Coat of arms of Trondheim
Encyclopedia
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
is based on the medieval seal of the city. The seal is probably from the 13th century, but its earliest preserved form is on a document from 1344. The coat of arms was assumed by the city council in 1897. As such it differs very much from the very simple heraldic design of most other Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
coats of arms.
It features to the left (heraldic right) a church portal with an archbishop with a bishop's staff and a mitre
Mitre
The mitre , also spelled miter, is a type of headwear now known as the traditional, ceremonial head-dress of bishops and certain abbots in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in the Anglican Communion, some Lutheran churches, and also bishops and certain other clergy in the Eastern Orthodox...
, to the right (heraldic left) a castle portal with a king with a crown holding a set of scales. The portals and figures rest on an arch beneath which are three male heads. The king and archbishop symbolises the town's status as the first capital of Norway and as the residence of the archbishop. The set of scales are said to symbolise justice, but may also be seen as an allusion to the delicate balance between the church and the king. The three heads might symbolise the city council. The shield itself is blue and surrounded by a silver mural crown
Mural crown
-Usage in ancient times:In Hellenistic culture, a mural crown identified the goddess Tyche, the embodiment of the fortune of a city, familiar to Romans as Fortuna...
. The original seal also bore the inscription SIGILLVM OMNIVM CIVIVM NIDROSIENSIS CIVITATIS which translates as The seal of the citizens of the city of Nidaros. The design of the shield in its present form was made by Haakon Thorsen.
Flag
Most Norwegian municipalities have a banner of their respective coats of arms as a flag. The flag of TrondheimFlag of Trondheim
The flag of Trondheim is one of the official symbols of the city and municipality of Trondheim in Norway.Most Norwegian municipalities have a banner of their respective coats of arms as a flag. As Trondheim has no heraldic coat of arms, but only a seal that is unsuitable as a banner of arms, a...
is instead a red field with the yellow "Trondheim rose".