Portugal

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Country Name

Portugal, or officially the Portuguese Republic.

Location

Portugal is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and the north and east by Spain.

Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their regional governments.

Capital

Lisbon.

Reason for Naming

The word Portugal derives from the Roman-Celtic place name Portus Cale; a city where present-day Vila Nova de Gaia now stands, at the mouth of the River Douro in the north of what is now Portugal. The name of the city is from the Latin word for port or harbor, portus, but the second element of Portus Cale is less clear. The mainstream explanation for the name is that it is an ethnonym derived from the Castro people, also known as the Callaeci, Gallaeci, or Gallaecia, who occupied the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The names Cale and Callaici are the origin of today's Gaia and Galicia.

Flag

The flag of Portugal was adopted on 30 June 1911. The flag consists of two primary colors green and red.

A vertical strip of green is located on the hoist, while a larger horizontal strip of red is located on the fly of the flag.

The flag also features the country’s national coat of arms, which includes the colors gold, white, red, black, and blue.

The green color represents hope,