Tonstad is 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 ...
of the municipality of
Sirdal
Sirdal is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the northwestern part of the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tonstad. Other villages in Sirdal include Bjørne ...
in
Agder
Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("sou ...
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 village is located at the northern end of the lake
Sirdalsvatnet
Sirdalsvatnet is a lake in the municipalities of Sirdal and Flekkefjord in Agder county, Norway. The lake is about long running from the village of Tonstad in the north to the village of Sira in the south. The lake is about wide at its ...
in the
Sirdalen valley. The village has a population (2015) of 874, giving the village a
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...
of .
Tonstad Hydroelectric Power Station and the Tonstad
ski center are both located in and around this village. The
Tonstad Church
Tonstad Church ( no, Tonstad kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in the large Sirdal Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Tonstad. It one of the four churches in the Sirdal parish which is part of th ...
is also located in the village.
The village of Tonstad was the administrative center of the old municipality of
Tonstad from 1905 until its dissolution in 1960. In 1960, it became the part of Sirdal, and it continued to be the administrative center of that new municipality.
Name
The municipality of Tonstad was named after the old ''Tonstad'' farm (
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 ...
: ''Þornýjarstaðir ''), since the
Tonstad Church
Tonstad Church ( no, Tonstad kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in the large Sirdal Municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the village of Tonstad. It one of the four churches in the Sirdal parish which is part of th ...
is located there. The first element of the name comes from the female name ''Tone'' (Old Norse: ''Þorný'') and the last element is ''staðir'' which means "homestead" or "
farm
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...
".
References
External links
*
Weather information for TonstadSirdolen.no
{{use dmy dates, date=November 2020
Villages in Agder
Sirdal