Vigrestad is a village in

Hå Hå is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the southernmost municipality in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Varhaug. Other villages in Hå include Brusand, Hæen, ...

municipality in Rogaland 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 the ...

. The village is located about northeast of the southwestern coast of Norway, facing the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. The village sits about southeast of the village of

Varhaug Varhaug is the administrative centre of Hå municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located in the district of Jæren and it is the second largest village in Hå municipality after Nærbø. It was also the administrative centr ...

and about northwest of the villages of

Hæen Hæen or Stokkalandsmarka is a village in Hå municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located between the villages of Vigrestad and Brusand. The Sørlandet Line runs along the south side of the village. The village is known as ...

and Brusand.

Vigrestad Station Vigrestad Station ( no, Vigrestad stasjon) is a railway station located at Vigrestad in Hå, Norway on Sørland Line. The station is served by the Jæren Commuter Rail between Stavanger and Egersund Egersund is a town in Eigersund municipality in ...

is located on the

Sørland Line Sørland is a Seaside resort, fishing village and the administrative centre of Værøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the southern side of the island of Værøya. The village is the main population center of the isl ...

, which runs through the village. The station is unmanned and only local trains stop there, not express or regional ones. The village has a population (2019) of 2,090 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), 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 ...

of .

Name

The name probably has its origin from the word ''vig'' meaning "battle" or "war", and ''stad'' meaning "place". There is therefore reason to believe that it was the site of a battle. The name could alternatively originate from 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 ...

word "vigr" which means "spear". North of the village there are several barrows from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. Vigrestad has been spelled in various ways over the centuries: Wirestad, Virestadt, Wiresteid in 1567, Vigrist in 1606, Wigresta in 1610, Vigrestad in 1616, and Wigrestad in 1723.

Economy

The main source of income in Vigrestad is

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

; mainly dairy, beef, pork, sheep, and potatoes. There are also companies that specialise in high-class timber furniture (for the Royal family, among others), and laser-cutting. A variety of industries and companies can also be found, many of them at Stokkalandsmarka, just southeast of Vigrestad.

Notable residents

Elin Hetland Mong Elin or Elín is a variation of Ellen and Helene used in Scandinavian and Celtic languages. Prominent people *Elin Andersdotter (d. 1569), Swedish lady-in-waiting and political conspirator * Elin Brandell (1882–1963), Swedish journalist * El� ...

, a local politician for the party

Høyre The Conservative Party or The Right ( nb, Høyre, nn, Høgre, , H; se, Olgešbellodat) is a liberal-conservative political party in Norway. It is the major party of the Norwegian centre-right, and was the leading party in government as part of ...

and was leader of the union Norsk Ergoterapeutforbund *

Monica Sandve Monica Sandve (born 3 December 1973 in Vigrestad) is a Norwegian team handball player and Olympic medalist. She received a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney with the Norwegian national team.

, a handball player, National team, and Nordstrand (in the top league) * Enevald Flåten, a pastor in Levende Ord Bibelsenter

References

Villages in Rogaland Hå {{Rogaland-geo-stub