Stjørdal

Stjørdal kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Nord-Trøndelag within Norway
Stjørdal within Nord-Trøndelag
Coordinates: 63°28′30″N 11°10′15″E / 63.475°N 11.17083°E / 63.475; 11.17083Coordinates: 63°28′30″N 11°10′15″E / 63.475°N 11.17083°E / 63.475; 11.17083
Country	Norway
County	Nord-Trøndelag
District	Stjørdalen
Administrative centre	Stjørdalshalsen
Government
– Mayor (1999)	Johan Arnt Elverum (Sp)
Area
– Total	938.05 km2 (362.2 sq mi)
– Land	913.26 km2 (352.6 sq mi)
– Water	24.79 km2 (9.6 sq mi)
Area rank	117 in Norway
Population (2011)
– Total	21,659
– Rank	48 in Norway
– Density	23.7/km2 (61.4/sq mi)
– Change (10 years)	17.3 %
Demonym	Stjørdaling[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
– Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1714
Official language form	Neutral
Website	stjordal.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

 Stjørdal (help·info) is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen. Other villages in the municipality include Elvran, Flornes, Hegra, Hell, Kvithammer, Prestmoen, Skatval, Skjelstadmarka, Sona, and Værnes.

The municipality is known for the village of Hell which is located in the Lånke area of Stjørdal. Hell is especially known for its train station, Hell Station, where you find the old sign saying Gods expedition (meaning "Cargo handling").

General information

Pedestrian street in Stjørdal town

Stjørdalen was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1850, Stjørdalen was divided into Øvre Stjørdal and Nedre Stjørdal. Later, Øvre Stjørdal was divided into Hegra and Meråker on 1 January 1874 and Nedre Stjørdal was divided into Lånke, Skatval, and (a smaller) Stjørdal on 1 January 1902. All of these municipalities (except for Meråker) were merged together on 1 January 1962 to form a new, larger Stjørdal municipality.^[2]

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Stjórardalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Stjór (now called Stjørdalselva) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The meaning of the river name is unknown.^[3]

The pronunciation of the name Stjørdal in the local dialect is [ʃøɽdaɽːɲ] ( listen).

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times, but is inspired by an old seal for the district from 1344. The arms were granted on 25 November 1983. The arms show a gold dragon on a red background. The dragon is derived from the old medieval seal which showed Saint Margareth standing on a slain dragon.^[4]

See also: Coat-of-arms of Skiptvet.

Churches

Værnes Church

The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Stjørdal. It is part of the Stjørdal deanery and the Diocese of Nidaros.

Churches in Stjørdal

Parish (Sokn)	Church Name	Location of the Church	Year Built
Hegra	Hegra Church	Hegra	1783
	Flora Chapel	Flornes	1936
	Okkelberg Chapel	Skjelstadmarka	1905
Lånke	Lånke Church	Lånke	1899
	Elvran Chapel	Elvran	1893
Skatval	Skatval Church	Skatval	1901
Stjørdal	Værnes Church	Prestmoen	1100

History

Historical populations
Year	Pop.	±%
1951	5,105	—
1960	6,128	+20.0%
1970	13,545	+121.0%
1980	16,107	+18.9%
1990	17,276	+7.3%
2000	18,238	+5.6%
2010	21,375	+17.2%
2011	21,659	+1.3%
Source: Statistics Norway.

Steinvikholm Castle in Stjørdal where the last archbishop of Norway resided

8 May 1945 following years of German occupation

Stjørdal is the location of Steinvikholm Castle, the residence of Norway's last Catholic archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson. It is located on the Skatval peninsula.

Hegra Fortress is located in the central part of the municipality. It was used as a defense against the Swedish military. It was also used during World War II in the Battle of Hegra Fortress.

Geography

Stjørdal consists of the old municipalities of Skatval, Hegra, Lånke, and Stjørdal. The Stjørdalselva river runs through the Stjørdalen valley, with the Skatval peninsula on the northern side. The Forbordsfjellet mountain sits in the northern part of the municipality. The Skarvan and Roltdalen National Park lies in the eastern part of the municipality, as is a tiny part of the lake Feren.

The village of Stjørdal declared township in 1997. Stjørdal is the fastest growing municipality in Nord-Trøndelag due to its proximity to the city of Trondheim and also to Statoil's presence (it controls a large part of the petroleum activity in the Norwegian Sea from Stjørdal).

Trondheim is only about 35 kilometres (22 mi) from Stjørdal either by road (European route E6) or train (Trønderbanen). Stjørdal is in the process of "growing together" with Trondheim, a show of regional urbanization. The distance to Steinkjer is about 85 kilometres (53 mi), and the towns of Levanger and Verdal are both about 40 to 45 kilometres (25 to 28 mi) to the north. All four of these towns are located on the eastern shore of the Trondheimsfjorden.

Birdlife

The Stjørdal area has a rich bird life with well over 260 recorded species and several good birding localities. Though Stjørdal can not boast of a long coastline (it's only 25 kilometres / 16 miles long) some of best birding areas are to be found along Stjørdalfjorden. Halsøen is virtually situated near the centre of Stjørdal, and can be easily viewed from a number of advantage points from route E6 in the east or Langøra in the west. Formed by the old river outlet, this tidal area is well worth checking. Due to the shallow waters and extensive areas of mud at low tide, Halsøen is used both as a wintering area and a migration stopover point by many species.

Transportation

Stjørdal is a regional transportation centre that is near the regional airport, Trondheim Airport, Værnes, as well as port facilities, European route E6, European route E14, and the Nordlandsbanen railway line going through the municipality from Trondheim to Bodø with stops at Hell Station, Trondheim Airport Station, Stjørdal Station, and Skatval Station. In addition, the Meråkerbanen railway line goes from Hell east to Åre Municipality in Sweden. Stations on that railway line include Hell Station, Hegra Station, Sona Station, and Flornes Station.

References

1. ^ "Personnemningar til stadnamn i Noreg" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet. http://www.sprakrad.no/nb-no/Sprakhjelp/Rettskrivning_Ordboeker/Innbyggjarnamn/. 
2. ^ Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf. 
3. ^ Rygh, Oluf (1903) (in Norwegian) (dokpro.uio.no). Norske gaardnavne: Nordre Trondhjems amt (15 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. pp. 30. http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_bla.prl?enhid=239079&avid=53117. 
4. ^ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/s/stjordal.htm. Retrieved 17 November 2008. 

External links

• Nord-Trøndelag travel guide from Wikitravel
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
• Angling in the Stjørdalselva (river)