Ålen is a former municipality in the old

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag (; ) was a Counties of Norway, 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. ...

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 former municipality existed from 1855 until 1972. It encompassed the southeastern half of what is now

Holtålen Municipality Holtålen is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is located in the Ålen area o ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

county. 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 ...

was the village of

Renbygda Renbygda or Ålen is the administrative centre of Holtålen Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located along the Gaula River and the Rørosbanen railway line, about north of the town of Røros and about southeast of th ...

(also known as Ålen) where

Ålen Church Ålen Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Holtålen Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the village of Renbygda. It is the church for the Ålen parish which is part of the Gauldal prosti (deanery) in ...

is located. Prior to its dissolution in 1972, the municipality was the 149th largest by area out of the 449 municipalities in Norway. Ålen Municipality was the 373rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,987. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

was and its population had decreased by 10.1% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

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 ...

of Aalen (later spelled ''Ålen'') was established as a municipality in 1855 when Holtaalen Municipality was divided into two and the southeastern part became the new Aalen Municipality (population: 1,487). In 1875, an uninhabited part of Aalen was moved to the neighboring

Røros Municipality ( Norwegian) or is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Røros. Some of the villages in Røros include Brekken, Glåmos, Feragen, Galåa, and Hitterdalen. The municip ...

. Starting in the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1972, Ålen Municipality (population: 1,944) was merged with the neighboring

Haltdalen Municipality Haltdalen (historically: ''Holtaalen'' or ''Holtålen'') is a former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until 1972 when it was merged with Ålen Municipality to become the present-day Hol ...

(population: 778) and together they formed the new

(bringing back the name ''Holtålen'', the historic name for the old Haltdalen Municipality).

Name

The municipality (originally the

) is named Ålen, after an old name for the area. The name is the definite singular form of the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word which means "

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

". This name likely refers to the winding valley in which the main village centre is located. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled ''Aalen'' with the

digraph Digraph, often misspelled as diagraph, may refer to: * Digraph (orthography), a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "nq" in Hmong RPA * Ligature (writing), the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as " ...

" Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled ''Ålen'', using the letter Å instead.

Churches

The

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 ...

had one parish () within Ålen Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Haltdalen

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 ...

and the

Gauldal prosti This list of churches in Nidaros is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Nidaros in Norway. It includes all of the parishes in Trøndelag county. The diocese is based at the Nidaros Cathedral in the city of Trondheim (city), T ...

(

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the 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 of ...

) 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 ...

Geography

The highest point in the municipality was the tall mountain

Forollhogna Forollhogna is a mountain located on the border between three municipalities in Norway: Midtre Gauldal Municipality and Holtålen Municipality (in Trøndelag county) and Os Municipality (in Innlandet county). The tall mountain Forollhogna is the ...

. The mountain lies at a border point between

Tolga-Os Municipality Tolga-Os is a former municipality in the old Hedmark county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1966 until its dissolution in 1976. The area is now part of Tolga Municipality and Os Municipality in the traditional district of Østerdalen. T ...

, Ålen Municipality,

, and

Singsås Municipality Singsås is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1841 until its dissolution in 1964. Singsås Municipality encompassed the eastern part of what is ...

Government

While it existed, Ålen Municipality was responsible for

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

(through 10th grade), outpatient

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

senior citizen Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

services,

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

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. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s and utilities. The municipality was governed by a

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, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was

indirectly elected An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the

Frostating Court of Appeal The Frostating Court of Appeal () is one of six courts of appeal in the Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the city of Trondheim. The court has jurisdiction over the counties of Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal. These areas constitute the ...

Municipal council

The

of Ålen was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, 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 oft ...

Mayors

The

() of Ålen was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who held this position: * 1855–1863: Carl Aas * 1864–1897: Jon Jørgensen Reitan ( V) * 1898–1901: Eilif Hofstad ( V) * 1902–1904: Anders Jonsen Reitan ( V) * 1905–1907: Peder P. Lien ( V) * 1908–1916: Svend Larsen Skaardal ( Ap) * 1917–1931: Lars Henriksen Kirkbak ( Ap) * 1932–1945: Ole Kristoffersen Sundt ( Ap/ NS) * 1945–1945: Halfdan Bendz ( LL) * 1946–1963: Lars Rønning ( Ap) * 1964–1971: Olav Myran ( Ap)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aalen Municipality Former municipalities of Norway Holtålen 1855 establishments in Norway 1972 disestablishments in Norway Populated places established in 1855 Populated places disestablished in 1972