Nore og Uvdal

Nore og Uvdal kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Buskerud within Norway
Nore og Uvdal within Buskerud
Coordinates: 60°18′26″N 8°48′20″E / 60.30722°N 8.80556°E / 60.30722; 8.80556Coordinates: 60°18′26″N 8°48′20″E / 60.30722°N 8.80556°E / 60.30722; 8.80556
Country	Norway
County	Buskerud
District	Numedal
Administrative centre	Rødberg
Government
– Mayor (2003)	Eli Hovd Prestegården (Sp)
Area
– Total	2,501 km2 (965.6 sq mi)
– Land	2,274 km2 (878 sq mi)
Area rank	19 in Norway
Population (2004)
– Total	2,695
– Rank	289 in Norway
– Density	1/km2 (2.6/sq mi)
– Change (10 years)	-6.9 %
Demonym	Uvdøl[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
– Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0633
Official language form	Neutral
Website	www.nore-og-uvdal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Nore og Uvdal is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rødberg.

The area of Nore was separated from the municipality of Rollag in 1858. The municipality of Nore was divided into two municipalities on 1 January 1901: Nore and Uvdal. These two municipalities were merged back together on 1 January 1962, and the new municipality was called Nore og Uvdal.

General information

Name

The municipalities of Nore and Uvdal were joined together in 1962 into Nore og Uvdal.

The Old Norse form of Nore was Nórar. The name is the plural form of nór which means "narrow sound or strait". The name originally belonged to the vicarage (and church site) at Norefjorden.

The Old Norse form of Uvdal was Uppdalr. The first element is upp meaning "upper" or "high" and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The name originally belonged to the vicarage and old church site. Prior to 1933, the name was spelled "Opdal".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 26 March 1982. The arms are divided diagonally with the colors green on yellow above the line and yellow on green below. The economy of the municipality is based on agriculture and forestry. Hence the upper half of the arms shows a barn for the storage of grains and the lower half a watermill wheel which was used to saw trees.^[2]

Geography

Hardangervidda

The municipal centre is the village of Rødberg. Nore and Uvdal are the two other villages in the municipality.

Nore og Uvdal is bordered in the north by the municipalities of Hol, Ål, and Nes; in the east by Flå and Sigdal; in the south by Rollag, Tinn, and Vinje (the latter two in Telemark county); and in the west by Eidfjord (in Hordaland county).

The municipality is located at the top of the valley and traditional district of Numedal, with a widely spread area of 2,505 square kilometres (967 sq mi). The municipality’s highest point is the Borgsjåbrot mountain at 1,485 metres (4,872 ft). It is located on the border with Tinn municipality in Telemark county. A large part of the Hardangervidda lies within the municipality's borders.

Lakes in the municipality include Geitsjøen and Hettefjorden.

Attractions

• Langedrag Fjellgård (Langedrag Mountain Farm) - a resort in the mountain focusing on ecology and animals
• Uvdal Skisenter - an alpine resort located in Uvdal
• Uvdal Alpinpark - another alpine resort located in Uvdal, on the other side of the valley
• Nore stave church (built around 1166 - 1200)
• Uvdal Stave Church, a stave church originally constructed just after the year 1168^[3]

Sister cities

The following cities are twinned with Nore og Uvdal:

• Juupajoki, Western Finland, Finland^[4]
• Surahammar, Västmanland County, Sweden^[5]
• Wahlstedt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany^[6]

References

1. ^ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. http://www.sprakrad.no/nb-no/Sprakhjelp/Rettskrivning_Ordboeker/Innbyggjarnamn/. 
2. ^ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/n/noreuvda.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-10. 
3. ^ "Official dating". Riksantikvaren (Directorate of Cultural Heritage in Norway). http://www.riksantikvaren.no/Norsk/Fagemner/Bygninger/Kirker/Stavkirker/?module=Files;action=File.getFile;ID=4036.  (Norwegian)
4. ^ "Linkkejä". Juupajoki. http://www.juupajoki.fi/linkit.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-10.  (Finnish)
5. ^ "Vänorter". Surahammar kommun. http://www.surahammar.se/omkommunen/vanorter.4.6d9288f9115c674c6c080003728.html. Retrieved 2009-01-10.  (Swedish)
6. ^ "Linkliste". Stadt Wahlstedt. http://www.wahlstedt.de/linkliste.html. Retrieved 2009-01-10.  (German)

External links

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
• Buskerud travel guide from Wikitravel
• Nore og Uvdal kommune (Norwegian)
• Map of Nore og Uvdal showing points of culture from Kulturnett.no (Norwegian)
• EKT Langedrag Naturpark (Norwegian)
• Uvdal - official visitor information (Norwegian)