Hidra is a former municipality that was located in the old

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 in

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 1893 until its dissolution in 1965. It encompassed the islands and southern coastal part of the present-day municipality of

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 ...

in what is now

Agder Agder is a counties of Norway, county () and districts of Norway, traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Au ...

county. The municipality included the islands of Hidra and

Andabeløya Andabeløya or Andabeløyna is a populated island in Flekkefjord municipality in Agder county, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europ ...

as well as 56 other islands, plus the mainland coast from Abelsnes to the river Sira. 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 Kirkehavn where

Hidra Church Hidra Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in the large Flekkefjord Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Kirkehamn on the island of Hidra. It is the church for the Hidra parish which is part of t ...

is located. Hidra was home to Olav Omland (1909–1998), a landscape and coastal painter. He was also a poet and songwriter, and composed the song about Hidra "Hidrasangen". Hidra was also home to the eccentric personality and artist Tatjana Lars Kristian Guldbrandsen.

History

The parish of ''

Nes og Hitterø Nes og Hitterø or Hitterø og Nes is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. It was located in the southwestern part of the present-day Flekkefjord Municipality in A ...

'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

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). However, on 8 October 1893, this municipality was split into two municipalities: Hitterø (population: 2,075) and

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 ...

(population: 1,704). During 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 1965, Hidra municipality (formerly called ''Hitterø'') was merged with the municipalities of Nes,

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 ...

, most of Bakke, and the town of

to form the new municipality of

. Prior to the merger, Hidra had a population of 1,277.

Name

The municipality (originally 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 ...

) is named after the island of Hidra () since the first

was built there. The name is the plural form of which means "split" or "cleft" (referring to the fact that the island is almost split in two by the Rasvåg

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

). Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Hitterø''. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Hidra''.

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 Hidra 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 Flekkefjord Former municipalities of Norway 1893 establishments in Norway 1965 disestablishments in Norway

History

Name

Government

Municipal council

See also

References