Sauland is the

administrative centre An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

Hjartdal Municipality Hjartdal is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Upper Telemark and Aust-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sauland. Other villages in the municipality ...

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The village is located at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the Hjartdøla and Skogsåa rivers, which together form the river Heddøla. The

European route E134 European route E134 () is a International E-road network, European highway that crosses Norway starting at Haugesund Airport, Karmøy near the city of Haugesund on the west coast, heading over Haukeli, passing the city of Drammen, and ending in V ...

highway runs through the village. The village of Hjartdalsbygda lies about to the west, the village of

Tuddal Tuddal is a village in Hjartdal Municipality in Telemark county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island o ...

lies about to the north, the village of Gransherad lies about to the northeast, the village of Heddal lies about to the east, and the town of Notodden lies about to the east. The population was above 800 people in 2016, which equates over half of all households in the whole municipality. The village is placed in the south/east corner of the municipality and is one of the three

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

parishes in Hjartdal. The village has grocery store, gas station, crafts, auction and second-hand shop, bakery, doctor, day care, retirement, banking, guesthouses, municipal offices, social security offices, car and truck repair shop, wood and farm shop and a shooting range.

History

Prior to the founding of the town of

Notodden (town) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Notodden Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is also the administrative centre of the municipality. The town is located at the north end of the lake Heddalsvatnet, at the mouth of the rive ...

, Sauland was the commercial centre for Aust-Telemark, and at that time it also had the office for the district

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

. The Sauland Church has been located in the village for centuries. In 1860 the old

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts ...

was torn down and a new wooden church was built in its place.

Name

The village (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

) is named after the old ''Sauland'' farm () since the first Sauland Church was built there. The first element comes from the verb which means "to singe" or "to burn", likely referring to land that was cleared by burning. The last element is the plural form of which means "land(scape)" or "district". Between the 17th and 20th century, the parish name had a variety of spellings such as Sourland, Souland and Saudland.

Resources

Telemark's second largest

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of Habitat (ecology), habitat found in upland (geology), upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and the biomes of montane grasslands and shrublands, characterised by low-growing vegetation on So ...

is located just east of Sauland. It is a place called Ålamoen, where

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

periodically is removed. Ålamoen's exploitable volume is and alternator contains with masses. It is also among the largest in the country, which makes Hjartdal the second largest gravel-producing municipality in the county. The government is planning to establish a

hydroelectric power station Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also mo ...

() that will be located in the mountain northwest of Sauland. Sauland is also known for the discovery of mineral thulite, which is a

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

-rich red/pink variant of the mineral

zoisite Zoisite, first known as saualpite, after its type locality, is a calcium aluminum hydroxy sorosilicate belonging to the epidote group of minerals. Its chemical formula is Ca2 Al3( Si O4)(Si2O7)O(O H). Zoisite occurs as prismatic, orthorho ...

. It was first found type located between the

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

s Kleppen and Øvstebø, north of Sauland, where it was discovered about 200 years ago by the Swede Anders Ekeberg.

Notable people

* (1849-1920), a politician and entrepreneur * (b. 1937), a professor * Anne Hytta (b. 1974), a folk musician * (b. 1975), an author * Sigrid Louise Gundersen (b. 1982), a television host * (b. 1990), a singer

References

External links

Sauland Bygdelag

Hjartdal Historielag
{{use dmy dates, date=August 2023 Hjartdal Villages in Telemark