Vestre Slidre

Vestre Slidre is a municipality in the county of Oppland, Norway.

The old municipality of Slidre was divided into Vestre Slidre and Øystre Slidre in 1849.

Infobox_Kommune
name=Vestre Slidre
idnumber=0543
county=Oppland
landscape=Valdres
capital=Slidre
governor=Eivind Brenna (Bygdeliste)
governor_as_of=2003
arearank=217
area=463
arealand=421
areapercent=0.14
population_as_of=2004
populationrank=317
population=2,304
populationpercent=0.05
populationdensity=5
populationincrease=-9.7
language=Nynorsk
lat_deg=61| lat_min=3| lat_sec=38| lon_deg=8| lon_min=55| lon_sec=2
utm_zone=32V| utm_northing=6769537 |utm_easting=0495542| geo_cat=adm2nd




munwebpage=www.vestre-slidre.kommune.no

The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Slidre (Norse "Slíðrar"), since the first church was built here. The name is probably derived from "slíðr" f 'sheath'. (And in that case probably referring to a long depression near the church.)

The meaning of the name "Vestre Slidre" is '(the) western (part of) Slidre'. (The parish and municipality of Slidre was divided in 1849.)

See also > Øystre Slidre

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms was made official in 1987 - but originally it belonged to a Middle Age nobleman from the district.

Location

Vestre Slidre is bordered to the northwest by Vang, to the northeast by Øystre Slidre, to the east by Nord-Aurdal and to the southwest by Hemsedal.

Vestre Slidre is part of the Valdres region in central, southern Norway. It is situated between Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal.

History

High above Slidre there is an ancient burial ground called the Garberg site. Above this site there is a runestone which reads "I Godguest wrote the runes". This stone is known as the Einang stone.

Vestre Sildre figures prominently in the Sagas:
*Harald Fairhair was, according to the Sagas, the first king (872 – 930) of Norway. In 866 he made the first of a series of conquests over a number of petty kingdoms. One of the encounters leading to the overall conquest was with Skallagrim Kveldulvssøn in Vestre Slidre. In 872, after winning the battle of Hafrsfjord near Stavanger, he found himself king of the whole country.
* In the Heimskringla attributed to Snorri Sturluson, it is recorded that in 1023 Saint Olav came unannounced from Sogn as part of his campaign to Christianize Norway. At Slidre he caught the peasants unawares, and secured all their boats. As a condition for having their boats restored, they accepted Christianity.

Slidredomen, a medieval stone-built church, was once the main church for Valdres. The church is built around 1170. Its treasures formerly included a chalice presented by Bishop Salomon of Oslo (1322-1352), the only Bishop in Norway to survive the Black Death. Slidredomen is also known to have had a local bishop.

Lomen stave church is located in the small village of Lomen. It was built circa 1170. The exterior of the present Lomen church is post-Reformation, and only the wall and roof timbers remain from the original building.

A church of the same period, the Høre stave church (the Dano-Norwegian spelling of the word Høre was Hurum), was almost entirely rebuilt and extended. Only the south door, with dragons and other carvings, still exists.

Famous residents

*Knut Hauge (1911–1999), author

References

"East Norway and its Frontier" by Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 1956