West Zealand County

West Zealand County

Vestsjællands Amt (English: West Zealand County) is a former county (Danish: amt) in the west-central part of the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in eastern Denmark. The county was abolished effective January 1, 2007, when it merged into Region Sjælland (i.e. Region Zealand).

The county was responsible for public hospitals, upper secondary schools and schools for Higher Preparatory Examination, public transport and social welfare for the disabled.

The County Hall was located in the town of Sorø, and became the seat of the new region. Sorø is by no means the biggest city in West Zealand, but it has great historical value. It is famed for the Sorø Academy (Danish, Sorø Akademi), an educational institution built in 1140 together with the church where Queen Margaret I of Denmark was buried (later moved to Roskilde Domkirke, Roskilde).

Many people live in West Zealand but work in the greater metropolitan area of Copenhagen.

Read more about West Zealand County:  List of County Mayors, Municipalities (1970-2006)

Famous quotes containing the words west, zealand and/or county:

    It is said that a carpenter building a summer hotel here ... declared that one very clear day he picked out a ship coming into Portland Harbor and could distinctly see that its cargo was West Indian rum. A county historian avers that it was probably an optical delusion, the result of looking so often through a glass in common use in those days.
    —For the State of New Hampshire, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.
    Lawrence Kutner (20th century)

    In the County Tyrone, in the town of Dungannon,
    —Unknown. The Old Orange Flute (l. 1)