Uppland

Not to be confused with Upland (disambiguation).
Uppland

Coat of arms
Country Sweden
Land Svealand
Counties Uppsala County
Stockholm County
Area
 • Total 12,813 km2 (4,947 sq mi)
Population (2009)[1]
 • Total 1,433,020
 • Density 110/km2 (290/sq mi)
Ethnicity
 • Languages Uppländska
Stockholmska
Culture
 • Flower Leper lily
 • Animal White-tailed eagle
 • Bird —
 • Fish Aspius
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)

Uppland (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɵpːland]) is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea. It has an extremely short and strangely shaped land border with Åland, an autonomous province of Finland, on the small uninhabited island of Märket in the Baltic.

The name literally means up land, a name which is commonly encountered in especially older English literature. Its Latinised form, which is occasionally used, is Uplandia.

Administration

The traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes, but are historical and cultural entities. The corresponding administrative county, or län, is Uppsala County, which occupies the larger part of the territory. The bulk of the population, however, is within Stockholm County. Minor parts of the province are also in Västmanland County, Gävleborg County and Södermanland County.

Heraldry

Uppland's arms were granted in 1560, distinctive in its depiction of a Globus cruciger. Historically, Uppland ranked as a duchy and the coat of arms is represented with a ducal coronet. Blazoned thus: "Gules, a Royal Orb Or gemmed of the field and Azure with the cross bottoned Argent." Despite the fact that the Uppsala län has a different name and a smaller territory it was granted the same coat of arms in 1940.

Geography

Uppland was historically divided into chartered cities and districts. Within Roslagen they were called skeppslag (which roughly means "ship district"), and in the rest of the province hundreds. The abovementioned districts and cities have no administrative function today.

Cities

Districts

Facts

Population

The population of Uppland was 1,433,020 as of December 31, 2009. The provincial population corresponds to the different overlapping counties as follows:[1]

County Population
Stockholm County, partly1,101,238
Uppsala County, partly330,683
Västmanland County, partly1,099

History

Main article: History of Uppland

The earliest unambiguous mention of the province of Uppland comes from the 1296, when it was mentioned that it included the Folklands of Fjärdhundraland, Attundaland, Tiundaland and Roslagen. The Swedish capital of Stockholm is divided between two provinces. The southern half lies in Södermanland and the northern half in Uppland.

Dukes and Duchess

Religion

Uppsala is the seat of the only (formerly Catholic) archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.

Culture

The archaeological site Birka and the castle of Drottningholm are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Sports

Football in the province is administered by Upplands Fotbollförbund.

References

  1. 1 2 Statistics Sweden

External links

Coordinates: 60°N 18°E / 60°N 18°E / 60; 18

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 23, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.