is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and the

administrative centre An administrative center 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 administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

Sortland Municipality or is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sortland. Other population centres in Sortland include Bø, Holand, Holmstad, ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The town is located on the east coast of the island of

Langøya Langøya is the third largest island of Norway (outside of Svalbard), with an area of . The island is a part of the Vesterålen archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The island includes the municipalities of Bø and Øksnes as well as parts ...

, along the

Sortlandsundet Sortlandsundet or Sortlandssundet ( en, Sortland Sound''Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse'' no. 212. 1983. Trondheim: Norges Geologiske Undersokelse, p. 6.) is a strait or sound in Sortland Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It separates th ...

strait. In 1997, the municipality decided to declare " town status" for the urban area of Sortland. Sortland is the largest town and commercial centre in the whole

Vesterålen Vesterålen is a district and archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. It is located just north of Lofoten and west of Harstad. It is the northernmost part of Nordland county. Sortland is the largest town, situated near the center of the archipe ...

region and is often referred to as "the blue town by the strait" () since many of the buildings are painted blue. The town has a population (2018) of 5,404 which gives the town a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of . The Norwegian National Road 85 highway begins at Sortland and crosses the

Sortland Bridge The Sortland Bridge ( no, Sortlandsbrua) is a cantilever road bridge that crosses the Sortlandssundet strait between the village of Strand on Hinnøya island and the town of Sortland on Langøya island. It is located within Sortland Municipality ...

to connect the town to the nearby

European route E10 European route E10 is the second shortest Class A road which is part of the International E-road network. It begins in Å, Norway and ends in Luleå, Sweden. The road is about 850 km (530 mi) in length. The Norwegian part of the ...

highway on the neighboring island of

Hinnøya Hinnøya is the fourth-largest island in Norway, and the largest outside the Svalbard archipelago. The lies just off the western coast of Northern Norway. The island sits on the border of Nordland and Troms og Finnmark counties. The western pa ...

. The town has a regional high school, a cultural centre, library, cinema, Sortland Museum, and

Sortland Church Sortland Church ( no, Sortland kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sortland Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the town of Sortland. It is one of the three churches for the Sortland parish which is part o ...

. The town is also a regular stop of the

Hurtigruten ''Hurtigruten'' (), formally Kystruten Bergen-Kirkenes ("coastal route Bergen- Kirkenes"), is a Norwegian public coastal route transporting passengers that travel locally, regionally and between the ports of call, and also cargo between ports no ...

boats.

Etymology

The town (and municipality) is named after the old ''Sortland'' farm (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

: ''Svortuland''), since the first

was built there. The first element is the

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 can al ...

of a river name ''Svorta'' and the last element is ''land'' which means "land" or "

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

". The river name is derived from ''svartr'' which means "black/dark".

Media gallery

Sortlandbluecollage.jpg, Sortland - The Blue city - panoramio.jpg, Sortland torg in summer.jpg, Sortland-Vesterålen.JPG, Sortland.jpg, Sortland Hauptstraße.jpg, Sortland kyrkje.jpg, Sortland winter 01.JPG,

References

{{Authority control Sortland Cities and towns in Norway Populated places in Nordland Populated places of Arctic Norway

Etymology

Media gallery

See also

References