Beiarn

Beiarn kommune
Municipality

Coat of arms
Nordland within
Norway

Beiarn within Nordland
Coordinates: 66°55′2″N 14°40′29″E / 66.91722°N 14.67472°E / 66.91722; 14.67472Coordinates: 66°55′2″N 14°40′29″E / 66.91722°N 14.67472°E / 66.91722; 14.67472
Country Norway
County Nordland
District Salten
Administrative centre Moldjord
Government
 • Mayor (2011) Monika Sande (Sp)
Area
 • Total 1,222.16 km2 (471.88 sq mi)
 • Land 1,181.11 km2 (456.03 sq mi)
 • Water 41.05 km2 (15.85 sq mi)
Area rank 81 in Norway
Population (2011)
 • Total 1,097
 • Rank 393 in Norway
 • Density 0.93/km2 (2.4/sq mi)
 • Change (10 years) -14.0 %
Demonym(s) Beiarværing[1]
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1839
Official language form Bokmål
Website www.beiarn.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Beiarn is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Salten. Beiarn is also a part of the Bodø Region, a statistical metropolitan region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Moldjord. Other villages in Beiarn are Høyforsmoen, Trones, and Tverrvika.

General information

The municipality of Beiarn was established in 1853 when it was separated from the large municipality of Gildeskål. Initially, Beiarn had 1,164 residents. The municipal boundaries have not changed since that time.[2]

Name

The municipality is named after the Beiarfjorden (Old Norse: Beðir or Beðinn). The meaning of the name is not definitively known, but it may be related to the English word bed in the sense of a "river bed". The name was historically spelled Beieren.[3]

Beiarn Church

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted in 1988. The arms show a gold-colored pine tree on a green background. This was chosen because of the mighty pine forests for which Beiarn has historically been well-known.[4][5]

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Beiarn. It is part of the Salten deanery in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Churches in Beiarn
Parish
(Sokn)		Church NameLocation
of the Church		Year Built
BeiarnBeiarn ChurchMoldjord1873
Høyforsmoen ChapelHøyforsmoen1957

A privately owned stave church was built in 2006 at Savjord, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) east of Moldjord. The Savjord Stave Church was modeled after the Gol Stave Church.

Geography

Tellingen mountain in February

The municipality of Beiarn is located just north of the Arctic Circle, along the river Beiarelva including the Beiardalen (valley) and some surrounding areas in the Saltfjellet mountains. The river is one of the best salmon rivers in Northern Norway. There are several large lakes in Beiarn including Arstaddalsdammen, Litle Sokumvatnet, and Ramsgjelvatnet.

The Saltfjellet–Svartisen National Park is partially located in Beiarn. The world's most northern naturally occurring elm forest (Ulmus glabra) grows in the Arstadlia nature reserve, where the rich vegetation also includes orchids.[6]

Attractions

The area offers many outdoor activities to visitors, including fishing, caving, and mountain walking. The Beiarn farm museum includes an overview of Beiarn's cultural history, from the Viking Age through to the middle of the 20th century.

References

  1. ↑ "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  2. ↑ Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.
  3. ↑ Rygh, Oluf (1905). Norske gaardnavne: Nordlands amt (in Norwegian) (16 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 193.
  4. ↑ "Om Kommunevåpenet". Beiarn kommune. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  5. ↑ Store norske leksikon. "Beiarn" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2012-03-26.
  6. ↑ "Arstadlia-Tverviknakken naturreservat" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2008-11-19.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beiarn.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, July 31, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.