The 906-square-kilometre (350 sq mi) municipality is the 128th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Nord-Aurdal is the 152nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 6,401. The municipality's population density is 7.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (19/sq mi) and its population has increased by 0.1% over the previous 10-year period.[5][6]
General information
View of the Dokkafjorden areaNord.Aurdal seen from Hippesbygde
The parish of Nordre Aurdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1894, the new Etnedal Municipality was established by merging the eastern valley area of Nordre Etnedal (population: 362) from Nordre Aurdal municipality and the Søndre Etnedal area (population: 1,331) from the neighboring municipality of Søndre Aurdal. On 1 January 1979, there was a border adjustment in an unpopulated area where part of Etnedal was transferred to Nord-Aurdal and another part of Nord-Aurdal that was transferred to Etnedal. Then on 1 January 1984, the unpopulated northern side of the Makalaus mountain was transferred from Sør-Aurdal to Nord-Aurdal.[7][4]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Aurdalen valley (Old Norse: Aurardalr) since it was a central geographic feature of the area. The first word in the name is nord which is essentially a prefix that means "north". The second word comes from the local valley name. The first element of that word is the genitive case of the old river name, Aur, now named Bøaelva. The river name comes from the word aurr which means "gravel". The last element of the second word is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Nordre Aurdal. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Nord-Aurdal.[8] Both nordre and nord mean "north" (more specifically, "nordre" means "northern"), so the name Nord-Aurdal means "(the) northern (part of) Aurdal". (The Church of Norway parish of Aurdal that had existed for centuries was divided into two in 1805, just over 30 years before the parish borders were used to defin the new municipality that was established in 1838.)[9]
Gentiana nivalis which is the flower depicted on the arms for Nord-Aurdal
The coat of arms was granted by royal decree on 13 December 1985. The official blazon is "Or, three cinquefoilsazure" (Norwegian: På gull grunn tre blå fembladingar, 2-1). This means the arms have a field (background) 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 charge is three five-petaled flowers. The arms show three blue flowers of the species Gentiana nivalis which are commonly called "Snow Gentian". The flowers, which are locally known as "the blue eyes of Christ", grow all over Norway, but they grow abundantly in this area. Three flowers were chosen to represent the three main settlements of the municipality: Aurdal, Fagernes, and Leira. This type of flower only opens in sunlight and heat, so it was chosen to symbolize being open and positive. The arms were designed by Bjørn Arnesen who based it off an idea by Ivar Aars. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.[10][11][12][13]
The municipality lies in the western side of Innlandet county. Although Fagernes is the administrative center of Nord-Aurdal, the village of Aurdal was the historic centre of the centuries-old Church of Norway parish of Aurdal. Nord-Aurdal is part of the traditional district of Valdres in the central part of southern Norway, situated between the valleys of Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal.
The highest point in Nord-Aurdal is the Duptjernkampen at 1,325 metres (4,347 ft). About 50% of the land is above 900 metres (3,000 ft). The Tisleifjorden and Aurdalsfjorden are large inland lakes that are located in Nord-Aurdal. The river Begna flows through the municipality as well, with the Strondafjorden being a large lake that the river flows through.
The municipal council(Kommunestyre) of Nord-Aurdal 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.
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