Fjord (municipality)

Fjord is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnmøre. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stordal. Other villages in the municipality include Valldal, Eidsdal, Norddal, Tafjord, Fjørå/Selboskarbygda, Sylte. The name Fjord is a common word and name part in Norway and was chosen for the new municipality established in 2020 for reasons of search engine optimization, despite not having any historical tradition in the municipality.[2]

Fjord kommune
Municipality
Coat of arms Møre og Romsdal within Norway
Fjord within Møre og Romsdal
Coordinates: 62.3037°N 7.2578°E
Country	Norway
County	Møre og Romsdal
District	Sunnmøre
Established	1 Jan 2020
Administrative centre	Stordal
Government
• Mayor (2020)	Eva Hove (Ap)
Area
• Total	1,190.58 km^2 (459.69 sq mi)
• Land	1,144.06 km^2 (441.72 sq mi)
• Water	46.52 km^2 (17.96 sq mi)  3.9%
Area rank	92 in Norway
Population  (2020)
• Total	2,549
• Rank	251 in Norway
• Density	2.2/km^2 (6/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−10%
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1578
Official language form	Nynorsk[1]
Website	www.fjord.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

The 1,191-square-kilometre (460 sq mi) municipality is the 92nd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Fjord is the 251st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,549. The municipality's population density is 2.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (5.7/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 10% over the previous 10-year period.[3][4]

Name

The name Fjord has no historical basis or tradition in the area; according to the municipality, the name was chosen in 2020 because of a desire to optimize search engine results and that it wanted Google results for the common word "fjord" to be dominated by the municipality in order to attract tourists.[2]

The official Language Council of Norway criticized the name of the municipality and stated that "fjord is a common word that has been appropriated as the name of a municipality, which we opposed." The council also stated that it is an important principle that municipal names should be based on names with a historical tradition in the area, and that "invented names" with no tradition such as Fjord are unfortunate.[2]

General information

The municipality was established on 1 January 2020 after the government of Norway approved the merger of the two neighboring municipalities of Stordal and Norddal.[5]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms for the municipality is a blue and white depiction of mountains on either side of a fjord, symbolizing the Storfjorden which flows through the municipality and is designed by Dag Øistein Endsjø.[6]

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Fjord: Norddal og Stordal. They are part of the Austre Sunnmøre prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Møre.

Churches in Fjord

Parish)	Church name		Location	Year built
Norddal		Norddal Church	Norddal	1782
		Sylte Church	Sylte	1863
Stordal		Stordal Church	Stordal	1907
		Old Stordal Church (Rosekyrkja)*	Stordal	1789
* Rosekyrkja has been a museum church since 1908..

Geography

Fjord municipality is located along the inner Storfjorden and around the Norddalsfjorden and the Tafjorden which flow west to east. The majority of the municipality lies east and south of the fjord, while a small previously inhabited mountainous area on the west side of the fjord is also part of Fjord. Ytste Skotet is a preserved historic farm/museum that is located on the steep mountainsides on the west side of the fjord. Most of the municipality surrounds the Stordalen valley and the Valldalen valley, both on the east side of the fjord.[7]

The large Valldalen valley runs to the northeast from the Norddalsfjorden. The valleys are surrounded by the Tafjordfjella mountain range. The mountains Puttegga, Karitinden, and Tordsnose sit on the eastern border of the municipality. The mountain Høgstolen lies in the northern part of the municipality. Reinheimen National Park is located partially in the municipality of Fjord.

Tafjorden is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site West Norwegian Fjords.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Fjord, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elects a mayor.[8] The municipality falls under the Sunnmøre District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Fjord is made up of 23 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:

Fjord Kommunestyre 2020–2023 [9]  

Party Name (in Nynorsk)		Number of representatives
	Labour Party (Arbeidarpartiet)	5
	Progress Party (Framstegspartiet)	1
	Conservative Party (Høgre)	6
	Christian Democratic Party (Kristeleg Folkeparti)	1
	Centre Party (Senterpartiet)	8
	Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti)	2
Total number of members:		23

References

1. "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.
2. "Trassar Språkrådet for å få fleire Google-treff," NRK
3. Statistisk sentralbyrå (2020). "Table: 06913: Population 1 January and population changes during the calendar year (M)" (in Norwegian).
4. Statistisk sentralbyrå (2020). "09280: Area of land and fresh water (km²) (M)" (in Norwegian).
5. "Fjord kommune" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2019-08-18.
6. Fjord kommune - Kommunevåpen.
7. Thorsnæs, Geir, ed. (2020-02-26). "Fjord". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
8. Hansen, Tore, ed. (2016-05-12). "kommunestyre". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
9. "Tall for Norge: Kommunestyrevalg 2019 - Møre og Romsdal" (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway. Retrieved 2019-10-19.