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Gotland (Sweden)

Last modified: 2000-01-14 by marcus wendel
Keywords: gotland | sweden | oland | ram | lamb | visby |
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[Gotland] (1) Jan Oskar Engene, 1996-MAY-27

[Gotland] (2) Jan Oskar Engene, 1996-MAY-27

[Gotland] (3) Jan Oskar Engene, 1996-MAY-27

[Gotland] (4) Jan Oskar Engene, 1996-MAR-12

History and Geography

Gotland is an island in the Baltic Sea. The island is historically one of Sweden's 24 provinces. All of these provinces (landskapen) have arms and flags, though there are today no longer any administrative institutions on the provincial level.

The intermediate level of administration in Sweden is the county (lašn), with the commune (municipality) as the basic level of administration. In the case of Gotland the territory of the old province, the modern county and the modern commune coincides.

Like most provincial arms and flags in Sweden, the one of Gotland goes back to the funeral of Gustavus Wasa in December 1560. At the time, Gotland was occupied by the Danish, a fact the Swedes had a hard time accepting. Thus arms were created for the island, signalling Sweden's claim to it. These arms were on red, a silver ram carrying a blue and yellow cross flag - the flag of Sweden. In 1570 Sweden ceded the island to Denmark, and the arms were no longer used. However, Sweden regained the island in 1658. At this time the island's arms were on blue an Agnus Dei carrying a silver banner with a red cross. It is possible that the old seal of Gotland (with the ram) was mixed up with the seal of the city of Visby. Visby's seal originally had an Agnus Dei combined with a tree of lilies (known from the 1340s). As a Hanse city, Visby had a German and also a Gotlandic population. In the 1340s the two communities were united. This was reflected in the seal: The lamb represented the Gotlanders, while the tree of lilies represented the Germans. Later, the tree of lilies disappeared, leaving only the lamb and banner. In 1945, Visby officially got arms with an Agnus Dei in red.

Currently, there are two official flags for the island of Gotland - one for the province and county of Gotland and one for the commune of Gotland.

[1] Province and county of Gotland

The flag has a blue field with a white standing ram, horns and hooves yellow, carrying a cross staff with a red flag bordered in yellow and with five tails also in yellow. The current version was introduced by the National Archives of Sweden in 1990 and is in content identical to the arms granted by the king in 1936. A version from 1884 had an Agnus Dei instead of the ram. The image shows the flag as a banner of the arms with proportions 1:1. Real flags sold and used in Gotland are rectangular.

[2] Municipality (commune) of Gotland

The municipality of Gotland was formed in 1971 by the unification of all the former municipalities in the island. The flag of the commune, officially registered in 1987, has a red field with a white standing ram, horns and hooves yellow, carrying a cross staff with a red flag bordered in yellow and with five tails also in yellow. The image here shows the flag as a banner of the arms as officially registered. However, the municipality actually uses a heraldically incorrect flag that has a white border around the red field. Moreover, this version employs the 1936 version of the drawing of the ram and banner.

[3] Unofficial flag of "Republic of Gotland"

A flag consisting of a red field with an old seal in white in the centre was launched in protest against the commune of Gotland which had replaced the seal it previously used as a logo. According to Andersson (1994, p. 24) the flag with the seal was introduced by the assembly of the Fošreningen Gotland (Gotland Society) in 1984.

The seal on this flag is the one used centuries ago by the community of Gotland when the island was a peasant 'republic' loosely attached to the Swedish crown. It is known from 1280, but may be older. The seal depicts a ram with a banner, surrounded by the text GUTENSES SIGNO XPISTVS SIGNATVR IN AGNO. This would read something like "I represent the Gotlanders, Christ is represented by a lamb" in English. As we can see from the text, the motive alludes to the Agnus Dei, although the animal is clearly a ram, not a lamb, and the banner is not a cross banner of victory. The seal stamp is preserved in the original. It was discovered in the 1740s at a farm in Gotland, where it was used to decorate Christmas cookies.

[4] Unofficial proposal for a cross flag

In 1991 an unofficial proposal for a flag of Gotland appeared. The flag is inspired by that of the neighbouring island Ošland, with the colours reversed so that the proposed flag of Gotland is yellow with a green cross. Yellow is for the beaches and green for vegetation. Proportions are 10:16 (4-2-4 : 5-2-9). The proposed cross flag lacks any response locally in Gotland and has never been introduced into actual use. The official flag of the islands (No. 1) is used to represent the island.

Sources:

Per Andersson: Nordiska korsflaggor, Mjošlby, 1992

Clara Neveus: Ny svensk va0penbok, Stockholm, 1992

Knut Pipping and Leif Tengstrošm: "Huset Vasa, Jagellonerna och Ivan IV Vasilievitj: Na0gra hypoteser om de svenska landskapsvapnens uppkomst", Heraldisk tidsskrift, Vol. 5, No. 49-50, 1984, pp. 107-138

Jan Oskar Engene, 1998-JUN-02 (revised)

See also: