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# Moss, Østfold (Norway)

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Last modified: 2026-04-25 by shreyas tallamraju
Keywords: moss | norway | ostfold |
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image by Tomislav Šipek, 26 November 2024

- The Flag
- Coat of Arms
- Flag and arms before 2020

See also:

- Østfold
- Sports clubs
  - FK Eika Krapfoss
  - Ekholt BK
  - HK Herulf
  - Kambo Båtforening
  - IL Kråkene
  - Moss FK
  - Moss Båtforening
  - Moss Roklub
  - Moss Seilforening
  - Rapid Athene
  - HK Rygge
  - Rygge IL
  - SK Sprint-Jeløy
- Norwegian municipal flags
- Norway

## The Flag

The flag of the new Moss Municipality that was created on January 1, 2020 after the merger of the previous Moss Municipality and Rygge Municipality is red with a yellow spur.

The result of the merger is that the name of the Moss Municipality remains, but the new municipality took over the symbols of the now former Rygge Municipality.

Photo:
https://www.moss-avis.no
Tomislav Šipek, 26 November 2024

## Coat of Arms

image by Tomislav Šipek, 26 November 2024

## Flag and arms before 2020

image by Tomislav Šipek, 20 February 2017

Here is flag of Moss.
Sources: http://www.detskjerimoss.no/place/moss-kommune/
http://www.moss-avis.no/nyheter
Tomislav Šipek, 20 October 2015

I corrected flag and coat of arms of Moss.
(Note: but I still see a black eye on the flag regardless of the rules: http://www.moss-avis.no/nyheter
Tomislav Šipek, 21 October 2015

More images at:
http://noefordeg.no/bilder/nyheter/nyhetbig/259.jpg
https://g.api.no/obscura
20 February 2017

image by Tomislav Šipek, 21 October 2015

Based on [c2j87]:
The Norwegian blazon is: En gull kråke på rød bunn, that would be: Gules a crow or.
The coat of arms and the flag were approved by the royal resolution of 2 April 1954 after a drawing by Chr. Stenersen. (According to the Big Norwegian Lexicon, Christian Stenersen 1899-1984, born in Moss, was set designer, painter and graphical artist, known for painting old buildings in Moss)
The city got its first seal in 1786, following the independence from the neighbouring Fredrikstad - depicting a cityscape in an oval field. In the first half of the 19th century a new seal added birds around the church tower of the cityscape, and eventually this was stared to be used in a red shield, depicting a blue oval with the city and birds.
In 1930's a proper coat of arms was started to be considered, and the traditional seal was looked for inspiration. The characteristic was the birds - although they were originally considered to be pigeons, and that was not to the citizen's liking. The crow design from the local theatre (where Sternsen was the set designer) were found to be appropriate - since a traditional nickname for the Moss citizens was "Mossekråker" - the Moss crows.
BTW, cf. at http://www.mossbyleksikon.no
The 1820's city seal http://www.mossbyleksikon.no/index.php
The ca. 1930's city arms based on the seal http://www.mossbyleksikon.no
And also BTW, here is the Stavanger city seal, that I was writing in the last message. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia
Finally, a minor, nitpicking, point about the drawing - the black eye of the crow should in this representation be red. The coat of arms/flag here, like in many other Norwegian examples, might have black outlines around the charges or they may be omitted (and for the flag, it would be logical that they are omitted indeed) - but in that case, there is no need for introduction of a third colour.
Željko Heimer, 20 October 2015