had 1745 inhabitants in 2011 and covered 6,37 km².
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 Apr 2025

Former Baiões Commune (until 2013)

Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain blue field.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 7 Apr 2025

Coat of Arms

Shield Or a wayside cross Azure, flanked by two pairs of wheat ears Gules set fesswise and on a mound Vert issuant from the base a wheat ear Or. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and short white scroll, in Bénard-Guedes style, reading in black upper case serifed letters "BAIÕES".
Meaning:
The wayside cross is depicted on the arms suitably stylised, or at least its details do not match what I presume to be its real world counterpart, see this photo.
Source: Ralf Hartemink´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 7 Apr 2025

Published in Diário da República: II Série on 13 October 2006,
António Martins-Tuválkin, 7 Apr 2025

Presentation of Baiões

Baiões was one of the nine communes of São Pedro do Sul Municipality affected by the 2013 changes. It had 286 inhabitants in 2021 and covered 2,44 km².
António Martins-Tuválkin, 7 Apr 2025

back to São Pedro do Sul Communes click here