Ålen Municipality

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Ålen is a former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The Script error: No such module "convert". former municipality existed from 1855 until 1972. It encompassed the southeastern half of what is now Holtålen Municipality in Trøndelag county. The administrative centre was the village of Renbygda (also known as Ålen) where Ålen Church is located.^[1]

Prior to its dissolution in 1972, the Script error: No such module "convert". municipality was the 149th largest by area out of the 449 municipalities in Norway. Ålen Municipality was the 373rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,987. The municipality's population density was Script error: No such module "convert". and its population had decreased by 10.1% over the previous 10-year period.^[2]^[3]

General information

File:Ålen kyrkje 01.jpg

Ålen Church

The parish of Aalen (later spelled Ålen) was established as a municipality in 1855 when Holtaalen Municipality was divided into two and the southeastern part became the new Aalen Municipality (population: 1,487). In 1875, an uninhabited part of Aalen was moved to the neighboring Røros Municipality. Starting in the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1972, Ålen Municipality (population: 1,944) was merged with the neighboring Haltdalen Municipality (population: 778) and together they formed the new Holtålen Municipality (bringing back the name Holtålen, the historic name for the old Haltdalen Municipality).^[4]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named Ålen, after an old name for the area. The name is the definite singular form of the Old Norse word Template:Wikt-lang which means "eel". This name likely refers to the winding valley in which the main village centre is located.^[1]^[5] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aalen with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Ålen, using the letter Å instead.^[6]^[7]

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".) within Ålen Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Haltdalen prestegjeld and the Gauldal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.^[3]

**Churches in Ålen**
Parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Ålen	Ålen Church	Ålen	1881
Ålen	Hessdalen Chapel	Hessdalen	1940

Geography

The highest point in the municipality was the Script error: No such module "convert". tall mountain Forollhogna.^[8] The mountain lies at a border point between Tolga-Os Municipality, Ålen Municipality, Haltdalen Municipality, and Singsås Municipality.

Government

While it existed, Ålen Municipality was 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 was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[9] The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council Script error: No such module "Lang". of Ålen was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.