Flag 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 one of the official symbols of the city and municipality of Trondheim in Norway
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...
.
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 yellow "Trondheim rose" on a red field was instead chosen for the flag of Trondheim. The designer of the flag was professor Arne E. Holm, whose proposal was approved by the municipal council in 1989, and confirmed by royal order the same year.
The dog rose
Dog Rose
Rosa canina is a variable scrambling rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia....
is the official flower of the city and its stylised form is related to the Tudor rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...
.
It is found as a symbol in medieval sources among other things representing St. Olav. This flower has been used as a symbol of the city at least since the 16th century. It is earliest preserved in the seal of the church chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
of Trondheim used in the 16th century. In the 17th century it was used on a green field in the banner of the citizen guard of the city. It has also been used as a symbol of several guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s such as the masons
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
, baker
Baker
A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
s, goldsmith
Goldsmith
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...
s and smiths
Smith (metalwork)
A metalsmith, often shortened to smith, is a person involved in making metal objects. In contemporary use a metalsmith is a person who uses metal as a material, uses traditional metalsmithing techniques , whose work thematically relates to the practice or history of the practice, or who engages in...
. In the 18th century the flower replaced the three heads in the seal of Trondheim
Coat of arms of Trondheim
The coat of arms of Trondheim 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...
. The idea of the rose as a symbol of Trondheim may originally have come into being because of a misinterpretation of the last syllable of the city's old name Nidaros
Nidaros
Nidaros or Niðarós was during the Middle Ages, the old name of Trondheim, Norway . Until the Reformation, Nidaros remained the centre of the spiritual life of the country...
.
The flower has been so closely connected to Trondheim that the Norwegian heraldic authority denied other municipalities the use of it in their coats of arms.