Hjelmeland Municipality

Hjelmeland^ⓘ is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Ryfylke. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hjelmeland. Other villages in the municipality include Fister, Årdal, and Jøsenfjorden.^[5]

CountryNorway

Established1 Jan 1838

AdministrativecentreHjelmeland

Highestelevation

^[1]

1,253.51 m (4,112.6 ft)

Quick facts Country, County ...

Hjelmeland Municipality Hjelmeland kommune
Municipality
Hjelmeland og Fister herred (historic name)
View of the Hjelmeland Church
Flag Coat of arms
Rogaland within Norway
Hjelmeland within Rogaland
Coordinates: 59°13′02″N 06°20′27″E
Country	Norway
County	Rogaland
District	Ryfylke
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Hjelmeland
Government
• Mayor (2022)	Anita Husøy Riskedal (Sp)
Area
• Total	1,068.08 km² (412.39 sq mi)
• Land	948.12 km² (366.07 sq mi)
• Water	119.96 km² (46.32 sq mi) 11.2%
• Rank	#105 in Norway
Highest elevation ^[1]	1,253.51 m (4,112.6 ft)
Population (2026)
• Total	2,612
• Rank	#248 in Norway
• Density	2.4/km² (6.2/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−4.6%
Demonym	Hjelmelandsbu^[2]
Official language ^[3]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1133^[4]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

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Hjelmeland Municipality is known for its fruit production (apples, pears, plums, cherries, and strawberries) and its fish production. Salmon has been important for the fish industry in Hjelmeland Municipality for a couple of decades, but white fish such as cod and halibut has increased its value in the latter years.

The 1,068.08-square-kilometre (412.39 sq mi) municipality is the 105th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Hjelmeland Municipality is the 248th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,612. The municipality's population density is 2.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (6.2/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 4.6% over the previous 10-year period.^[6]^[7]

General information

The parish of Hjelmeland was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1859, the large Hjelmeland Municipality was divided into two: the southern portion of the municipality (population: 1,315) was split off to form the new Aardal Municipality and the remainder of the municipality (population: 3,084) remained as a smaller Hjelmeland Municipality which was also renamed as Hjelmeland og Fister Municipality.^[8]

On 1 July 1884, Hjelmeland og Fister Municipality was divided into two municipalities: the western islands and the western coast of the mainland (population: 832) became the new Fister Municipality and the remaining eastern district of the municipality (population: 2,249) was renamed as simply Hjelmeland Municipality.^[8]

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the following areas were merged to form a much larger Hjelmeland Municipality (population: 2,909; nearly doubling the size of the municipal population):^[8]

all of the old Hjelmeland Municipality (population: 1,691)
the eastern part of Fister Municipality (population: 467), including the mainland and part of Randøy island
most of Årdal Municipality (population: 743), except for the Sunngardene area which went to Strand Municipality
the Buergården area on the island of Ombo from Jelsa Municipality (population: 8)

On 1 January 2020 a major municipal merger took place to the west of Hjelmeland Municipality. As part of the this merger, the parts of Hjelmeland Municipality that were located on the island of Ombo were transferred to the newly-enlarged Stavanger Municipality so that the whole island would be part of the same municipality.^[9]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Hjelmeland farm (Old Norse: Hjalmaland) since the first Hjelmeland Church was built there. Today the farm is a part of the Hjelmelandsvågen urban area. The first element of the name is the plural genitive case of hjalmr which means "helmet" (likely referring to two hills behind the farm which have the form of two helmets). The last element is land which means "land" or "farm".^[10]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 30 November 1984. The official blazon is "Gules, a triple saltire fretty Or" (Norwegian: På raud grunn ein gull Andreaskross, laga med trilling strengar). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a set of three interwoven St. Andrew's crosses. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. They are based on the local tradition of making chairs and other furniture with seats of woven twigs (jærstoler). The process of weaving is symbolised in the arms. At the same time the arms show the strength and solidarity of the municipality. Furthermore, there are three sets of crosses to represent the fact that Hjelmeland is made up of three previous municipalities (Hjemeland, Fister, and Årdal) that were merged in 1965. The arms were designed by Svein Magnus Håvarstein who based the idea from an initial idea by Magnus Torgersen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[11]^[12]^[13]

Churches

The Church of Norway has three parishes (sokn) within Hjelmeland Municipality. It is part of the Ryfylke prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger.

More information Parish (sokn), Church name ...

**Churches in Hjelmeland Municipality**
Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Fister	Fister Church	Fister	1867
Hjelmeland	Hjelmeland Church	Hjelmeland	1858
Årdal	Årdal Church	Årdal	1919
Årdal	Old Årdal Church	Årdal	1619

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Geography

The municipality stretches from the mountains bordering the Setesdal valley to the shores of the fjords that connect to the main Boknafjorden. The highest point in the municipality is the 1,253.51-metre (4,112.6 ft) tall peak in the eastern part of the municipality.^[1] The small Jøsenfjorden and Årdalsfjorden cut into the mainland. There are several islands that are part of Hjelmeland including Randøy as well as some smaller surrounding islands. The island of Randøy is connected to the mainland by the Randøy Bridge.

There are several large lakes in the municipality including Nilsebuvatnet, Øvre Tysdalsvatnet, and Tysdalsvatnet. The large lake Blåsjø partially lies in the municipality. The Trollgarden glacial moraine lies atop a mountain in Hjelmeland. The Ritland crater is also located in the municipality.

Suldal Municipality is located to the north, Bykle Municipality (in Agder county) is located to the east, Sandnes Municipality is located to the southeast, Strand Municipality is located to the southwest, and Stavanger Municipality is located to the west.

Government

Hjelmeland Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[14] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sør-Rogaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Hjelmeland Municipality is made up of 19 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.