Høyjord is a village in

Sandefjord Municipality Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...

Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...

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 village is located about to the northwest of the village of Andebu and about to the west of the village of

Revetal Revetal is a village in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The village is located about to the northwest of the city of Tønsberg, about to the northwest of the village of Linnestad, about to the south of the village of Bre ...

. The village has a population (2022) of 381 and a

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 ...

of . The village is most notable for the

Høyjord Stave Church Høyjord Stave Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sandefjord Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the village of Høyjord. It is the church for the Høyjord parish which is part of the Sandefjord prosti ( ...

which is located at the north end of the village. The medieval stave church in Høyjord is the only stave church in

county and it is one of three remaining center post churches () in Norway. The stave church is commonly dated to around the year 1300, however, parts of the church were constructed in the 1100s and in 1275. The village of Høyjord is also home to an elementary school, kindergarten, and various sports and youth organizations. The nearby lake Illestadvannet is used for recreation and swimming.

History

Høyjord was historically part of the former municipality of

Andebu Andebu is a former municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution on 1 January 2017. The area is now part of Sandefjord Municipality. The administrative centre was the village of Andebu. Othe ...

which existed until 1 January 2017 when it became part of

. Leading up to the merger, some Høyjord residents wanted the village transferred to the neighbouring Re Municipality, but ultimately it became part of Sandefjord.

Name

The village (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 old ''Høyjord'' farm () since the old

was built there. The first element comes from the

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

of the word which means "

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

" or "

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

". The last element is which means "fenced field". Thus it means something like "a fenced-in land of several burial mounds." Høyjord, locally pronounced "Høyjol". The spelling of the name has changed over the centuries. It was previously written ''Haughagiaurdi'' (in 1374), ''Haughagiorde'' (1400), ''Haagiord'' and ''Haajord'' (1593), and later ''Høijord'' and Høyjord.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyjord Andebu Sandefjord Villages in Vestfold