SE - Sweden

To know:
Sweden is the largest of the Scandinavian countries. It borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark via the Öresund bridge (Öresundsbron). Its population amounts to around 9 million inhabitants. Although it was a moderate military power in the past (17th century), Sweden has not participated in any war in the past two centuries. Having long remained far from conflicts and military alliances (even the two World Wars), the country is very peaceful. Swedish are Raoul Wallenberg, Dag Hammarsköld, Olof Palme and Hans Blix. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, but King Charles XVI Gustav has no executive power. The country has a long Christian-Prostestant-Lutheran tradition, but today few people actually go to church. Sweden has a high number of immigrants. Sweden has a capitalist system interlaced with a welfare state system. The high state of well-being has been difficult to maintain, especially after the economic decline of the 1990s. Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, but decided through a 2003 referendum not to join the EMU and therefore the European currency, the Euro. The government was dominated for most of the 20th century by social democrats, who started out as a Labor movement at the end of the 19th century and today are made up of a mixture of socialists and social-liberals.
Sweden hosts ceremonies for the Nobel Prize every year. Sweden is traditionally divided into 25 provinces, which roughly coincide with the 21 administrative counties, the län. These provinces are then grouped into 3 historical regions, Svealand, Götaland and Norrland.

Territories and tourist destinations
There are many divisions that Sweden has adopted over the centuries to distinguish the parts of its immense territory. Certainly the most famous and oldest is the tripartition in a Northern Sweden (Norrland), a Southern Sweden (Götaland) and a Central Sweden (Svealand), home of the Germanic Svear tribe that gave the name to the whole nation. Subsequently, from the Middle Ages until not long ago, a subdivision was used in 25landskap or historical provinces, as they are called in Italy, today no longer active at the official level but still highly recognizable by the traits that the cities, once inside from the same province, they share. To date, the system of counties or län, in number of 21, is in use, which almost entirely reproduce the old division into provinces but have the merit of solving some ambiguities that had arisen with the growth of some Swedish metropolises. A typical case was Stockholm, divided – according to the ancient model – into two if not three provinces and today entirely incorporated into an ad hoc county, which is Stockholm County.

What we present here is a division, useful for the traveler who wants to travel to Sweden, and roughly tracing the current division into counties, grouped in some macro areas with traits, language and culture strongly delineated compared to the neighboring counties and regions of the same nation.

      Norrland – Of the three historical regions of Sweden, Norrland is the largest but, at the same time, the least populated. It covers the whole of northern Sweden (about 2/3 of the total area) and is characterized by immense plains covered by forests and dotted with lakes and rivers. The mountain ranges are to the west along the border with Norway. Major centers are Sundsvall, Umeå and Luleå. Includes the counties of Norrbotten, Västerbotten, Västernorrland, Jämtland and Gävleborg
      Svealand – Svealand is the central-southern region. It includes Stockholm which in addition to being the capital is also the capital of a homonymous county, Uppsala with its historic and fascinating county and the Dalarna province, where the Vasaloppet takes place every year. In this region there are also some very important counties such as that of Örebro (roughly corresponding to the ancient province of Nericia), Södermanland, Värmland and Västmanland.
      Northern Götaland – Southern Sweden is the most populated and industrialized part of the nation. Here you will find from medieval cities to Sweden’s best amusement parks. Except for Scania, which constitutes a region in itself, northern Götaland is made up of the provinces of Blekinge, Kronoberg often administratively united to the County of Jönköping, Kalmar with the capital of the most important city of the same name, Halland, Västra Götaland with its immense lakes , Östergötland. The major cities here is definitely Gothenburg.
      Scania (Skåne) – Scania is a cultural island in the Swedish landscape. Here the culture, language, traditions and architecture itself are much closer to Central Europe and in particular to Denmark to which the region has belonged for centuries, than to the rest of Sweden.
      Gotland – Mythical land of origin of the population of the Goths, a Germanic tribe that dominated Italy during the Roman-barbarian kingdoms, Gotland has been for a very long time an independent nation and maintains many characteristics of its own, difficult to refer to the typical features of Sweden peninsular. It is famous for the many ancient buildings that rise there, especially medieval fortifications and churches. A week-long medieval festival is held there every year and full of interesting activities for both adults and children.