LANDSKAP

traditional subdivision (province) of Sweden. The 25 landskaper (provinces) developed during the pre-Viking and Viking eras and were governed by councils that met outdoors. Although they no longer have any political or administrative significance, their names remain in common use and appear in official tabulations of data. The landskaper overlap and occasionally coincide with the 26 ln (counties) that came into being during the later European Middle Ages. The ln were established in their modern form in the 17th and early 18th centuries, although through some consolidation their number was reduced to 21 by the end of the 20th century; they still serve as Sweden's main administrative subdivisions.