Fjaler

Fjaler is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnfjord. The administrative centre is the village of Dale.

It was the birth place of famous Norwegian poet Jakob Sande. The Red Cross Nordic United World College at Haugland, one of the ten United World Colleges of the world is also located here, as well as the Åsnes ski factory, the Nordic Art Centre at Dalsåsen and the Dale/Jarl shoe factory. There is a car ferry from Dale to Eikenes in Askvoll municipality, and buses depart to Førde, Rysjedalsvika, Hyllestad, and the west of Fjaler. Førde Airport, Bringeland is 28 kilometres to the east, with flights to Oslo and Bergen.

General information

The name

The name (Old Norse Fjalir) originally belonged to the fjord (now Dalsfjorden). The name is probably the plural form of fjöl which means 'board'. The old name was revived in 1913, before then the name of the municipality was Ytre Holmedal. (See also Gaular.)

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1991). It shows two bridges since there are a lot of old, historic bridges in the municipality.

Background

Ytre Holmedal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The original municipality was identical to the Ytre Holmedal parish (prestegjeld) with the sub-parishes (sokn) of Holmedal, Dale, and Fjaler.

In 1912, the name Ytre Holmedal was changed to Fjaler.

On 1 January 1990, some changes were made to the boundaries between Fjaler, Gaular, and Askvoll. Fure, Folkestad, and Våge (population: 482) in Askvoll was transferred to Fjaler. Vårdal, Holmedal, Rivedal, and a part of Hestad (population: 731) in Fjaler was transferred to Askvoll. The parts of Hestad that didn't go to Askvoll (population: 90) were transferred to Gaular.

Churches

The Church of Norway has four churches within the municipality of Fjaler. It is part of the Diocese of Bjørgvin and the Rural Deanery (Prosti) of Sunnfjord.

Churches in Fjaler
Parish (Prestegjeld)	Sub-Parish (Sokn)	Church Name	Year Built	Location of the Church
Fjaler Parish	Fjaler	Dale kyrkje	1864	Dale
		Folkestad bedehuskapell	1913	Våge
		Guddal kyrkje	1870	Guddal
		Hellevik bedehuskapell	1978	Hellevik

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Fjaler, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Fjaler is made up of 23 representatives that are elected to every four years. For 2007–2011, the party breakdown is as follows:

Mayor

The mayor (ordførar) of a municipality in Norway is a representative of the majority party of the municipal council who is elected to lead the council. Arve Helle of the Labour Party (Det Norske Arbeiderpartiet) was re-elected mayor for the 2007-2011 term.