Orkdal is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Orkland Municipality. It was part of the

Orkdalen Orkdalen or Orkladalen ( en, Orkla Valley) is a valley and a traditional Norwegian district in Trøndelag county, Norway. In the early Viking Age, before King Harald Fairhair, the Orkla Valley was also a petty kingdom. The valley begins in the h ...

region. 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, Lu ...

of the municipality was the city of Orkanger. Some of the notable villages in the municipality included

Kjøra Kjøra is a village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the Trondheimsfjord in the Geitastrand area of the municipality. The village is located about southeast of the village of Selbekken in A ...

Geitastrand Geitastrand is a former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1905 until 1963 in what is now part of the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county. It encompassed the coastal area along the Tr ...

, Gjølme,

Thamshavn Thamshavn or Thamshamn is a small port village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is the site of the port for the town of Orkanger and the ferrosilicon plant Elkem Thamshavn. It is located right along European route ...

Fannrem Fannrem is a village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the Orkla River about south of the urban area of Orkanger, Thamshavn, and Råbygda, and about north of the village of Vormstad. Due ...

Vormstad Vormstad is a village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the Orkla River between the villages of Svorkmo and Fannrem. The village of Hoston lies about west of Vormstad. The village of Vorms ...

, Svorkmo, and Hoston. Agriculture plays a significant role in the municipality. The

Thamshavnbanen , logo = , logo_width = , logo_alt = , image_name = Bårdshaug stasjon.jpeg , image_width = , image_alt = , caption = Passenger train at Bårdshaug Station in 191 ...

was used to transport ore from Løkken Verk to the port of

, and is now a vintage railway. The

Fannrem concentration camp Fannrem concentration camp ( no, Fannrem fangeleir) was a concentration camp that was located in the municipality of Orkdal in the old Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The current municipality is Orkland and the county is Trøndelag. It was establ ...

was located in

during World War II. Orkanger is one of the main industrial hubs in central Norway. The industry is mainly located around Grønøra Industrial park. The largest companies are Technip Offshore Norge AS,

Reinertsen Reinertsen is a civil engineering, construction, and petroleum industry supply company based in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1946 and remains family-owned. Its CEO is Erik Reinertsen and chairman is Torkil R. Reinertsen. In 2011, ...

, Washington Mills and Elkem Thamshavn AS. Orkanger

At the time of its dissolution in 2020, the municipality was the 188th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Orkdal was the 97th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 11,933. The municipality's population density was and its population had increased by 8.3% over the last decade.

General information

The

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway (''Den Norske Kirke'') roughly equivalent to a parish. This traditional designation was in use for centuries to divide the kingdom into ecclesiastical areas tha ...

of Orkdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January ...

law). On 1 July 1920, the port of Orkanger (population: 1,715) and the southern district of Orkland (population: 1,760) were separated from Orkdal to form separate municipalities. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, the municipalities of Orkanger, Orkland, and

were merged with Orkdal to form a new, larger municipality of Orkdal. On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...

county to the new Trøndelag county. On 1 January 2020, the municipalities of

Agdenes Agdenes is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1896 until its dissolution in 2020 when it became part of Orkland Municipality. It was part of the Fosen region. The administrative centre was the vil ...

, Orkdal, and Meldal along with the majority of Snillfjord merged to form the new municipality of Orkland.

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was ''Orkardalr''. The first element is the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

of the name of the river ''Ork'' (now

Orklaelva Orkla is a river in Trøndelag and Innlandet counties in Norway. At in length, it is the longest river in Trøndelag county. The river follows the Orkdalen valley, discharging into the Orkdal Fjord, an arm of the large Trondheimsfjorden, at the ...

) and the last element is ''dalr'' which means " valley" or "dale". Historically, the name was spelled ''Orkedalen''.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 25 April 1986. They show a silver line on a green background, representing the

which runs through fertile

valley throughout the municipality. It is also a canting because the name of the municipality is derived from the name of the river.

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 b ...

had four parishes () within the municipality of Orkdal. It is part of the

Orkdal prosti This list of churches in Nidaros is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Nidaros which covers all of Trøndelag county in Norway. The list is divided into several sections, one for each deanery in the diocese. Administrati ...

(

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 residenc ...

) in the

Diocese of Nidaros Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herborg ...

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Orkdal, are responsible for

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wiktionary:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physical and menta ...

, senior citizen services, unemployment and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor. The municipality falls under the Trøndelag District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council () of Orkdal is made up of 35 representatives that are elected to four-year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Geography

A large part of the population was concentrated in the Orkanger/

area, which is situated at the head of the Orkdalsfjord, a branch of the large Trondheimsfjord. The Orkla River, one of the better salmon rivers in Norway, meets the sea at Orkanger. The lakes

Hostovatnet Hostovatnet is a lake in Trøndelag county, Norway. The lake lies in Orkland Municipality. The village of Hoston, Trøndelag, Hoston is located on the northeastern shore of the lake. The water leaves the lake primarily through the river Vorma w ...

, Gangåsvatnet,

Våvatnet Våvatnet is a lake in Orkland Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The lake was dammed in 1910 and is used as the main reservoir for the municipality of Orkdal. The water flows into the lake Songsjøen and then into the lake Gagnåsvatn ...

and

Svorksjøen Svorksjøen is a lake in Trøndelag county, Norway. The lake lies on the border of the municipalities of Melhus and Orkland. The lake lies about east of the village of Svorkmo and about southwest of the village of Korsvegen. The water flows ou ...

were located around the municipality. The municipalities of

, Snillfjord and

Hemne Hemne is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was incorporated into Heim Municipality. It was part of the Fosen region. The administrative centre of the mun ...

were located to the northwest,

Rindal Rindal is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre is the village of Rindal. Other villages in the municipality include Tiset and Romundstad. The municipality centres on agricult ...

and Meldal to the south, and Melhus and Skaun to the east, and Trondheim and Indre Fosen were to the northeast across the Trondheimsfjord.

Notable residents

Johan Bojer Johan Bojer (6 March 1872 – 3 July 1959) was a popular Norwegian novelist and dramatist. He principally wrote about the lives of the poor farmers and fishermen, both in his native Norway and among the Norwegian immigrants in the United States. H ...

, author * Nils Arne Eggen, the former coach of

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles, a shared record 12 Norwegian Football Cup ti ...

Roar Ljøkelsøy Roar Ljøkelsøy (born 31 May 1976) is a Norwegian former ski jumper who competed from 1993 to 2010, and twice finished runner up in the World Cup. Career He won his first individual World Cup event on 25 January 2003 and was a very consistent ...

, ski jumper *

Gunnhild Sundli Gunnhild Eide Sundli (born 2 July 1985) is a Norwegian musical artist. She was born and raised in Orkdal, Norway and now resides in Trondheim. Career Sundli started to " kvede" (a traditional Norwegian singing tradition) as a nine-year-old, and ...

, singer of the Norwegian folk music band

Gåte Gåte ( en, riddle) is a band from Trøndelag, Norway playing Norwegian folk music bred with metal and electronica. Their style has been referred to as progressive folk-rock. The band was put together by Sveinung Sundli (violin, keyboards) in ...

* Sveinung Sundli,

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

and

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

player of Gåte

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Orkdal is twinned with: * Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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 yea ...

{{authority control Orkland Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 2020 disestablishments in Norway Populated places disestablished in 2020