Lårdal is a village in

Tokke Municipality Tokke is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Vest-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Dalen. Other villages in Tokke include Åmdals Verk, Eidsborg, Høyda ...

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

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 on the north shore of the lake

Bandak Bandak is a lake in the municipalities of Kviteseid and Tokke in Telemark county, Norway. The lake, which is part of the Telemark Canal route, belongs to the Skien Drainage basin, watershed. The river Tokke (river), Tokke flows into the lake, a ...

and about south of the village of

Høydalsmo Høydalsmo is a village in Tokke Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The village is located along the north shore of the lake Oftevant in the northeastern part of the municipality. The European route E134 highway runs through the village. T ...

and the

European route E134 European route E134 () is a International E-road network, European highway that crosses Norway starting at Haugesund Airport, Karmøy near the city of Haugesund on the west coast, heading over Haukeli, passing the city of Drammen, and ending in V ...

highway. The village is the site of

Lårdal Church Lårdal Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Tokke Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Lårdal. It is one of the churches for the ''Høydalsmo og Lårdal'' parish which is part of the Øvr ...

, a school, and a fast food store. Previously, there was also a grocery store, but it closed because the local population couldn't support it. Lårdal is also home to the former journalist and television presenter Bjørn Honerød. The village was historically 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 old Lårdal Municipality from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964.

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 ''Laardal'' farm () since the first

was built there. The first element is which means "water" or "river". The last element is which means "dale" or "valley". Historically, the municipality name was spelled "Laurdal" (although the parish name goes back centuries as ''Laugerdal''). From 1884-1920, it was spelled "Laardal". Since 1921, it has been spelled "Lårdal".

Notable people

References

Tokke Villages in Telemark {{Telemark-geo-stub