The coat of arms of the town of Jakobstad

Jakobstad

Jakobstad is a town and municipality in Ostrobothnia, Finland. The town has a population of and covers a land area of . The population density is .- History :...

 in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 was drawn in its current form by Gustaf von Numers

Gustaf von Numers

Gustaf von Numers was a Swedish-speaking Finnish civil servant and leading heraldic artist.-Life:Von Numers studied heraldry in the 1930s under Arvid Berghman and was considered one of the leading Finnish experts in the area. He was a tireless writer on all heraldic matters...

 (the origin lies in the coat of arms of the Swedish noble family de la Gardie

De la Gardie

De la Gardie, occasionally de la Gardie , is a Swedish noble family of French origin. The family's social status in France before the migration to Sweden is uncertain, they were possibly of lower gentry or bourgeoisie...

, see 2nd and 3rd field of the coat of arms depicted in a painting of Jacob de la Gardie) and portrays a red-crowned, sword-holding blue lion with a split tail. The lion is standing in a red tower in blue water. The background is gold-colored. The shield is crowned by a baronial coronet.

The Swedish name for the coat of arms of Jakobstad (Jakobstads vapen) has also been used for a ketch rigged vessel galeas

Galeas

The galeas is a small type of trade ship, which was common in the Baltic Sea and North Sea from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. The characteristics of the ships depend somewhat from where the ship originated. Swedish versions had two masts and were rigged as ketchs, sometimes as schooners...

 replica called the Jacobstads Wapen

Jacobstads Wapen

The Jacobstads Wapen is a modern replica of an 18th century galeas built in Jakobstad, Finland between 1988-1994. She is built according to blueprints by the Swedish warship architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman dating from 1755, the oldest vessel blueprints found in Finland. She is classified by...

.

Further reading

• Suomen kunnallisvaakunat Suomen Kunnallisliitto 1982; p. 119 ISBN 951-773-085-3