Flag of Scania () refers to two different flags, of which one is a banner of the provincial coat of arms featuring a griffin head, and the other is a flag with a Scandinavian cross, the Scanian Cross Flag. They both are used as a provincial flag representing

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

(), the southernmost province of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. While the banner only represents Scania, some assert that the cross flag represents the entire

Skåneland Skåneland is a region on the southern Scandinavian Peninsula. It includes the Sweden, Swedish provinces of Sweden, provinces of Blekinge, Halland, and Skåne, Scania. The Denmark, Danish island of Bornholm is traditionally also included.For pop ...

, which is not just Scania but also

Blekinge Blekinge () is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second-smallest provin ...

and

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...

. The flag is sometimes seen also in Blekinge, but rarely in Halland. The cross flag is used by the Region when the council is in session, alongside the Swedish national flag, the European Union flag and the council's own banner, so it's officially used. The traditional province of Scania also has ''arms'' bearing a red griffin head in a golden field, and the official flag of the province is thus a banner of arms based on this arms. (But is next to never used as ''a flag'') The modern provincial authorities also use banners-of-arms, one being the banner-of-arms of Scanian Regional Council (i.e. the county council), adopted 9 February 1999: on a field of blue, a yellow crowned

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

head issuing from the bottom edge. County of Scania, ''Skåne län'', also has an official flag consisting of the banner of arms: on a field of yellow, a red griffin head, crowned blue.

Proportions

The Scanian cross flag has no firm rules related to its mathematical relationships, with the major exceptions, that it has to resemble either the Danish Dannebrog or the

Flag of Sweden The national flag of Sweden () consists of a yellow or gold Nordic cross (i.e. a horizontal cross extending to the edges, with the crossbar closer to the hoist than the fly) on a field of light blue. The Nordic cross design traditionally repres ...

, or somewhere in between these two flags. For instance, to base the Scanian flag on the

Flag of Finland The national flag of Finland, also known in Finnish language, Finnish as the ' ('Blue Cross Flag'), dates from the beginning of the 20th century. On a white background, it features a blue Nordic Cross flag, Nordic cross, which represents Christ ...

or the English

Saint George's Cross In heraldry, Saint George's Cross (or the Cross of Saint George) is a red cross on a white background, which from the Late Middle Ages became associated with Saint George, the military saint, often depicted as a crusader. Associated with ...

by changing the colours are both considered wrong, as the Cross on the Finnish flag is too wide and the English one has a different, symmetrical, cross.

History

The banner with the griffin head derives from the coat of arms, given to the province by the king of Sweden in the 1600s. It is the flag version of the coat. A disputed hypothesis claims that the cross flag is derived from the coat of arms of the Danish

Archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Reformation in Denmark, Danish Reformation the centre of a great Latin (arch)bishopric, Lund has been in Sweden since the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Diocese of Lund is now one of thirteen in the Ch ...

. and would thereby be older than the banner with the griffin head. The ''modern'' Scanian cross flag was for a long period believed to have been created in the 1870s at the private initiative of the historical professor Martin Weibull. But this was later denied by his son, Curt Weibull, who instead gave this credit to his uncle, Mathias Weibull, who also was a historical professor. Curt Weibull also stated that the modern flag was created first in 1902. His design is based on the Nordic tradition of cross flags. It combines the red field of the

flag of Denmark The flag of Denmark (, ) is red with a white Nordic cross, which means that the cross extends to the edges of the flag and that the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side. A banner with a white-on-red cross is attested as havin ...

with the yellow cross of the

flag of Sweden The national flag of Sweden () consists of a yellow or gold Nordic cross (i.e. a horizontal cross extending to the edges, with the crossbar closer to the hoist than the fly) on a field of light blue. The Nordic cross design traditionally repres ...

, reflecting the troubled history of the region. The Swedish broadcaster SVT, in their regional news for

, aired on Tuesday 26 September 2017 the news, the chairman of Region Scania, the

Social Democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

Henrik Fritzon, wanted to make the flag of Scania official within the region, as it is "locally well-liked".

References

External links

Scanian Cross Flag
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag Of Skane Scania Skane Flags displaying animals

Proportions

History

See also

References

External links