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Sørfold is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Straumen. Other villages in the municipality include Leirfjordgården, Mørsvikbotn, Røsvika, Rørstad, Styrkesvik, and Øvre Kvarv. The municipality surrounds the Sørfolda fjord and stretches east to the border with Sweden.

Sørfold kommune
Municipality
View of Kviturfjellet and Veikdalsisen
Flag Coat of arms Nordland within Norway
Sørfold within Nordland
Coordinates: 67°13′14″N 15°48′31″E
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Salten
Established	1 Jan 1887
• Preceded by	Folden Municipality
Administrative centre	Straumen
Government
• Mayor (2019)	Gisle Hansen (Sp)
Area
• Total	1,637.43 km2 (632.22 sq mi)
• Land	1,472.11 km2 (568.38 sq mi)
• Water	165.32 km2 (63.83 sq mi)  10.1%
• Rank	#48 in Norway
Population  (2022)
• Total	1,869
• Rank	#286 in Norway
• Density	1.3/km2 (3/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−6.7%
Demonym	Sørfoldværing[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Bokmål
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1845
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

The 1,637-square-kilometre (632 sq mi) municipality is the 48th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sørfold is the 286th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,869. The municipality's population density is 1.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (3.4/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 6.7% over the previous 10-year period.[3][4]

General information

The municipality of Sørfolden was established on 1 January 1887 when the old municipality of Folden was divided into two: Sørfolden (population: 1,946) and Nordfold-Kjerringøy (population: 1,347). The spelling was later changed to just Sørfold. On 1 January 1894, the Movik farm (population: 30) along the Sagfjorden was transferred from Nordfold-Kjerringøy municipality to Sørfold municipality.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the Øyjord area along the Nevelsfjorden (population: 81) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Bodin. On the same date, the Mørsvikbotn area (population: 268) was transferred from Nordfold Municipality to Sørfold Municipality. On 1 January 1984, the Tårnvika and Øygården area (population: 22) along the Sørfolda fjord was transferred from Sørfold to Bodø Municipality.[5]

Name

The municipality is named after the Folda fjord (Old Norse: Fold). The inner part of the fjord is divided into two arms Nordfolda ("the northern Folda") and Sørfolda ("the southern Folda"). The meaning of the fjord name is unknown (maybe "the broad one").[6]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 24 April 1987. The arms show a silver wheel of a turbine in a hydroelectric power plant on a blue background. The rivers around the municipality contained many rapids and waterfalls, which are partly harnessed to generate electricity. This has provided a major source of income for the community.[7]

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Sørfold. It is part of the Salten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Churches in Sørfold

Parish (sokn)	Church Name	Location of the Church	Year Built
Sørfold	Rørstad Church	Rørstad	1761
	Røsvik Church	Røsvika	1883
	Mørsvikbotn Chapel	Mørsvikbotn	1955

Geography

Sørfold municipality is located about 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the Arctic circle. The total land area of Sørfold is 1,636.61 square kilometres (631.90 sq mi), of which 141 square kilometres (54 sq mi) is covered with permanent ice and snow, and only 265.8 square kilometres (102.6 sq mi) lies below the 150-metre (490 ft) contour line. The total length of coastline is 249 kilometres (155 mi). In 1987, only 3.2 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi) of land was being actively farmed.

To the north of Sørfold is Hamarøy Municipality and to the south is Fauske Municipality. To the east, the Sørfold borders Jokkmokk Municipality in Sweden.

Rago National Park, with its wild nature dominated by bare rock, streams, and pine forest, is located in Sørfold. The glacier Blåmannsisen, one of the largest in Norway, is partly located in the municipality. There are several nature reserves. Veikdalen nature reserve, roughly 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level, protects a largely undisturbed pine and birch forest (some logging before 1918) with many standing dead pine trees.[8]

There are many large lakes in Sørfold, including Andkjelvatnet, Faulvatnet, Forsvatnet, Grovatnet, Horndalsvatnet, Kobbvatnet, Kvitvatnet, Langvatnet, Leirvatnet, Litlverivatnet, Mørsvikvatnet, Nedre Veikvatnet, Røyrvatnet, Rundvatnet, Sildhopvatnet, Sisovatnet, Storskogvatnet, Straumvatnet, and Trollvatnet.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Sørfold, 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.[9] The municipality falls under the Salten District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Sørfold is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:

Mayor

The mayors of Sørfold (incomplete list):

• 2019–present: Gisle Hansen (Sp)
• 2003-2019: Lars Evjenth (Ap)

History

The small village of Mørsvikbotn is located in the north part of the municipality. About 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Mørsvikbotn lies the lake Mørsvikvatnet. In this area, Mørsry, the German army had a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II housing mostly Russian POWs. They were building the Polarbanen railway, which was intended to be a link between Fauske and Narvik. Some ruins of the camp, the foundations of the railway line, a tunnel, and roads can still be observed. A small, now empty, cemetery for fallen Russian soldiers is located close to the camp, about 50 metres (160 ft) off the left-hand side just before the single concrete bridge.

Notable people

• Alfred B. Skar (1896 in Sørfold – 1969) a newspaper editor, writer, trade unionist and politician
• Eivind Tverbak (1897 in Sørfold – 1982) a Norwegian novelist and children's writer
• Oddmund Ingvald Jensen (1928 in Sørfold – 2011) a cross-country skier and coach, competed at the 1956 and 1960 Winter Olympics
• Thor Helland (1936 in Sørfold – 2021) a 5000 metres runner, competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics

References

External links

• Nordland travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)

На других языках

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[de] Sørfold

Sørfold ist eine Kommune im norwegischen Fylke Nordland. Die Kommune hat 1869 Einwohner (Stand: 1. Januar 2022). Verwaltungssitz ist die Ortschaft Straumen.

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- [en] Sørfold

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[ru] Сёрфолл

Сёрфолл — коммуна в фюльке Нурланн в Норвегии. Является частью региона Сальтен. Административный центр коммуны — деревня Стрёумен. Старая коммуна Фолден была разделена на Сёрфолл и Нурфолл-Кьеррингёй 1 января 1887 года.

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