The Flag of the Azores (Portuguese: Bandeira dos Açores) is the regional flag of the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores. It is a rectangular bicolour with a field unevenly divided into blue on the hoist, and white on the fly.
It was established on 10 April 1979 by the Regional Assembly of the Azores, being based in the National Flag of Portugal used between 1830 and 1910.
Design[]
The flag construction follows the same proportions and other features of those present in the Flag of Portugal.
Its length is equal to 1.5 times its width, corresponding with an aspect ratio of 2:3.
The field is vertically divided into two colours: blue on the hoist side, and white on the fly. The colour division is made in a way that blue spans 40% of the length and the remaining 60% are filled by white.
Positioned over the border between the blue and the white fields are nine five-sided golden stars in a semi-circular arch over a naturalistic designed golden goshawk, with its wings extended. The top left canton of the flag contains the Portuguese Shield.
Symbolism[]
Blue and white were traditional colours used by the Portuguese nation and also represent the Portuguese Constitutional Monarchy borne in the Azores.
The nine stars symbolize the archipelago's nine islands.
The name of the archipelago comes from the Portuguese word açor, meaning goshawk, because it was supposed to be a common bird at the time of the discovery. However these birds never existed on the islands, they actually were a local subspecies of the buzzard (Buteo buteo), that was erroneously identified as goshawks by the first explorers.
The shield of Portugal present in the top left corner of the flag represents the Portuguese patriotism of the Azorean people.
Flag Redesigns[]
 Portugal V • T
|
|---|
Autonomous regions
Cities
Cultural Regions
|
| Europe V • T |
|---|
Disputed states
Dependencies and overseas territories
|
