Nærøy

Nærøy kommune
—  Municipality  —
View of the Opløfjord in Nærøy
Coat of arms Nord-Trøndelag within Norway
Nærøy within Nord-Trøndelag
Coordinates: 64°56′1″N 11°46′47″E / 64.93361°N 11.77972°E / 64.93361; 11.77972Coordinates: 64°56′1″N 11°46′47″E / 64.93361°N 11.77972°E / 64.93361; 11.77972
Country	Norway
County	Nord-Trøndelag
District	Namdalen
Administrative centre	Kolvereid
Government
– Mayor (1999)	Steinar Aspli (Sp)
Area
– Total	1,066.73 km2 (411.9 sq mi)
– Land	1,011.80 km2 (390.7 sq mi)
– Water	54.93 km2 (21.2 sq mi)
Area rank	95 in Norway
Population (2011)
– Total	4,999
– Rank	186 in Norway
– Density	4.9/km2 (12.7/sq mi)
– Change (10 years)	-6.6 %
Demonym	Nærøyværing[1]
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
– Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1751
Official language form	Bokmål
Website	naroy.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Nærøy is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. Nærøy is part of the Namdalen region. Norway's smallest town, Kolvereid, is the administration centre of the municipality. Some villages in Nærøy include Abelvær, Foldereid, Gravvik, Lund, Ottersøy, Salsbruket, Steine, and Torstad.

General information

Nærøy was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 July 1869, the western district was separated from Nærøy to become the new municipality of Vikten. This left Nærøy with 1,477 residents. On 1 January 1902, an unpopulated area of Kolvereid was transferred to Nærøy. On 1 January 1964, the municipalities of Gravvik, Kolvereid, and most of Foldereid were merged together with Nærøy to form a new, larger municipality of Nærøy. Prior to the merger, Nærøy had 2,182 residents and after the merger there were 6,241 residents.^[2]

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Njarðøy. The first element is maybe the stem form of the name of the Norse god Njord (but it is suspicious that it is not in the genitive case). The last element is øy which means "island". Historically, the name has had varying spellings such as Nærø or Nærøen.^[3][4]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted on 22 May 1987. The arms are based on the seal of King Håkon Magnusson from 1344, on a document in which the King granted several rights to the local farmers. The seal shows the St. Mary in a portal decorated with fleur-de-lis, the symbol of the St. Mary. The arms show a combination of three fleur-de-lis on a gold background. The fleur-de-lis design is red, since the local water lilies generally have a red color.^[5]

Churches

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

Churches in Nærøy

Parish (Sokn)	Church Name	Location of the Church	Year Built
Foldereid	Foldereid Church	Foldereid	1863
Gravvik	Gravvik Church	Gravvik	1875
Kolvereid	Kolvereid Church	Kolvereid	1874
	Lund Chapel	Lund	1965
	Salsbruket Chapel	Salsbruket	1950
Nærøy	Lundring Church	Nærøy	1885
	Steine Chapel	Steine	1911
	Torstad Chapel	Torstad	1936

Geography

The municipality is located in the northwestern part of Nord-Trøndelag county, along the Foldafjord. It includes the islands of Austra and Gjerdinga and the Kvingra peninsula. Several large lakes are located in the municipality including Mjosundvatnet, Salsvatn, and Storvatnet.

Transportation

Norwegian County Road 17 crosses the northeastern part of the municipality. There is a large network of bridges in the municipality that connect islands and cross fjords. Most notably is the Marøysund Bridge and Nærøysund Bridge which connect Nærøy to Vikna to the west. Also Hestøy Bridge and Smines Bridge connect the village of Lund to Fosnes municipality to the south.

Media gallery

• 

  Skrøyvstad waterfall in Nærøy

• 

  View of Mjøsund

• 

  Torfjellet; pine clad hills and narrow bays and fjords are typical here

• 

  Panorama of the Langnes area in Salsbruket

• 

  View of the Nærøysund Bridge

See also

• Hundhammerfjellet wind farm

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. ^ Store norske leksikon. "Nærøy – Nord-Trøndelag" (in Norwegian). http://snl.no/N%C3%A6r%C3%B8y/Nord-Tr%C3%B8ndelag. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
4. ^ Rygh, Oluf (1903) (in Norwegian) (dokpro.uio.no). Norske gaardnavne: Nordre Trondhjems amt (15 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 354. http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_bla.prl?enhid=251492&avid=55777. 
5. ^ Norske Kommunevåpen (1990). "Nye kommunevåbener i Norden". http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/n/naeroy.htm. Retrieved 13 November 2008. 

External links

• Nord-Trøndelag travel guide from Wikitravel
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway