Nord-Trøndelag

Until 1919 the name of the county was Nordre Trondhjems amt. The meaning of this was '(the) northern (part of) Trondhjems amt. (The old Trondhjems amt, created in 1662, was divided in 1804. Trondhjem is the old form of Trondheim.)

[edit] Geography

Hell is located in Stjørdal. In Norwegian the word means "cave" in this case.

Nord-Trøndelag borders Nordland to the north, Sør-Trøndelag to the south, Sweden to the east and the Norwegian Sea to the west. The county seat is Steinkjer, with 20,527 inhabitants (2005). The largest lake is Snåsavatnet and the largest river is Namsen, one of the best salmon rivers in Europe. Other well known salmon rivers are as Verdalselva and Stjørdalselva. Stjørdal is the fastest growing municipality in the county.

A large part of the population lives near the large Trondheimsfjord, which is a central feature of the southern part of this county. Considerable areas on the eastern shore of the fjord (mainly in Stjørdal, Frosta, Levanger, Inderøy, Verdal and Steinkjer) are fertile agricultural lowland, with grain fields and vegetables. Together with the grain fields in the Namdalen lowland, this forms the most northern grain cultivation area in Norway today.

Skarnsund Bridge crossing the narrowest strait in Trondheimsfjord

There are fairly large areas of spruce forest inland, and mountains near the border with Sweden, and coastal mountains with bare rock at the northern coast. The spruce forests occurs even at the coast, where some areas belong to the Scandinavian coastal conifer forests, a rare European temperate rainforest. There are several national parks in the county, among them Blåfjella-Skjækerfjella National Park, Børgefjell National Park, Lierne National Park and Skarvan og Roltdalen National Park.

[edit] Communications

European route E6 runs north-south throughout the county, partially as a motorway. This route runs from Stjørdal via Steinkjer to Grong and through Namskogan to Nordland. Other important routes in the county include European route E14 between Stjørdal via Meråker to Sweden and Route 17, the coastal route, from Steinkjer via Namsos and Nærøy to Nordland.

Nordlandsbanen, the railway between Trondheim and Bodø runs north-south through the county, offering regional train and commuter train services, the latter branded Trønderbanen. There are also to other lines; Meråkerbanen, part of the line between Trondheim and Stockholm runs from Stjørdal to Meråker and onwards to Sweden. The branch line Namsoslinjen is purely used for freight and goes from Grong to Namsos. None of the railways in Nord-Trøndelag are electrified.

The main airport for all of Trøndelag, Trondheim Airport, Værnes, is located in Stjørdal. This airport, the third largest in Norway, offers services to most primary airports in Norway, including 25 daily flights to Oslo. The international airport also serves daily direct flights to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London and Stockholm and weekly flights to other European cities and many charter flights to Southern Europe. It also functions as a hub for Widerøe's regional flights to Namdal and Nordland, including the two regional airports in Nord-Trøndelag, Namsos Airport, Høknesøra and Rørvik Airport, Ryum.

Painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo; Tore Hund spears Olav Haraldsson at the Battle of Stiklestad.

The Coastal Express (No: Hurtigruten) calls at Rørvik in Vikna.

[edit] History

People have lived in this region for thousands of years (see Rock carvings in Central Norway). The Trøndelag region was central in the Viking Age. The most famous battle in Norwegian history, the Battle of Stiklestad, took place at Stiklestad in Verdal.

[edit] Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1957) - but it has old roots: A golden cross on a white bottom was the coat-of-arms for Saint Olaf, killed in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030.

Inderøy in Innherad

[edit] Districts

The county is conventionally divided into traditional districts. From south to north, these are Stjørdalen, Innherad and Namdalen.

[edit] Municipalities

Nord-Trøndelag has a total of 24 municipalities:

Counties of Norway
Akershus \| Aust-Agder \| Buskerud \| Finnmark \| Hedmark \| Hordaland \| Møre og Romsdal \| Nordland \| Nord-Trøndelag \| Oppland \| Oslo \| Østfold \| Rogaland \| Sogn og Fjordane \| Sør-Trøndelag \| Telemark \| Troms \| Vest-Agder \| Vestfold