Suldal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Suldal kommune
Municipality

Coat of arms
Rogaland within
Norway
Suldal within Rogaland
Coordinates: 59°28′6″N 6°29′59″E / 59.46833°N 6.49972°E / 59.46833; 6.49972Coordinates: 59°28′6″N 6°29′59″E / 59.46833°N 6.49972°E / 59.46833; 6.49972
Country Norway
County Rogaland
District Ryfylke
Administrative centre Sand
Government
 • Mayor (2007) Torkel Myklebust (Sp)
Area
 • Total 1,736 km2 (670 sq mi)
 • Land 1,588 km2 (613 sq mi)
Area rank 39 in Norway
Population (2004)
 • Total 3,895
 • Rank 235 in Norway
 • Density 2/km2 (5/sq mi)
 • Change (10 years) -4.9 %
Demonym Suldøl[1]
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1134
Official language form Nynorsk
Website www.suldal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Suldal is a municipality in the northeast of Rogaland county, Norway located in the Ryfylke historically traditional district. Sand i Ryfylke is the administrative center of Suldal.

The parish of Suledal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Søvde was separated from Suldal in 1842. The municipalities of Erfjord and Sand, most of Jelsa, and some parts of Imsland and Vikedal, were merged with Suldal on 1 January 1965.

General information

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Súladalr. The first element is probably the plural genitive case of súla which means "pillar" or "column" (and then referring to the mountain pass Suldalsporten) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Before 1891, the name was written "Suledal".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 11 March 1976. The arms show three yellow lines on a red background. The lines represent Suldalslågen, the local river that runs through the municipality.[2]

History

Suldal municipality has a long history of trade connections to the Setesdal valley to the east. The main mountain plateau trade route led east from Suldal municipality in Rogaland to Bykle municipality in Aust-Agder county.

Geography

The municipality is with its 1736 km2 the biggest in Rogaland.

In the north, the municipality is bordered by Sauda and Odda, in the east by Vinje and Bykle, in the south by Hjelmeland, and in the west by Vindafjord. Across the Jelsafjord and Vindafjord lie Finnøy and Tysvær municipalities.

The mountain Kistenuten is located at the triple border point of Rogaland, Hordaland and Telemark.[3] Other mountains in Suldal are Vassdalseggi, the highest mountain in Rogaland, Trollaskeinuten, Snønuten, Melsnuten, Knoda, Fitjanuten, Leirnuten, Kaldafjellet, Simlenuten, Steinkilenuten and Raudberga, all reaching above 1,400 m.a.s.l.[4]

The Sandsfjord and Hylsfjord lie within Suldal, as does lake Suldalsvatnet. The Saudafjord lies partially within the boundary of Suldal. The Erfjord and the lakes Blåsjø, Holmavatnet, and Holmevatnet also lie on the boundary of Suldal.

Economy

The Ulla-Førre project of building huge hydroelectric dams in the mountains was initiated in the 1960s. At times the project employed over a thousand people. The finished hydroelectric complex has a total capacity of approximately 2,100 MW and produces about 4.8 TWh yearly.

References

  1. ↑ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. 
  2. ↑ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". Retrieved 12 October 2008. 
  3. ↑ Godal, Anne Marit (ed.). "Ryfylkeheiane". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Norsk nettleksikon. Retrieved 15 May 2013. 
  4. ↑ Lauritzen, Per Roger, ed. (2009). Norsk Fjelleksikon (in Norwegian). Arendal: Friluftsforlaget. ISBN 978-82-91-49547-7. 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.