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:
“In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults. They frolic with animals, caress them, share with them feelings neither has words for. Have they ever stroked any adult with the love they bestow on a cat? Hugged any grownup with the ecstasy they feel when clasping a puppy?”
—Jessamyn West (1907–1984)
“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)
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)