Swedish National Heritage Board
| Riksantikvarieämbetet | |
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 The main office in Stockholm. |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1630 |
| Headquarters | , Sweden 59°20′01″N 18°5′28″E / 59.33361°N 18.09111°ECoordinates: 59°20′01″N 18°5′28″E / 59.33361°N 18.09111°E |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent department | Ministry of Culture |
| Website | raa |
The Swedish National Heritage Board (Swedish: Riksantikvarieämbetet; RAÄ) is a Swedish government agency responsible for World Heritage Sites and other national heritage monuments and historical environments. It is governed by the Ministry of Culture.
The goals of the agency are to encourage the preservation and protection of historic environments and to promote the respect for and knowledge of historic environments. In order to do this, it tries to ensure that Swedish heritage is accessible to all citizens, to spread information about that heritage, and to "empower heritage as a force in the evolution of a democratic, sustainable society".
The National Heritage Board was founded in 1630. On the 20 May that year, Johannes Bureus who was a prominent rune researcher and King Gustavus Adolphus' private teacher, was appointed the first riksantikvarien ("National Antiquarian"). Bureus' teachings had made the king interested in ancient monuments and national heritage sites and artifacts, at that time called "antiquities". Together with a priest and a young student, Bureus went on a journey though Sweden to draw and document runestones, collect old coins, chronicles, law books, letter and manuscripts.
In 1666, Johan Hadorph the seventh National Antiquarian, established the Placat och Påbudh, Om Gamble Monumenter och Antiquiteter ("Signs and Decrees, of Old Monuments and Antiquities"), Sweden's first draft for an Antiquities Act. Aside from laws of the Vatican City, it was the first antiquities regulation in Europe. The decree made it possible to protect ancient monuments and sites from treasure hunters and vandalism, such as people who wanted to use ancient tumuli as brick kilns.
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Wikipedia