Holtålen

Holtålen kommune
Municipality

Map of Holtålen

Coat of arms

Sør-Trøndelag within
Norway

Holtålen within Sør-Trøndelag
Coordinates: 62°52′7″N 11°16′38″E / 62.86861°N 11.27722°E / 62.86861; 11.27722Coordinates: 62°52′7″N 11°16′38″E / 62.86861°N 11.27722°E / 62.86861; 11.27722
Country Norway
County Sør-Trøndelag
District Gauldal
Administrative centre Ålen
Government
  Mayor (1991) Ivar P. Volden (Ap)
Area
  Total 1,209.5 km2 (467.0 sq mi)
  Land 1,172.0 km2 (452.5 sq mi)
  Water 37.5 km2 (14.5 sq mi)
Area rank 83 in Norway
Population (2010)
  Total 2,064
  Rank 330 in Norway
  Density 1.8/km2 (5/sq mi)
  Change (10 years) -7.8 %
Demonym(s) Holtåling[1]
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1644
Official language form Neutral
Website www.holtalen.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Holtålen is a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ålen. Other villages include Hessdalen, Aunegrenda, Haltdalen, and Renbygda.

General information

The municipality of Holtaalen was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). In 1841, the western part of the municipality was separated to become the municipality of Singsås. This left Holtaalen with 1,885 residents. Then in 1855, the southeastern part of Holtaalen was separated to become the municipality of Ålen, leaving Holtaalen with 809 residents. The spelling of the name was changed to Holtålen in 1921. In 1937, the name was changed from Holtålen to Haltdalen. On 1 January 1972, the municipality of Haltdalen was merged with Ålen to form the new municipality of Holtålen. Prior to the merger, Haltdalen had 778 residents. On 21 April 1989, a small unpopulated part of Røros was transferred to Holtålen.[2]

Name

The Old Norse forms of the name was Holtdalr and (later) Holtáll. The first element is the old name of the Holda river. The last element was (first) dalr which means "valley" or "dale", but this was later (around 1400 AD) replaced by the word áll which means "ditch" or "gully". The form -ålen is the modern finite form of this word. The name of the municipality was spelled Holtaalen before 1938, Haltdalen from 1938 until 1972, and then Holtålen since 1972.[3]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted in 1988. The arms show a grouse (Lagopus lagopus) in silver on a red background. It was chosen to reflect the importance of hunting in the municipality.

See also: Coats-of-arms of Lierne and Sirdal

Churches

The Church of Norway has three parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Holtålen. It is part of the Deanery (prosti) of Gauldal and the Diocese of Nidaros.

Churches in Holtålen
Parish
(Sokn)
Church NameYear BuiltLocation
of the Church
HaltdalenHaltdalen kirke1881Haltdalen
Haltdalen stavkirke1170Trondheim**
Aunegrenda kapell1952Aunegrenda
HessdalenHessdalen kirke1940Hessdalen
ÅlenÅlen kirke1881Ålen/Renbygda
**This church was moved to a museum in Trondheim, but was originally in Haltdalen.

Geography

The Gauldalen valley with the Gaula River originates from the mountainous area around the mining town of Røros, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Ålen, and is listed as a World Heritage Site. At the villages of Ålen and Renbygda the deep Gaula valley disappears into the mountains, not far from the lake Riasten.

The western part of Holtålen is where the Forollhogna National Park is located with the mountain Forollhogna on the border with Midtre Gauldal. The lake Øyungen lies just outside the park.

The Kjøli and Killingdal copper mines are located in the southeastern part of Holtålen. The last mine in production was Killingdal until it closed down in 1986.

Hessdalen is a mountain valley joining the Gauldal valley close to the village of Ålen. Around 1983, Hessdalen became famous for UFO observations and the Hessdalen lights. Because of this the Hessdalen AMS station was founded in the valley.

The Rørosbanen railway line runs through the municipality with the Ålen Station and Haltdalen Station as stops along the way.

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 (1901). Norske gaardnavne: Søndre Trondhjems amt (in Norwegian) (14 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 220.
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