Jostedal is a former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1963. It was located in the

Jostedalen Jostedalen is a river valley in Luster Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The long valley runs from the Lustrafjorden at the village of Gaupne, to the north along the river Jostedøla and along the eastern side of the Jostedal Glacier. The ...

valley in the northern part of the present-day municipality of Luster, in

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, whe ...

county, north of the village of

Gaupne Gaupne is the administrative center of the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located along the Gaupnefjorden, an arm of the Lustrafjorden, about north of the village of Hafslo. The village of Veitastrond is loc ...

. 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, L ...

was also located near the Jostedal Church in the central part of the valley.

Name

The

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 ...

form of the name was probably . The first element is then the genitive of ''Jastra'' (the old name of the river Jostedøla) and the last element is ''dalr'' which means "

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

" or "dale". The river name is probably derived from ''jǫstr'' which means "

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to consti ...

". The water in the river comes from

glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

, and in summer time the river gets "frothy" or "foamy" due to all of the melting ice and the many waterfalls.

History

Jostedal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 Janua ...

law). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee ( no, Schei-komitéen) was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWI ...

. On 1 January 1963, Jostedal municipality (population: 796) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Luster (population: 2,674) and Hafslo (population: 2,384) which created a newer, larger Luster Municipality.

Geography

The former municipality consisted of

valley which empties into the Gaupnefjord at the village of

. The Gaupnefjord is an arm of the Lustrafjorden, which is an arm of the famous Sognefjord, the second largest fjord in the world. There are three major glacial lakes in the area: Tunsbergdalsvatn, Nigardsbrevatn, and Styggevatn (''vatn'' is Norwegian for lake). Other lakes in Jostdedal include Austdalsvatnet and Styggevatnet. The river Jostedøla runs through the valley up to its

headwater The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition Th ...

s at the

Jostedalsbreen Jostedal Glacier or is the largest glacier in continental Europe. It is in Vestland county in Western Norway. Jostedalsbreen lies in the municipalities of Luster, Sogndal, Sunnfjord, and Stryn. The highest peak in the area is Lodalskåpa at a ...

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

, a plateau glacier which is the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an mainland's largest with an area of . Jostedalsbreen National Park and Breheimen National Park are located on either side of the Jostedalen

Government

Municipal council

The

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

of Jostedal was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Notable residents

Kåre Øvregard Kåre Øvregard (born 19 February 1933 in Jostedal) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Sogn og Fjordane in 1977, and was re-elected on two occasions. On the local level he was deputy m ...

(born 1933) -

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

* Kristen Øyen (born 1938) - forester

References

External links

* *http://www.jostedal.com/ {{Authority control Luster, Norway Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 1963 disestablishments in Norway