Landvik is a former municipality in the old

Aust-Agder Aust-Agder (, ) was a county (''fylke'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Vest-Agder to form Agder county. In 2002, there were 102,945 inhabitants, which was 2.2% of Norway's population. Its area was . ...

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1971. The municipality's area is now located in the western and central part of the present-day municipality of

Grimstad Grimstad () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county, Norway. It belongs to the geographical region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the Grimstad (to ...

. 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 ...

was the village of Roresanden, just up the hill from the Landvik Church. Other villages in Landvik include

Molland Molland is a small village, civil parish, dual Civil parishes in England, ecclesiastical parish with Knowstone, located in the foothills of Exmoor in Devon, England. It lies within the North Devon local government district. At the time of the ...

Reddal Reddal is a village in the municipality of Grimstad in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the western part of the municipality in the Landvik area, about west of the town of Grimstad and about southeast of the small village of Nygrenda. Th ...

, Skiftenes, Tjore, and Østerhus. Today, the name Landvik is still used to designate the westernmost part of the municipality of Grimstad, near the Prestegårdskogen housing development.

History

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 ...

of ''Hommedal'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

law). In 1865, the municipality was renamed ''Landvig''. Originally, the municipal council met at the Torp farm in

. Starting in the 1840s, the council met at the Landvik farm near the church. In 1876, the council began meeting at the Vikmarken school, just south of Roresanden. On 1 January 1883, the uninhabited Tolleholmen part of neighboring

Birkenes Birkenes is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Birkeland, where about half the municipal population lives. Other vill ...

municipality was transferred to Landvik. In 1956, the municipal council began meeting at the ''Landvik herredshus'' in Roresanden. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1962, the uninhabited area of ''Salvestjønn'' in neighboring

Øyestad Øyestad is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Aust-Agder Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until 1992, when it was merged into the present-day municipality of Arenda ...

municipality and most of the municipality of Eide (504 inhabitants) were merged into the municipality of Landvik. After the merger, Landvik had a total of 2,433 residents. Then on 1 January 1971, the neighboring municipalities of Landvik and

Fjære Fjære is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Aust-Agder counties of Norway, county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1846 until 1971. It was located to the north of the Grimstad (town), town of Grims ...

were merged with the town of Grimstad to create a new, larger municipality of

. Prior to the merger, Landvik had a population of 2,781.

Name

The municipality (originally the

) was first named after the old ''Hommedal'' farm () since the local priest lived on that farm. The first element was the old name for a local river, ''Humla''. That 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 ca ...

of the word which is the name of the "

humulus ''Humulus'', or hop, is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The hop is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Hops are the female flowers (seed cones, strobiles) of the hop species '' H. lupulus''; as a ...

" plant. The last element is which means "

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing 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 municipality and parish used the name ''Hommedal'' from 1838 until 1865 when the municipal (but not the parish name) was changed to "Landvig". The new name came from the neighboring ''Landvig'' farm since the historic Landvik Church was located there. The first element is which means "land" or "district". The last element comes from the word which means "

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

" or "

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

". The farm is located on a

on the northeast side of the lake Landvikvannet. In the early 20th century the spelling was adjusted to ''Landvik'', to use a more Norwegianized spelling rather than the old Danish spelling.

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

senior citizen Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

services,

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a

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, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was

indirectly elected An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council

The

of Landvik was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Maps

Grimstad-4K.jpg, Map of Landvik prior to 1962 (also showing Eide and Fjære municipalities and the town of Grimstad) Tolleholmen.png, Map of the area of Birkenes that was transferred to Landvik in 1883 Salveskjenn.png, Map of the Salveskjenn area of Øyestad that was transferred to Landvik in 1962

References

External links

* {{use dmy dates, date=December 2020 Grimstad Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 1971 disestablishments in Norway