Lærdal
Municipality in Vestland, Norway / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Lærdal?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Lærdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Lærdalsøyri. The old Filefjell Kongevegen road passes through Lærdal on its way to Valdres and later to Oslo.
Lærdal Municipality
Lærdal kommune | |
---|---|
Leirdal herred (historic name) | |
Coordinates: 61°03′04″N 07°35′52″E | |
Country | Norway |
County | Vestland |
District | Sogn |
Established | 1 Jan 1838 |
• Created as | Formannskapsdistrikt |
Administrative centre | Lærdalsøyri |
Government | |
• Mayor (2019) | Audun Mo (Ap) |
Area | |
• Total | 1,342.52 km2 (518.35 sq mi) |
• Land | 1,275.43 km2 (492.45 sq mi) |
• Water | 67.09 km2 (25.90 sq mi) 5% |
• Rank | #71 in Norway |
Population (2023) | |
• Total | 2,129 |
• Rank | #273 in Norway |
• Density | 1.7/km2 (4/sq mi) |
• Change (10 years) | −2.2% |
Demonym | Lærdøl[1] |
Official language | |
• Norwegian form | Nynorsk |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
ISO 3166 code | NO-4642[3] |
Website | Official website |
The 1,343-square-kilometre (519 sq mi) municipality is the 71st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway (with over half of this area consisting of mountains). Lærdal is the 273rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,129. The municipality's population density is 1.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (4.4/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 2.2% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]
The Lærdal river valley is long, running from Hemsedal (Høgeloft mountain) and the Filefjell mountains in the east to the Sognefjorden in the west. About half of the municipal residents live in the main village of Lærdalsøyri; the rest in the small villages in the surrounding valleys such as Borgund, Ljøsne, Tønjum, Erdal, Vindedalen, Frønningen, and Strendene. The Old Lærdalsøyri village has 161 protected buildings. Some of the houses there date back to the mid-18th century. On the night of 18–19 January 2014, a major fire destroyed at least 30 buildings.[6]