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Regional flags (Sweden)
A general note on regional flags
>All Swedish municipalities, provinces
(landskap) and counties (län) have official flags derived directly from
their arms, if they have arms (which most of them have). The flag is a
square representation of the shield of the arms.
(Aside from this, many regions and provinces have their own, unofficial
flags. Municipalities are unfortunately not always aware of what their
official flag should look like, and are often using other flags, often as
a white flag with the arms upon.)
Elias Granqvist 13 Aug 1999
The subdivisions of Sweden
Landskap is most often translated as
province. This is the old subdivision of Sweden, dating back to the
Middle Ages, when they actually (with a modern term) could be seen as
federal states in a united kingdom which was Sweden. The provinces has
since at least the 17th Century no political meaning what so ever, but
they are still the main way to describe from where in Sweden you are (there
are only a few exceptions to this rule).
There are 24 provinces in Sweden, each with its own coat of arms. The
official flags for each province is a square banner of the arms. The
arms can be crowned with a ducal crown. (Princes
and princesses of Sweden who can inherit the Swedish throne are
titular duke or duchess of one or two provinces.)
Flags of provinces, counties and regions (landskap, län och regioner)
Provinces (landskap) -
clickable map for the
provinces
Län is usually translated as county.
The counties are the subdivision of the state, which have led to that
the county arms can be crowned with a royal crown when they represent
the county board (länsstyrelsen, the highest body of the county, which
is led by a landshövding ("land chief" or governor) appointed by the
government).
Every county in Sweden also have arms, and their official flags are
banners of their arms.
(As Finland was a
part of Sweden until 1809, Finland has the same type of subdivisions in
both landskap and län.)
Counties (län) -
clickable map for the counties
Recent changes of the Swedish counties:
Further, Sweden have municipalities. The ordinary municipality
is called kommun (usually translated as commune).
Before the beginning of the 1970's, there were three types of
municipalities in Sweden, stad (pl.
städer; = town or city), köping
(often translated as "borough") and landskommun
("country commune"), but now there is only one type, even if some of the
municipalities previously known as towns are using the term town about
themselves. The territory of a municipality never crosses the border of
a county.
These municipalities, the communes, are "primary municipalities".
There are a couple of them in most counties. There are also "secondary
municipalities" (landsting). The landsting
usually do not have arms or flags, they only use logotypes. Just as in
other municipalities, the highest political body in a landsting is
elected in direct popular elections. A landsting
has in most cases exactly the same borders as a county.
Flags of municipalities (kommuner)
Now we have gotten another type of subdivision in Sweden, the
region. The name is influenced by regions set up in other member
states of the European Union. In Sweden, a region has de facto
come to be the same thing as a landsting but with some more questions to
decide about, which have before been decided by the county. There are
two such regions, one in each of the two new counties set up in the
1990's by merging a couple of older counties - i.e. there is one
region in Scania and one in Western Gotaland.
Elias Granqvist, 03 July 2003
Other areas
Sweden is traditionally split into Götaland, Svealand and Norrland. I
don't know if this split has any official significance at all. I have
heard it used in the weather forecast, so it seems to be at least
semi-recognized, but I don't think the three parts have flags.
Ole Andersen, 2000-Sep-23
They don't have flags, at least not official ones, but there has been
some unofficial flags presented for Norrland and for (parts of)
Götaland.
The borders are as between provinces: Scania (Skåne),
Blekinge, Halland, Småland, Västergötland, Östergötland, Gotland, Öland,
Dalsland and Bohuslän make up
Götaland; Värmland, Närke, Västmanland, Dalecarlia
(Dalarna), Södermanland and Upland (Uppland)
make up Svealand; Gästrikland, Hälsingland, Härjedalen,
Medelpad, Jamtland (Jämtland), Ångermanland, West Bothnia
(Västerbotten), North Bothnia (Norrbotten,
traditionally really a part of West Bothnia) and Lappland make up
Norrland.
The split up in these three parts of Sweden has no official
significance, but there are some official authorities which has names
derived from these names as they are in charge for something in areas
approximately corresponding to these borders. Among the courts of law
(second instance, i.e. between local courts and the Supreme Court
(Högsta Domstolen)) we have Svea
Hovrätt, Göta Hovrätt, Hovrätten över Övre Norrland (Upper (i.e.
North) Norrland) and Hovrätten
över Nedre Norrland (Lower (= South) Norrland)
(and two hovrätter which have names derived from other geographical
places). The concept of Svealand, Götaland and
Norrland is, to put it short, used when it is
practical to use it, as e.g. in weather forecasts.
Elias Granqvist, 2000-Sep-24
Other areas
SWEDISH IOTA PREFIX LIST
This 3 Swedish letters
may make your computer interpret as %
or something else, many City's in Sweden use this letter if now this cause to
much confusion then I will try to correct it and take away the at's so it
will bee only A A O
but I hope its ok for the City's to bee writhen in Swedish way.
The
Swedish Information smogasbord
The
Swedish page all abut Sweden
Swedish tourist bureaus
Swedish
tourism
Welcome
to Sweden
Swedish Addresses
search for postcode's = Cp code or a Po box nr etc
