Bakke is a former municipality in

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total popul ...

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 municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1965. It was located in the present-day municipalities of

Sirdal Sirdal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the northwestern part of the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the mun ...

and

Flekkefjord Flekkefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the ...

. It included the whole Sirdalen valley along the

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

county border, stretching from the

Aust-Agder Aust-Agder (, ) was a county (''fylke'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Vest-Agder to form Agder county. In 2002, there were 102,945 inhabitants, which was 2.2% of Norway's population. Its area was . ...

county border in the north to Sirnes and the lake

Lundevatnet Lundevatn, or Lundevatnet,The suffix "''-et''" is a form of the Norwegian language definite article and means "the". Hence ''Lundevatnet'' is equivalent to "the Lundevatn." Both forms can be found in English language text. is a lake on the border ...

in the south. The

administrative center 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 Belgiu ...

was the village of Sira where Bakke Church is located.

History

The church

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 Bakke (population: 2,378 in 1835) was split into three civil

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

on 1 January 1838: ''Vestre Bakke'', ''Østre Bakke'', and

Gyland Gyland is a village in the municipality of Flekkefjord in Agder county in Norway. It is located in the northeastern part of Flekkefjord along the river Gylandselva, just a short distance north of the lake Kumlevollvatnet. The Sørlandet Line run ...

. This occurred because the main church parish of Bakke contained land in both the counties of

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

and Lister og Mandal and they had to be divided according to the newly passed

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

law. Due to the very low populations of the three municipalities, this arrangement did not last long. In August 1838, the county border was moved westwards to its current position, and Østre Bakke and Vestre Bakke were merged to form the municipality of Bakke. Then about a year later, in November 1839, Gyland was merged into the municipality of Bakke. In 1849, the northern district of

(population: 1,804) was separated from Bakke to become a municipality of its own, leaving 2,597 inhabitants in Bakke. On 31 December 1893,

(population: 1,085) was also separated from Bakke to form a municipality of its own. This split left Bakke with a population of 1,368. On 1 January 1960, the Øksendal area (population: 226) in northern Bakke was merged with

Tonstad Tonstad is the administrative centre of the municipality of Sirdal in Agder county, Norway. The village is located at the northern end of the lake Sirdalsvatnet in the Sirdalen valley. The village has a population (2015) of 874, giving the villa ...

and

Øvre Sirdal Øvre Sirdal is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1905 until its dissolution in 1960. It was located in the northern part of the ...

municipalities to form a new municipality of Sirdal. On 1 January 1965, another major municipal merger took place due in part 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 ...

. Bakke (population: 925) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Gyland,

Nes The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

, and Hidra and with the town of

to create the new municipality of

Name

The municipality (originally the

) is named after the old ''Bakke'' farm (), located on the south side of the present-day village of Sira since the first Bakke Church was built there. The name is the plural form of which means "river bank" or "ridge".

Government

While it existed, this 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,

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

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. During its existence, this 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.

Municipal council

The

of Bakke was made up of 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 ...

References

{{use dmy dates, date=November 2020 Sirdal Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 1965 disestablishments in Norway

History

Name

Government

Municipal council

See also

References