{"population":5627400,"blurb":{"text":"Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country comprising the western and northernmost parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, the remote Arctic island Jan Mayen and the archipelago Svalbard. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency, and not a part of the Kingdom; Norway also claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has a population of approximately 5.6 million, and a total area of 385,207 square kilometres (148,729 sq mi). Its capital and largest city is Oslo. The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden, and is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast. Norway has an extensive coastline facing the Skagerrak strait, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Barents Sea.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway"},"vexillology":{"text":"The national flag of Norway is red with a navy blue Scandinavian cross bordered in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark.","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Norway"},"flagDesign":{"text":"Fredrik Meltzer submitted his proposal just in time to be exhibited in parliament on 4 May 1821 together with a large number of other proposals. It was approved by both chambers during the following two weeks. Meltzer himself provided no written explanation for his choice of design and colours. However, his intentions may be inferred from an earlier letter of 30 April with his comments regarding the proposal from the flag committee. That design was divided quarterly red and white. Meltzer objected to the colours because they were too similar to those of the Danish flag. He added that it would be equally unseemly to choose the colours of any of \"those states with which we have been or are connected with\". Instead, he recommended a tricolour of red, white and blue, \"three colours that now denote freedom, such as we have seen in the French flag of freedom, and still see in that of the Dutch and Americans, and in the Union of the Englishmen\".\n\nHis eventual choice a few days later of a Nordic cross was clearly based on the tradition established by the other Nordic countries, Denmark and Sweden. This cross represents Christianity. The red and blue colours also explicitly referred to the…","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Norway"},"photos":["https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/2011_Norway_attacks_flower_march_2.jpg/500px-2011_Norway_attacks_flower_march_2.jpg","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Barrio_de_Bryggen%2C_Bergen.jpg/500px-Barrio_de_Bryggen%2C_Bergen.jpg","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Bombingen_av_Kristiansund%2C_1940%2C_Riksarkivet%2C_Arkivreferanse_PA_1667U2_050.jpg/500px-Bombingen_av_Kristiansund%2C_1940%2C_Riksarkivet%2C_Arkivreferanse_PA_1667U2_050.jpg","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Dalen_Hotell_IMG_4773.jpg/500px-Dalen_Hotell_IMG_4773.jpg"]}