Coat of arms of Botkyrka
Botkyrka’s arms show Saint Botvid in gold with a halo, holding a silver axe and fish on a red field.
Swedish description in the Heraldica record
I rött fält en sankt Botvid av guld med gloria hållande i dexter hand en yxa av silver och hållande i sinister hand en fisk av silver.
This is the Swedish description in the Heraldica record. How it was composed and whether it is an official blazon have not been independently verified here. The editorial text distinguishes registry information from municipal or local interpretations.
Designers
- Vladimir A. Sagerlund
Registration and history
- 15 January 1954: Royal confirmation on
- 28 January 1983: Registered at the National Board of Patents and Registration
The arms and their description
The Heraldica record places the axe in Botvid’s right hand and the fish in his left. Heraldic right and left do not necessarily match the sides as seen by the viewer.
Source: Heraldica record 2841
Background in local sources
In Saint Ansgar Catholic Parish’s account, the fish recalls a miraculous catch that Botvid shared with his neighbour, while the axe belongs to the story of his death. The parish says Botvid’s image also appears in the municipal arms. These are motifs in the parish’s saint’s legend, not part of the heraldic blazon.
Heraldic elements
The heraldic elements are identified using HERO, a heraldry ontology published through Finland's Finto service. It provides structured terminology for describing coats of arms and their components. The list describes the structure of the arms, not the symbolic meaning of its elements.
- escutcheon
- saint Botvid
- field
- Or
- Argent
- Gules
- axe
- fish
- unpartitioned
Sources and image rights
Heraldica / National Archives of Finland · Wikidata
Image licence: CC BY-SA 3.0
Image source and credit: National Archives of Sweden / Vladimir Sagerlund
Original image. The image has been resized and converted to WebP. The derivative retains the original image’s licence.
