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Sortland, Nordland (Norway)

image by Tomislav Šipek, 15 January 2016

The Flag
Coat of Arms

See also:

The flag

Geography: The central and eastern part of the Vesteraalen Islands. Description: A golden (yellow) three-towered castle, withouth murals. Interpretations: In appearance, it's similiar to a city gate, and symbolize:

The fact that Sortland is the "gateway" to Vesteraalen, both by sea and by land.
The fact that Sortland is a commercial centre.

Misc: The flag is flown day and night from the flagpole of the Town Hall, except on those days the Norwegian flag fly. The original proposal was far more colourful, but was rejected because of the "one colour - one metal"-rule. I've only seen the proposal once, AFAIK it had a silver castle with rays of black, red and silver centering out from the middle, symbolizing the rays of the midnight sun.
Jostein Nygård, 26 November 1998

Coat of Arms

image by Tomislav Šipek, 15 January 2016

The flag of Sortland is already reported, so here is coat of arms.
Source: https://lovdata.no/dokument/OV/forskrift/1985-03-15-712?q=sortland%20flagg
Tomislav Šipek, 15 January 2016

Blazon: I blått en gull borg med tre tårn uten krenelering. In English: Azure a castle with three towers without cranelation or.
Approval at https://lovdata.no/dokument/OV/forskrift/1985-03-15-712?q=sortland
Approved by the royal resolution of 15 March 1985 after a drawing by Kurt Myrland. [c2j87]
The arms were based on the "Sortlandsmerke" (Sortland's emblem) designed in 1950's. It showed a castle - very similar to the one in the current arms - among stylized landscape, waves and sun rays - the municipal web site shows that old arms - in a golden rectangular shield a black-white-black pile issuing from both flanks and from they it is issuing the white castle, four red sun rays issuing from behind the castel (ie. four pile issuant from chief and flanks conjoined in heart) and in the base waves of red, black and white. In the white chief inscribed "Sortland" and topped with a simple crown with four embattlements.
Željko Heimer, 16 January 2016