Cadastral Archive

All changes to a real property are made through a cadastral survey. The result of the cadastral procedure is documented on a map and/or deeds and is archived for all eternity in a cadastral dossier.

What Does a Cadastral Dossier Contain?

The cadastral dossiers contain information describing the real property divisions’ nature, both historical and current. Here all decisions made regarding new properties, changes to existing properties and grant of rights are presented.

The cadastral dossiers contain both maps and descriptions as well as protocols showing how the cadastral surveys were conducted. Here the complete information can be found that adds to the data in the Real Property Register, for example regarding easement and boundaries.


View Maps and Dossiers

If you are a private user and want to view historical maps and dossiers, use the service Historical Maps which show cadastral dossiers between the years 1628-1928.

Via the e-service My property, you can see dossiers regarding the property you own, and which are present in Lantmäteriet’s digital archive.

You can also contact our customer center.


Access the Cadastral Archives

The services ArkivSök and Akt Direkt are developed for you who need access to the cadastral archives in your work.


The History Behind the Cadastral Archives

At the end of the 17th century, the development of land surveying institutions in Sweden’s towns started. Due to the great importance of maps, the subject of archiving them became important.

The maps with accompanying documents were kept separate from the administrative documents. In connection to the regional institutions’ growth during the 18th century, the storage of the archives became central.

The archive was often the reason for the establishment of a more permanent office, often in connection to the rest of the governmental administrative organizations in the cities.

The oldest hand-drawn maps were produced only as a single copy. Due to Lantmäteriet opening regional offices, the instructions changed so that the land surveyor had to make another copy of the base map he had previously drawn. This copy had to be delivered to the main office in Stockholm to be examined.

Most cadastral dossiers/maps were produced in three copies. The first map was stored in the regional institution under the name of concept. The second copy was kept with the interested party/village and the third copy – renovation- was sent to the main office in Stockholm for examination.

The “renovation duty” was gradually removed and was officially dissolved in the early 20th century. The renovation copies are today kept at the Swedish National Archive.

Three Million Dossiers in the Digital Archive

Lantmäteriet’s archive today contains around 3 million dossiers, and these are legally valid documents over the real property division in the country. Lantmäteriet has a responsibility to preserve the maps and documents.

Lantmäteriet has scanned all dossiers, which were previously stored at each county authority, to reduce deterioration of the dossiers. Digitization is also a step in shortening the processing times for administration. The analogue material has been transferred to the Swedish National Archive in Härnösand for storage.

Both Lantmäteriet and most municipal surveying authorities store their cadastral dossiers in the Ark.

Plans and Regulations

Municipalities, county administrative boards and others decide on various land management regulations. Lantmäteriet registers this information in the Real Property Register.

As a basis and verification for the information entered in the Real Property Register, Lantmäteriet retains a copy of the plan or decision in its archive. At the same time as the cadastral dossiers are scanned, these plans and regulations are scanned and stored in Lantmäteriet 's digital archive and kept available from there.


History about Mapping

Lantmäteriet was formed in 1628 - the year when the cartographer Anders Bure was commissioned by Gustav II Adolf to make a systematic survey and mapping of the country.

They started with geometric (detailed) mapping of farms, villages, and towns with associated land. The maps from this era are generally drawn in a scale of 1: 4,000. From the mid-17th century, surveyors continued with extensive geographical (general) surveys.

Maps were made of civil parishes, districts, regions and parts of the country, of coasts, islands and archipelagos, of watercourses and roads. These maps are included in the National Board of Surveying and Mapping's archive (Lantmäteristyrelsens arkiv, LMS). They are established in everything between a scale of 1:10 000-1: 150 000 and often show a larger geographical area.

At the end of the 17th century, surveying offices began to be established in Sweden's residential cities and the geometric mapping again became a prominent part of the surveyors' activities. The large-scale mapping has over the years been carried out for various purposes, including taxation, investigation of property disputes and reforms.

Major Land Reforms

The activities of the surveyors eventually came to be increasingly devoted to our then main industry, agriculture, through the great land reforms of the 18th and 19th centuries; the large reform, the single reform and make reform.

The big reform and laga reform were implemented throughout almost the whole country. The single reform was carried out mainly in the southern and central parts of the country. The purpose of all land reforms was to try to gather the then fragmented division of ownership into larger economically viable units.

The maps that were drawn and the decisions that were made then, are still legally valid regarding the property division. This applies provided that the area in question has not been affected by subsequent cadastral surveys.

Archiving Increasingly Important

Due to the great importance of the maps, the question of archiving became important. The maps with accompanying documents were kept separate from the administrative documents.

In connection with the regional activity growing during the first half of the 18th century, the archives' storage came into focus. The archive was often the reason for the establishment of a more permanent office, often in connection with the rest of the governmental administrative organizations in the cities. It was now that Lantmäteriet's cadastral archive began to be developed.

The map archive at the Swedish National Mapping Authority

In the mid-19th century, a more systematic economic and topographical mapping of the country began. This gave birth to the formation of another archive, the National Mapping Authority's map archive, (Rikets allmänna kartverks kartarkiv, RAK).

The RAK archive contains small-scale maps from the middle of the 19th century until the end of the 1970s, including the economic map, the generalstabs map and the häradseconomic map.

Unique Map Collection

All the maps with associated written documents, that the surveyors have prepared since Lantmäteriet’s formation, have been carefully archived and preserved. The map collection is unique in the world and contains more than one million historical maps.

In order to protect the material against wear and tear and at the same time make it available to more people, Lantmäteriet decided to digitize the archives.

Around the year 2000, work began on scanning the historical maps and storing them in the Ark (Lantmäteriet's digital archives) and making them available via the Internet. The work was completed in 2009.

Contents of this page may be automatically translated, we take no responsibility for the accuracy of the translation. Feel free to contact our customer support centre if you have any questions.

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