The soon to be established town of Raseborg unveiled the design of its new municipal shield today. The design is comprised of a green shield with eight white wood anemone flowers upon it. The shield is crowned by a castle-like crown with five towers, a reference to Raseborg castle.
Raseborg will be formed on 1 January 2009 as a merger of the existing municipalities of Ekenäs, Karis and Pojo (Pohja). The eight flowers on the shield symbolise the previous eight original districts in the previous county of Raseborg. The new town will have a population of 28 000 citizens, of which Swedish-speakers will comprise approximately 67%. The town of Hangö and municipality of Ingå opted to remain as independent entities but where involved in the initial discussions.
The building of the new town has not been without some wrangling. Politicians from Ekenäs, Karis and Pojo have had to decide where the new administrative units will be placed and whom will get the top jobs. As a consequence of the merger, street signs in Pojo will be renewed to place the Swedish text above the Finnish. Independent Pojo has a Finnish speaking majority (59,5%). The citizens of Ekenäs, Karis and Pojo will vote together in municipal elections for the first time already this autumn.
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Thursday 15.5.08 at 10:54
Malte
Very good! Beautiful, simple and elegant. The colour green is not something you see very often in Finnish muncipal shields, and using wood anemones instead of lilies - or something similar - is just brilliant. I’ve never been to Raseborg but that shield sums up how I feel about the place. Old culture and lots of flowery meadows.
The shield also looks very ‘finlandssvensk’. Must be the wood anemones.
Friday 23.5.08 at 13:34
Toby
Perhaps with a municipality named after the castle, they may actually take some effort to make the castle easier to find. Finland has so little ‘old’ history to go and visit - you would think that Raseborg would be nationally famous but it is almost like it is actively hidden. I found it by chance, fortunately because that day I was having one my linguistically less incompetent days and happened to see a little sign saying “linna” and followed it not even knowing there is a castle in that area. But recently when I was taking the kids to see it, I realised it is tricky to find if you don’t quite know where it is! Not many helpful signs, not marked on maps etc.
Friday 23.5.08 at 14:24
Jonas
I always thought it was well known. It’s perhaps most famous for its summer theatre. I have been quite a few times over the years. Who knows, maybe this summer again.
There is a website also here: http://www.raseborg.org/