Christian IV's crowned insignia, the monogram C4. The coat of arms was only slightly modified after the Swedish takeover following the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde in which the eastern third of Denmark was ceded to Sweden. The coat of arms is very similar to the coat of arms of the former town of Christianopel in eastern Blekinge, a town also founded by Christian IV. Since 1971, the coat of arms is used by Kristianstad Municipality. Kristianstad's coat of arms is one of the few coat of arms in the world depicting a foreign king's or queen's coat of arms.
The city served as capital of Kristianstad County between 1719 and 1997. It now houses the administration of the Sk�ne Regional Council. For a long time Kristianstad also was a very important garrison town. One of Sweden's courts of appeal was located in Kristianstad before being moved to Malm� in 1917
