Laponia (Swedish: Lappland), was a historical Swedish province, or landscape, in the north of Sweden which evolved from Lappmarken. In 1809, Sweden ceded the eastern part, along with the rest of Finland, to the Russian Empire, which in effect created a Swedish Lapland and Finnish Lapland. Today, the Swedish part serves no administrative purpose. On the Finnish side, there was a Province of Lapland until 2010, when Finnish provinces were discontinued, and the province was replaced by the Region of Lapland.