Funen County
Fyns Amt (English: Funen County) is a former county (Danish, amt) in central Denmark, comprising the islands of Funen, Langeland, Tåsinge, Ærø, and approximately 90 other islands, of which only 25 are inhabited. The county was formed on 1 April 1970, comprising the former counties of Odense and Svendborg. The county was abolished from 1 January 2007, when it merged into Region Syddanmark (i.e. Region South Denmark).
The county employed around 20,000 people working in more than 160 institutions located all over Funen.
Funen County's coat of arms showed three connected gold hop leaves on a field of red, representing three former counties of Odense, Svendborg and Assens. The choice of hop leaves comes from Funen native Hans Christian Andersen's song "I Danmark er jeg født" ("In Denmark I was born"), where he refers to Funen as "Æblegård og humlehave" (Apple farm and hop garden).
For common daily usage, a more modern and IT-friendly version was used. In this version, the background was green and the hop leaves white and much less detailed. Alternate versions had a red or, on occasion, a black background.
The coat of arms was registered in 1976.
On 1 January 2007, The Danish Municipal Reform replaced the traditional counties with five new regions and cut the number of municipalities to 98. Funen county is included in the new Region Syddanmark (Region South Denmark). The 32 municipalities within Funen County were reduced to 10.
Coordinates: 55°22′52″N 10°26′07″E / 55.38111°N 10.43528°E
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