Sokndal is the southernmost municipality in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Dalane. 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 ...

of the municipality is the village of Hauge. Other villages in Sokndal include Li,

Rekefjord Rekefjord is a harbour village in the municipality of Sokndal in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located around the Rekefjorden, about west of the municipal centre of Hauge i Dalane. The village of Sogndalsstranda lies about southeas ...

Sogndalsstranda Sogndalsstranda or Sogndalstrand is a harbor village in Sokndal municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located at the mouth of the river Sokno, about south of the municipal centre of Hauge and also about southeast of the villa ...

, and Åna-Sira. Sogndalsstranda is a picturesque, old fishing village, which may have inspired the municipality in becoming Norway's first member of Cittaslow. The Jøssingfjorden, known for the Altmark Incident, is also located in Sokndal. The municipality is the 267th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sokndal is the 219th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,281. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 0.7% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

The parish of ''Soggendal'' (later ''Sokndal'') 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 January ...

law). In 1845, the small lading place of Sogndal (population: 348) was separated from Sokndal as a municipality of its own. This left Sokndal with 2,819 residents. On 12 December 1868, a small part of Sokndal (population: 41) was transferred to neighboring

Eigersund Eigersund is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is in the traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Egersund. The town was known for its pottery factory (closed in 1979) and it is amo ...

municipality. On 1 July 1944, the small lading place of Sogndal (population: 311) was reincorporated into Sokndal. In 1947, a small area in Sokndal (population: 7) was transferred to Eigersund. On 1 January 1967, the Tjørn farm (population: 10) was transferred from Eigersund to Sokndal.

Name

The Old Norse form of the name was ''Sóknardalr''. 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 the river name ''Sókn'' (now Sokno) and the last element is ''dalr'' which means " valley" or "dale". The river name is derived from the Old Norse verb ''sœkja'' which means "seek" and so the meaning is ''"the river which seeks (finds/forces) its way"''. Before 1918, the name was written "Sogndal" or "Soggendahl".

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 8 July 1988. The arms show three black pickaxes on a yellow background. These were chosen to symbolize the importance of mining and agriculture in the municipality. It was designed by Johan Digernes of

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipality on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. While the population is greater in the neighboring Karmøy municipality, the main commercial and economic centre of the Haugaland region in northern Rogaland and southern ...

Churches

The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

has one parish () within the municipality of Sokndal. It is part of the Dalane prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

) in the Diocese of Stavanger.

Geography

The municipality is the southernmost in

county. The North Sea lies to the south and west, the river Sira and the Åna fjord lie to the southeast (separating it from Flekkefjord in Agder county), the municipality of

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

lies to the east and north, and the municipality of

lies to the northwest. The lakes Grøsfjellvatnet and Eiavatnet both lie on the northern border of the municipality. The coastline of Sokndal is fairly smooth, although there are two larger fjords which cut into the municipality: the Rekefjorden and Jøssingfjorden. The Lille Presteskjær Lighthouse marks the entrance to the Rekefjorden. The southeastern part of the municipality is very rocky and rugged. It is the site of the large Tellnes mine, a large producer of titanium.

Climate

Economy

At Tellnes, just east of Hauge i Dalane, there is an ilmenite mine run by Titania AS, supplying 10% of the world production of ilmenite (a type of titanium). It's also the world's largest opencast ilmenite mine.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Sokndal, are responsible for

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

(through 10th grade), outpatient

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

, senior citizen services, unemployment and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor. The municipality falls under the Sør-Rogaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council () of Sokndal is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:

Notable people

Carl Adolph Dahl Carl Adolph Dahl (11 August 1769 – 3 June 1819) was a Norwegian jurist and politician. Carl Adolph Dahl was born at Aave in Rekefjord at Sokndal, in Rogaland, Norway. Dahl graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1791. He work ...

(1769 at Aave in Rekefjord – 1819) a Norwegian jurist and politician * Hans Reidar Holtermann (1895 in Sokndal - 1966) a military officer, commanded of Hegra Fortress in WWII *

Rolf Johan Lenschow Rolf Johan Lenschow (9 August 1928 – 24 April 2014) was a Norwegian civil engineer. He was born in Hauge i Dalane. He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1954 took his PhD in 1966 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Ch ...

(1928 in Hauge i Dalane – 2014) a Norwegian civil engineer and professor in concrete construction * Frank Tønnesen (born 1972 in Sokndal) stage name ''

Tønes Frank Tønnesen (born 28 April 1972), better known by his stage name Tønes, is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sokndal, Norway.Vibeke Stene (born 1978 in Sokndal) a Norwegian

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...

soprano and actress IMDb Database
retrieved 01 April 2021 * Siri Seglem (born 1983 in Sokndal) a handball player with 23 caps with Norway women

References

External links

Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every yea ...

Sokndal

cittaslow.no
*''Google map satellite views:'' *
Hauge i Dalane
also clearly visible is the large rock quarry on both sites of the ''Rekefjord''. *
The Titania open pit mine (top right) and the ''Jøssingfjord'' (bottom left)
{{use dmy dates, date=June 2020 Municipalities of Rogaland 1838 establishments in Norway Cittaslow