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Macao City

Macau, Aomen

Last modified: 2020-07-31 by ian macdonald
Keywords: macau | angels | crown | cross |
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[Municipal flag of Macao City]
image by Antonio Martins


See also:

Macao City municipal flag

The flag commonly used in the territory was the local flag of the capital: Cidade de Santo Nome de Deus de Macau. This flag is blue with the municipal shield in the center.
Jaume Ollé 07 April 1997

Strictly speaking this was the flag of the /Leal Senado/ (Loyal Senate), the municipal council of the City of Macau (that is, the peninsula portion of Macau) from 1583 to 1999.
The flag displayed a version of the coat-of-arms of the Kingdom of Portugal: it commemorated the Senate as the only place in the world to continue to fly the Portuguese flag, when the Portuguese Empire was under Spanish control (Iberian Union) from 1580 to 1640. For this feat of loyalty, the City of Macau was granted the title "Cidade do Santo Nome de Deus de Macau, Năo Há Outra Mais Leal" (City of the Holy Name of God of Macau, There is None More Loyal) by King John IV in 1654; a slightly shortened version of this title appeared at the bottom of the flag. The Senate itself was likewise granted the title "Loyal" by Prince-Regent John (later King John VI) in 1810.
Although the flag was technically only that of the /Leal Senado/ of the City of Macau, it was sometimes used as the flag to represent the whole colony of Macau, notably during international sporting events (such as the Asian Games). Nonetheless during Macau's handover ceremony to China in 1999, the announcers made it clear that it was the flag of the /Leal Senado de Macau/ that was to be lowered along with that of Portugal.
Miles Li, 21 April 2011


Alternate Macao City municipal flag

[Municipal flag of Macao City (variant)] imagevby António Martins

This is a white background version of the Macao City municipal flag, referred to by Adolfo Durán [drn95]with no further information. Apparently it was used along with (or instead of) the current light blue for a short period of time.
This is a well known flag, which is shown in use in a lot of trivial indirect sources
António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 January 1998; 25 April 2007