Årdal

Årdal Municipality

*Årdal kommune*
Årdal Municipality Årdal kommune
Municipality
	Aardal herred (historic name)
	Øvre Årdal in early-June 2008
	Flag Coat of arms
	Vestland within Norway
	Årdal within Vestland
	Coordinates: 61°17′29″N 07°47′53″E
Country	Norway
County	Vestland
District	Sogn
Established	1863
• Preceded by	Lærdal Municipality
Administrative centre	Årdalstangen
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Christian Sønstlien (Ap)
Area
• Total	976.57 km2 (377.06 sq mi)
• Land	930.06 km2 (359.10 sq mi)
• Water	46.52 km2 (17.96 sq mi) 4.8%
• Rank	#119 in Norway
Population (2023)
• Total	5,172
• Rank	#179 in Norway
• Density	5.6/km2 (15/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−6.3333%
Demonym	Årdøl
Official language
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4643
Website	Official website
	Data from Statistics Norway

Årdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Årdalsfjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is the administrative center of the municipality. The other main village is Øvre Årdal. The municipality of Årdal was created in 1863 when it was separated from the municipality of Lærdal.

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Årdal is a modern industrial community, with ties to the old society of farming and fishing. It is surrounded by dramatic nature with high mountains and waterfalls. The climate is rather mild and with less rain than normal in the west part of Norway. Årdal is a good starting point to explore the wild nature of Jotunheimen National Park, and with summer and winter activities within its boundaries. The Vettisfossen waterfall (highest in Norway) is located within the municipality.^[4]

The 977-square-kilometre (377 sq mi) municipality is the 119th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Årdal is the 179th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,172. The municipality's population density is 5.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (15/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 6.3% over the previous 10-year period.^[5]^[6]

In 2016, the chief of police for Vestlandet formally suggested a reconfiguration of police districts and stations. He proposed that the police station in Årdal be closed.^[7]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Årdalen valley (Old Norse: Árdalr) since it is the central geographical feature of the municipality. The first element is the genitive case of the word á which means "river" or "creek" (referring to the Utla river). The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".^[8] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aardal with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Årdal, using the letter Å instead.^[9]^[10]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 9 August 1957. The official blazon is "Gules, three barrulets dancetty Or" (Norwegian: På raud botn ein gull trillingstreng med ormeband-skurd). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is three zig-zag lines running horizontally across the escutcheon. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The local economy at the time of the creation of the arms was mainly based on heavy industry, which needed a lot of electricity. The zig-zag lines in the arms symbolize both the electrical power and the industries. The zig-zag design also symbolizes the ormeband-skrud which is more or less translated as a "worm-ribbon ornament" which is a design of dragons and lindworms that were depicted in the ornamentations in the ancient Norwegian wooden stave churches in the area. The arms were designed by Hallvard Trætteberg, after an original idea by Magnus Hardeland. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[11]^[12]^[13]

History

Lærdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The original municipality was identical to the Lærdal parish (prestegjeld) including the sub-parish (sokn) of Aardal. In 1863, the sub-parish of Aardal (population: 1,791) was separated from Lærdal and became a municipality of its own. The spelling was later changed to Årdal. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the Muggeteigen, Luggenes, and Bergmål farms (population: 11) were transferred from Årdal to Lærdal.^[14]^[15]

Establishment of center for asylum seekers

From 1 August 2013 to 1 September it received 151 asylum seekers.^[16] (The municipal council had beforehand said no to establishing a center for asylum seekers, but the fylkesmannen resolved otherwise.^[16]) On 4 November 2013, one of the residents of the center was found—with a knife in his hand—on the bus from Årdal to Oslo, together with one dead bus driver and two dead passengers. The incident is known as the Triple murder on the Valdres Express,^[17] and only one male^[18]—the asylum seeker—is a police suspect. Earlier on the same day, for the first time one of the center's asylum seekers was removed (by police) in order to be deported from Norway.^[19] (After the deaths, media said that Norway has no requirement for screening the mental health of asylum seekers—unlike requirements in Netherlands.)

Government

Årdal Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[20] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sogn og Fjordane District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Årdal is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.