Hålandsdal is a former municipality in the old

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Munici ...

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 1903 until 1964. It encompassed the eastern part of what is now

Bjørnafjorden Municipality Bjørnafjorden is a fjord in Vestland county, Norway. It runs through the municipalities of Austevoll, Bjørnafjorden, and Tysnes. The large island of Tysnesøya (and many small, surrounding islands such as Reksteren) lie along the south side ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

county. It included the large lakes

Skogseidvatnet Skogseidvatnet is a lake in Bjørnafjorden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The lake lies in the Hålandsdal valley, about east of the village of Eikelandsosen. Water from the river Orraelva and the lake Gjønavatnet flow into the ...

and

Gjønavatnet Gjønavatnet is a lake in Bjørnafjorden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The lake lies just east of the village of Holdhus and just north of the lake Skogseidvatnet. See also *List of lakes in Norway This is a list of lakes an ...

and all of their surrounding valleys. 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 ...

of the municipality was the village of

Holdhus Holdhus is a village in Bjørnafjorden municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located about east of the village of Eikelandsosen. The village was the administrative centre of the old municipality of Hålandsdal which existed fr ...

where the

Holdhus Church Holdhus Church (; historically called ) is a former parish church of the Church of Norway in Bjørnafjorden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Holdhus. Although it is no longer regularly used, it is one of the ...

is located.

History

On 1 January 1903, the parish of Hålandsdal (historically spelled ''Haalandsdalen'') was separated from the municipality of

Fusa Fusa () is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. It existed from 1856 until its dissolution in 2020. It was located east of the city of Bergen in the Midhordland region. The administrative centre of the municipality was the ...

to form a separate municipality of its own. Initially, Hålandsdal had a population of 647. It was a small municipality and so in the early 1960s, 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 ...

recommended that it be merged with two of its neighbors: Fusa and

Strandvik Strandvik is a village in the municipality of Bjørnafjorden (municipality), Bjørnafjorden in Vestland county, Norway. The village lies on the northern shore of the Bjørnafjorden, about east of Osøyro (across the fjord) and about the same di ...

. So, on 1 January 1964, Hålandsdal was merged with Strandvik and most of Fusa, creating a new, larger municipality of

. Prior to the merger, Hålandsdal had a population of 528.

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 valley that is the site of the old ''Haaland'' farm ( or ) since the first

Hålandsdal Church Hålandsdal Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Bjørnafjorden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Eide in the Hålandsdal valley. It is one of the churches for the Fusa parish which is par ...

was built there. The first element comes from the word which means "high" or "tall". The second element is which means "land". The last element of the name comes from which means "

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Haalandsdalen''. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Haalandsdal'', removing the definite form ending ''-en''. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled ''Haalandsdal'' 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 ''Hålandsdal'', using the letter å instead.

Government

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 Hålandsdal was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The

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 ...

breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haalandsdal Valleys of Vestland Bjørnafjorden Former municipalities of Norway 1903 establishments in Norway 1964 disestablishments in Norway