Helleland is a
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
and parish in
Eigersund 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 along the river Hedlandsåna and the
European route E39 highway, about northeast of the town of
Egersund
Egersund is a town in Eigersund municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The town is located along the southwestern coast of Norway, about south of the city of Stavanger. The town is situated along a strait which separates the mainland from the ...
. The
Sørlandet Line
The Sørlandet Line ( no, Sørlandsbanen) is a railway line between Drammen (though this is connected to Oslo by means of the Drammen Line) via Kristiansand to Stavanger. The line is long between Oslo and Stavanger.
History
The railway was con ...
runs along the river near Helleland, stopping at
Helleland Station.
Historically, the Helleland clerical district included all the churches in the Helleland parish,
Bjerkreim
Bjerkreim is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vikeså. Other villages in the municipality include Bjerkreim and ...
parish (with a chapel in
Øvrebygd
Øvrebygd is a small village in Bjerkreim municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located about northeast of the municipal centre of Vikeså along the road leading to the neighboring municipality of Gjesdal. Ivesdal Chapel i ...
), and
Heskestad parish. The main church for the district was
Helleland Church. The Helleland parish was created as the municipality of
Helleland under the
formannskapsdistrikt law on 1 January 1838. That municipality existed until 1965. Since then, the parish of Helleland has just included the "rural" northern part of Eigersund municipality.
(''Helleland kirke'') dates from 1832. It was built of wood and has 500 seats. The architect was
Hans Linstow (1787–1851) who also designed the
Royal Palace in Oslo and much of the surrounding park and the street ''
Karl Johans gate''.
At Helleland there are memorials dedicated to the British aircraft which crashed during the
occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...
in connection with the
Operation Freshman
Operation Freshman was the codename given to a British airborne operation conducted in November 1942 during World War II. It was the first British airborne operation conducted using Airspeed Horsa gliders, and its target was the Vemork ''No ...
sabotage attempt, a part of action which was aimed at the
Vemork
Vemork is a hydroelectric power plant outside Rjukan in Tinn, Norway. The plant was built by Norsk Hydro and opened in 1911, its main purpose being to fix nitrogen for the production of fertilizer. At opening, it was the world's largest power pl ...
hydroelectric plant, site of the
heavy water production.
References
Eigersund
Villages in Rogaland
{{Rogaland-geo-stub