world.wikisort.org - Norway

Vegårshei is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative center is the village of Myra. Other villages in Vegårshei include Mo and Ubergsmoen.[3]

Vegårshei kommune
Municipality
View of the lake Vegår
Flag Coat of arms Agder within Norway
Vegårshei within Agder
Coordinates: 58°46′32″N 08°49′56″E
Country	Norway
County	Agder
District	Sørlandet
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Myra
Government
• Mayor (2015)	Kirsten Helen Myren (Sp)
Area
• Total	355.67 km2 (137.32 sq mi)
• Land	321.77 km2 (124.24 sq mi)
• Water	33.90 km2 (13.09 sq mi)  9.5%
• Rank	#249 in Norway
Population  (2022)
• Total	2,131
• Rank	#272 in Norway
• Density	6.6/km2 (17/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+10.2%
Demonym	Vegårsheiing[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Neutral
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4212
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

The 356-square-kilometre (137 sq mi) municipality is the 249th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Vegårshei is the 272nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,131. The municipality's population density is 6.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (17/sq mi) and its population has increased by 10.2% over the previous 10-year period.[4][5]

Name

The Old Norse form of the name may have been Vigisheiðr. The first element is the genitive case of the name of the lake Vegår (of which the Old Norse form and the meaning of the name is uncertain). The last element is heiðr which means "heath" or "moor".[3][6] Historically, the name was spelled as Wegaardsheien or Vegaardsheien, and sometimes it was abbreviated as simply Heien.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 30 April 1987. The arms show a fox as a representative of the local wildlife and also for the fox farming in the village.[7]

History

The parish of Vegaardsheien was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The borders of the municipality have not changed since that time.[8]

The population was at its largest in 1930, population 2161.[9]

Culture

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Vegårshei. It is part of the Aust-Nedenes prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.

Churches in Vegårshei

Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Vegårshei	Vegårshei Church	Myra	1808

Geography

Vegårshei is bordered on the north by the municipalities of Nissedal (in Vestfold og Telemark county) and Gjerstad, on the east by Risør, on the south by Tvedestrand, and on the west by Åmli. The lake Vegår dominates the northern part of the hilly and forested municipality.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Vegårshei, 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.[10] The municipality falls under the Agder District Court and the Agder Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

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

Economy

As of 2019, public administration and the service sector, are most important in regard to employment; the retail industry and entities that have hotel services and those that serve food and beverages, constitute 11% of employment; agriculture and forestry accounts for 9% of employment; manufacturing accounts for 7% of employment—21% including those employed in construction and those employed in the energy sector and [water supply]vannforsyning/ [garbage collection or] renovasjon.[9] Of the inhabitants that are employed, 55% have employment outside the municipal borders.[9]

It is well-suited for hunting and fishing for residents and tourists alike.

Transportation

The Sørlandsbanen railway line runs through the municipality, stopping at Vegårshei Station, just north of the village of Myra. There are several Norwegian county roads that cross the municipality, connecting it to its neighbors. Some of the roads include Norwegian County Road 414, Norwegian County Road 415, Norwegian County Road 416, and Norwegian County Road 417.

Notable people

• Lars Vegard (1880 in Vegårshei – 1963) a Norwegian physicist, researcher into aurora borealis
• Ole Colbjørnsen (1897in Vegårshei – 1973) a Norwegian journalist, economist and politician
• Tjostolv Moland (1981 in Vegårshei – 2013 in Kinshasa) a former Norwegian army officer and security contractor

References

External links

• Media related to Vegårshei at Wikimedia Commons
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Aust-Agder travel guide from Wikivoyage

На других языках

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[de] Vegårshei

Vegårshei ist eine Kommune im norwegischen Fylke Agder. Die Kommune hat 2131 Einwohner (Stand: 1. Januar 2022). Verwaltungssitz ist die Ortschaft Myra.

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- [en] Vegårshei

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[ru] Вегорсхей

Вегорсхей (норв. Vegårshei) — коммуна в губернии Эуст-Агдер в Норвегии. Административный центр коммуны — город Вегорсхей. Официальный язык коммуны — нейтральный[1]. Население коммуны на 2007 год составляло 1884 чел. Площадь коммуны Вегорсхей — 355,66 км², код-идентификатор — 0912.

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