Jondal is a former municipality in the old

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipal ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...

. The municipality existed from 1863 until its dissolution in 2020 when it became part of Ullensvang Municipality in

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

county. It was located on the

Folgefonna Folgefonna is a collective term for three plateau glaciers in the Hardanger region of Vestland county, Norway. They are located on the Folgefonna peninsula in the municipalities of Ullensvang, Kvinnherad, and Etne. The three glaciers are: * No ...

peninsula in the Hardanger district, on the eastern shore of the

Hardangerfjorden The Hardangerfjord ( en, Hardanger Fjord) is the fifth longest fjord in the world, and the second longest fjord in Norway. It is located in Vestland county in the Hardanger region. The fjord stretches from the Atlantic Ocean into the mountain ...

. The

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

of the municipality was the village of Jondal. Other villages in Jondal include Herand, Kysnesstranda, and Torsnes. Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the municipality is the 305th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Jondal is the 386th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,108. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberP ...

is and its population has increased by 4.9% over the last decade. In 2016, the chief of police for

Vestlandet Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative ...

formally suggested a reconfiguration of police districts and stations. He proposed that the police station in Jondal be closed.

General information

The municipality of Jondal was established on 1 January 1863 when it was separated from the large municipality of Strandebarm. Initially, Jondal had a population of 1,663. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee ( no, Schei-komitéen) was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII ...

. On 1 January 1965, there were two changes that effected Jondal municipality: the part of Jondal located on the northwestern side of the

(population: 515) was transferred to Kvam Municipality and the Kysnesstranda area of Strandebarm municipality (population: 100) was transferred to Jondal. Then on 1 January 2013, the southwestern part of the Folgefonna peninsula (south of Kysnesstranda) was transferred to Jondal from the neighboring Kvinnherad Municipality. This added forty new residents and of land area to the municipality. On 1 January 2020, the three neighboring municipalities of Jondal, Odda, and Ullensvang were merged. The new municipality was named ''Ullensvang'' and its

is the town of Odda.

Name

The municipality is named after the Jondalen valley in which the village of Jondal sits. The

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

form of the name was ''Jónardalr''. The first element is an old rivername ''Jón'' (now called Jondalselvi) and the last element is ''dalr'' which means "valley" or "dale". The meaning of the rivername is unknown.

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

was granted on 27 November 1987. The arms are red with three gold-colored boat hooks. This design was chosen to symbolise the importance of sailing and shipping along the Hardangerfjord. Historically, Jondal has been known for its shipyards and sailing college.

Churches

The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church ...

has one parish () within the municipality of Jondal. It is part of the Hardanger og Voss prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence ...

) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Geography

Jondal was located on the southeast side of the

on the Folgefonna peninsula. It is bounded by the large

glacier to the southeast (inside Folgefonna National Park). The lake Juklavatnet is located on the municipal border with Kvinnherad. The long tunnel runs under the glacier from Jondal to Mauranger in Kvinnherad.

Government

Municipal council

The

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural council ...

of Jondal was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Notable residents

* Herborg Kråkevik, a singer and actress * Bjørg Hope Galtung, the mayor of Jondal from 1979 to 1993 (only leaving to sit in the national Parliament)

References

External links

Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every ye ...

{{Authority control Ullensvang Former municipalities of Norway 1863 establishments in Norway 2020 disestablishments in Norway