Astafjord

Astafjord herred
Former Municipality
Astafjord herred

Location in Troms

Coordinates: 68°40′29″N 17°07′28″E / 68.67472°N 17.12444°E / 68.67472; 17.12444Coordinates: 68°40′29″N 17°07′28″E / 68.67472°N 17.12444°E / 68.67472; 17.12444
Country Norway
Region Northern Norway
County Troms
District Central Hålogaland
Municipality ID NO-1918
Adm. Center Grov
Time zone CET (UTC+01:00)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+02:00)
Created from Ibestad in 1926
Merged into Skånland in 1964

Astafjord is a former municipality in Troms county, Norway. It is located in the eastern part of the present-day municipality of Skånland. The administrative center of the former municipality is the village of Grov (population: 289).[1] The Astafjorden (strait) flowed along the northern part of the municipality.

History

Historically, Astafjord was a parish that encompassed a large part of southern Troms county, including the present-day municipalities of Bardu, Gratangen, Ibestad, Lavangen, Salangen, and most of Skånland. When municipalities were created in Norway in 1838, however, the old parish was divided up into several municipalities (see formannskapsdistrikt).[2]

The municipality of Astafjord was established on 1 July 1926 when the old municipality of Ibestad was divided into four municipalities: Andørja, Astafjord, Gratangen, and Ibestad. Initially, Astafjord had a population of 1,018. On 1 January 1964, Astafjord (population: 1,120) was merged into the neighboring municipality of Skånland.[3]

Name

The strait and the municipality were named after the old Ånstad farm (Old Norse: Arnastaðafjǫrðr). The first element of the old name comes from the male name Arna or "Arne", the second element staða means "home" or "farm", and the last element fjǫrðr is identical with the word for "fjord". Thus, the fjord by Arne's farm.[4][2]

References

  1. ↑ "Urban settlements. Population and area, by municipality.". Statistisk sentralbyrå. 1 January 2006.
  2. 1 2 "Astafjord" (in Norwegian). Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  3. ↑ Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.
  4. ↑ Rygh, Oluf (1911). Norske gaardnavne: Troms amt (in Norwegian) (17 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 48.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 15, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.