Halsa

This article is about the municipality in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. For other uses, see Halsa (disambiguation).
Halsa kommune
Municipality

Coat of arms

Møre og Romsdal within
Norway

Halsa within Møre og Romsdal
Coordinates: 63°6′50″N 8°28′13″E / 63.11389°N 8.47028°E / 63.11389; 8.47028Coordinates: 63°6′50″N 8°28′13″E / 63.11389°N 8.47028°E / 63.11389; 8.47028
Country Norway
County Møre og Romsdal
District Nordmøre
Administrative centre Liabøen
Government
  Mayor (2007) Ola Rognskog (Sp)
Area
  Total 301.02 km2 (116.22 sq mi)
  Land 292.77 km2 (113.04 sq mi)
  Water 8.25 km2 (3.19 sq mi)
Area rank 278 in Norway
Population (2013)
  Total 1,606
  Rank 355 in Norway
  Density 5.5/km2 (14/sq mi)
  Change (10 years) -8.5 %
Demonym(s) Halsabygg[1]
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1571
Official language form Neutral
Website www.halsa.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Halsa is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Nordmøre region. The administrative centre of Halsa is the village of Liabøen. Other villages in the municipality include Halsanaustan, Valsøyfjord, Engan, Hjellnes, and Valsøybotnen.

General information

View of the Skålvik Fjord
View of the Valsøyfjorden

Halsa was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1868, an unpopulated area of Halsa was transferred to Straumsnes. On 1 January 1879, a part of Halsa (population: 279) was transferred to Stangvik. The next year, the Torjulvågen area (population: 240) across the Halsafjorden was transferred to Tingvoll Municipality. On 1 July 1915, part of southern Halsa (population: 114) was transferred to Åsskard Municipality. On 1 January 1965, all of the municipality Valsøyfjord that was located on the mainland (population: 1,104) was merged into Halsa. On 1 January 1976, the district of Aure Municipality south of the Vinjefjorden (population: 158) was transferred to Halsa Municipality.[2]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Halsa farm (Old Norse: Hǫlsyinjar), since the first church (Halsa Church) was built there. The first element is hals which means "neck" and the last element is the plural form of vin which means "meadow" or "pasture". Here, the word hals is referring to an isthmus (neck of land) between two fjords: Halsafjorden and the Skålvik Fjord. Before 1918, the name was written "Halse".[3]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 19 August 1988. The gray and blue motif represents the three fjords and headlands of the municipality.[4]

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Halsa. It is part of the Indre Nordmøre deanery in the Diocese of Møre.

Churches in Halsa
Parish (Sokn)Church NameLocation of the ChurchYear Built
HalsaHalsa ChurchHalsanaustan1734
ValsøyfjordValsøyfjord ChurchValsøyfjord1864

Geography

Halsa has numerous fjords in and around the municipality including the Halsafjorden, Vinjefjorden, Arasvikfjorden, the Skålvik Fjord, and Valsøyfjorden. The Valsøy Bridge crosses the Valsøyfjorden. There are ferry connections to Tingvoll Municipality to the west and to Aure Municipality to the north.

Attractions

Halsa is the location where the famous killer whale, Keiko, went when he was set free. Keiko died in December 2003 and was buried there. The people of Halsa have built a memorial cairn over Keiko's body, where people from all over the world are free to visit him. In the first year after his burial, around 5,000 people visited the grave but then fewer and fewer came and in 2007 only around 500 visitors paid him homage. In June 2008, hardly anyone had come to see the grave, so the municipality decided it would not continue keeping the grave in order.

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 (1908). Norske gaardnavne: Romsdals amt (in Norwegian) (13 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 448.
  4. "Kommunevåpen" (in Norwegian). Halsa Kommune. Retrieved 2008-10-18.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, October 25, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.