Heidal or Heidalen is a valley in

Sel Municipality Sel is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Otta. The municipality also includes several notable villages including ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). The 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

U-shaped valley U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...

follows the river

Sjoa The Sjoa is a river in Innlandet county, Norway. The long river runs through the municipalities of Vågå and Sel and it provides the outlet from lake Gjende at Gjendesheim in the Jotunheimen mountains of Norway's Jotunheim National Park. T ...

which begins in the nearby

Jotunheimen Jotunheimen (; "the home of the Jötunn") is a mountainous area of roughly in southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, i ...

mountains eastward until it joins the

Gudbrandsdalslågen The Gudbrandsdalslågen (or simply ''Lågen'') is a river which flows through the Gudbrandsdal valley in Innlandet county, Norway. The long river runs through a large valley in Eastern Norway before emptying into Mjøsa, the largest lake in Norw ...

river in the main valley which runs through the region,

Gudbrandsdalen Gudbrandsdalen (; en, Gudbrand Valley) is a valley and traditional district in the Norwegian county of Innlandet (formerly Oppland). The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer and the lake of Mjøsa, extending towa ...

. The western end of the Sjoa river valley is in

Vågå Municipality Vågå () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågåmo. Other village areas in Vågå include Lalm and Bessh ...

and there, it is called the

Sjodalen Sjodalen is a wide, gently sloping valley in Southern Norway, draining the eastern parts of Jotunheimen. The river Sjoa gives its name to the valley. Sjodalen is generally accepted to start at the outlet from the deep mountain-lake Gjende. The vall ...

valley. From 1908-1965, the Heidal valley was an independent municipality called

Heidal Heidal or Heidalen is a valley in Sel Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The U-shaped valley follows the river Sjoa which begins in the nearby Jotunheimen mountains eastward until it joins the Gudbrandsdalslågen river in the main valle ...

, and since 1965, it has been a part of Sel Municipality. The main urban area in the valley is the village of

Bjølstad Bjølstad or Heidal is a village in Sel Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located in the Heidal valley, about northeast of the village of Skogbygda and about southwest of the town of Otta. The village has a populati ...

. The valley runs northwest from the village of

for about to the village of

where the valley curves to the southwest/south for about before entering Vågå municipality. After entering Vågå, the valley becomes much narrower as it enters into the Jotunheimen mountains and heading to the source of the river, the large lake

Gjende Gjende or Gjendin is a lake in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Jotunheimen mountain range and also inside Jotunheimen National Park. The proglacial lake shows typical characteristics of glacial formation, be ...

History

In the year 1177, Ivar Gjæsling was King Magnus IV's

lendmann Lendmann (plural lendmenn; non, lendr maðr) was a title in medieval Norway. Lendmann was the highest rank attainable in the hird of the Norwegian king, and a lendmann stood beneath only earls and kings. In the 13th century there were between ...

for the Opplands.

Gjesling Gjesling (or ''Gjæsling'') is an old family at Vågå in Oppland, Norway. In 1130 Ivar Gjesling was the earliest-known owner of the farm Sandbu (just south of Vågåmo) in Vågå. He served as King Magnus IV's lendmann (governor) for the Opplands ...

allied himself with the

Birkebeiner The Birkebein Party or Birkebeinar (; no, Birkebeinarane ( nynorsk) or ( bokmål)) was the name for a rebellious party in Norway, formed in 1174 around the pretender to the Norwegian throne, Eystein Meyla. The name has its origins in prop ...

s (who chose

Sverre Sverre, Sverrir or Sverri is a Nordic name from the Old Norse ''Sverrir'', meaning "wild, swinging, spinning". It is a common name in Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands; it is less common in Denmark and Sweden. It can also be a surname. Sverre m ...

as their king at

Øreting Øreting (Øretinget, Øyrating; on, Eyraþing), was a Thing in Trøndelag, Norway. Øreting was located at Øra, where the river Nidelva mouths into the Trondheimsfjord in the modern city of Trondheim. Things were representative assemblies at ...

Nidaros Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss () was the medieval name of Trondheim when it was the capital of Norway's first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth (Old Norse: ''óss'') of the River Nid (the present-day Nidelva). Altho ...

in 1177). In return, King Sverre granted Gjesling the whole Heidal valley. Heidal is rich in beauty and tradition. It has a high concentration of older protected timber houses and farmsteads. The main industries are agriculture and forestry. Local traditions includes carpentry, wood carving, painting and weaving.

Heidal Church Heidal Church ( no, Heidal kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sel Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the village of Bjølstad, in Heidal, a side valley of the main Gudbrandsdalen valley. It is the churc ...

(''Heidal Kyrkje'') was built during the period 1937-41 as an exact replica of a 1754 church which was destroyed after being struck by lightning in 1933. Heidal Church is a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

church as are most of the churches in the Gudbrand Valley. The church was built of wood. It has about 300 seats and three galleries. The church was designed by architect Bredo Berntsen (1877–1957). The altarpiece is a work by the Norwegian sculptor

Jakob Klukstad Jakob Bersveinson Klukstad (1705–1773) was a Norwegian wood carver and painter. Klukstad had great significance for future wood carvers in the Gudbrand Valley. Biography Klukstad was born in Lom. He spent most of his career on the Klukstad fa ...

. Near the church stands the Bjølstad Chapel (''Bjølstad-kapellet''). Bjølstad Chapel seating 75 and dates from around 1531. Heidal church, Sel, Norway.jpg,

Bjølstad chapel, Sel, Norway.jpg, Bjølstad Chapel Some locations in the valley allow guided tours, including the Søre Harildstad farm and Bjølstad Chapel. Farms like the

Bjølstad Farm The Bjølstad Farm ( no, Bjølstad gård) is a farm in Heidal in the municipality of Sel in Innlandet county, Norway. The farm was mentioned in written sources as early as 1270. Eirik Bjørnsson, who gradually purchased the farm in the 1430s, wa ...

are not open to the public. At the Bjølstad Farm the newest building was constructed in about 1820 and the farm has been in the same family since the 13th century.

References

External links

Visit HeidalHeidal
{{use dmy dates, date=June 2022 Sel Valleys of Innlandet

History

See also

References

External links