What is Roslagen – and why our seven municipalities?

Roslagen is the coastal region in eastern Uppland, north of Stockholm, facing the Åland Sea and the Bothnian Sea. It is a landscape of archipelago and rocky terrain, of thousands of islands, bays and straits that are slowly rising from the sea through the land uplift that has been ongoing since the inland ice melted. But if one poses the seemingly simple question — "where are Roslagen's borders?" — there is no straightforward answer. Roslagen is namely not an administrative unit. It is a historical and cultural concept without officially defined borders, and it is precisely for this reason that the question of which municipalities "actually" belong to it has several valid answers.

A landscape without official borders

Roslagen is not a landscape in the legal sense (it is part of Uppland), not a county and not a municipality. This means that boundary demarcation is always a matter of interpretation. The western border is at most unclear — Roslagen simply fades into the inland — while the northern and southern extent varies depending on which definition one chooses. This is not a sign that the concept is unclear or a modern invention, but quite the opposite — it is old: the name has grown out of a medieval coastal organization and has since had different scope in different contexts.

The different definitions

One can discern several commonly occurring delimitations, from the narrowest to the widest:

The narrowest core consists of the old coastal parishes — the "Roden" itself — that is, the sea-near villages that during the Middle Ages were divided into ship districts and had the duty to man the rowing fleet. It is here that Roslagen in its original sense belongs.

The most common modern definition encompasses the municipalities of Vaxholm, Österåker, Norrtälje and Östhammar — coastal municipalities with archipelago. This is the delimitation one most often encounters in everyday speech.

The destination collaboration's definition. The official tourism collaboration on roslagen.se is run by the municipalities of Norrtälje, Östhammar and Österåker. It is an operational, organizational selection — the municipalities that collaborate on tourism — and not an attempt to define Roslagen's cultural-geographical extent.

The widest definition, via the district courts. Here it becomes historically interesting. The municipalities of Danderyd, Täby, Vallentuna (and Lidingö) were part of the old Southern Roslagen district court, that is, the legal court jurisdiction that under the name "Roslags" extended down towards Stockholm. That these municipalities have historically been counted into a "Roslags" district is a concrete, documented reason to consider them part of the wider Roslagen.

Ship districts, hundred and Roslagen district courts

To understand the wider borders, one needs to know two old division systems. Hundred was the usual legal and administrative division inland. By the coast, there were instead ship districts — a corresponding unit whose name reveals its origin in naval military organization: each ship district was responsible for equipping and manning ships for the levy (the coastal defense's rowing fleet). The Roden was thus divided into ship districts, the hundred into the villages behind.

During the 19th century, the judicial system was organized into district courts, and three of them bore the Roslagen name: Southern, Central and Northern Roslagen district court. The Southern Roslagen district court was formed in 1844 and encompassed the villages nearest Stockholm. The Central Roslagen district court was formed in 1863 and covered the Norrtälje area.

A common claim is that these were "abolished in 1971". That is a qualified truth: at the major court reform of 1971, the district courts were converted into district courts. The Central Roslagen district court then merged into Norrtälje district court, while the Southern Roslagen district court became Southern Roslagen District Court — which actually remained in existence until 1 April 2007, when it merged into Attunda district court. The Roslagen name thus lived on in the judicial system well into the 2000s.

Why Visit Roslagen encompasses precisely these seven municipalities

Visit Roslagen brings together seven municipalities: Norrtälje, Östhammar, Vaxholm, Österåker, Danderyd, Täby and Vallentuna. That delimitation is historically well-founded and unites the two strongest definitions above:

• The coastal municipalities Norrtälje, Östhammar, Vaxholm and Österåker form the classical, archipelago-near core of Roslagen — the most common definition.
• Danderyd, Täby and Vallentuna are added on historically documented grounds: they belonged to the Southern Roslagen district court, the widest established Roslagen delimitation.

Seven municipalities thus do not constitute arbitrary tourism geography, but rather the combination of Roslagen's sea-near core and its historical southern court district.

Roslagen lives on — also in today's official names

That the southern municipalities belong to Roslagen is not just a historical footnote from the time of the district courts — the name lives on in highly concrete, modern contexts. Roslagsbanan, the narrow-gauge railway that is still in operation, runs straight through Danderyd, Täby, Vallentuna and Österåker and carries Roslagen's name out into the landscape every day.

Official Sweden also uses the designation. The rescue service Southern Roslagen Fire Defence Association was responsible from 1984–2009 for fire defence in Danderyd, Täby, Vallentuna, Vaxholm and Österåker (the association merged in 2009 into Greater Stockholm Fire Department). And the police's local police area Southern Roslagen today encompasses precisely Täby, Danderyd, Vallentuna, Vaxholm and Österåker — the area was explicitly given the name "Southern Roslagen" to mark that it concerns not just Täby but the entire southern Roslagen region.

In other words: when the railway, fire department and police all bear Roslagen's name over Danderyd, Täby and Vallentuna, these municipalities' Roslagen affiliation is not just an interpretation — it is inscribed in today's own institutions.

The Roslagen connection municipality by municipality

• Norrtälje — Roslagen's largest municipality and its natural heartland; here lies the bulk of the original coastal region, Grisslehamn, Väddö and one of northern Sweden's richest archipelagos.
• Östhammar — the northern coastal region with Öregrund, Gräsö and the industrial areas; borderline towards the inland but undisputedly Roslagen coast.
• Vaxholm — "the gateway to the archipelago" and part of the classical core; old coastal town in ship district region.
• Österåker — archipelago municipality around Åkersberga and Ljusterö, traditionally counted as core-Roslagen.
• Danderyd, Täby and Vallentuna — belonged to the Southern Roslagen district court; particularly Täby and Vallentuna carry a rich Viking Age heritage (Runriket, Jarlabankes bro) that connects them to the Roden's earliest history.

Roslagen is, in short, a landscape one recognizes rather than measures out on the map. Visit Roslagen's seven municipalities give it a clear, historically defensible form.

Sources

• Roslagen, Roden, Skeppslag, Södra Roslags domsaga, Södra Roslags tingsrätt, Mellersta Roslags domsaga — Wikipedia
• Landhöjning — Lantmäteriet
• roslagen.se (destinationssamarbetet)
• Södra Roslagens Brandförsvarsförbund — Wikipedia
• Lokalpolisområde Södra Roslagen — Polismyndigheten / Täby kommun
• Roslagsbanan — Wikipedia