Sokndal

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Sokndal is the southernmost municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hauge. Other villages in Sokndal include Li, Rekefjord, Sogndalsstranda, and Åna-Sira.

Sogndalsstranda is a picturesque, old fishing village, which may have inspired the municipality in becoming Norway's first member of Cittaslow. The Jøssingfjorden, known for the Altmark Incident, is also located in Sokndal.

The Script error: No such module "convert". municipality is the 267th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sokndal is the 219th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,324. The municipality's population density is Script error: No such module "convert". and its population has increased by 1.2% over the previous 10-year period.^[1]^[2]

General information

File:Aana-Sira.jpg

Village of Åna-Sira

File:Sogndalstrand - ude i gado.JPG

Village of Sogndalsstranda

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Landscape in Sokndal

The parish of Soggendal (later Sokndal) was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1845, the small lading place of Sogndal (population: 348) was separated from Sokndal as a municipality of its own. This left Sokndal with 2,819 residents. On 12 December 1868, a small part of Sokndal (population: 41) was transferred to neighboring Eigersund municipality. On 1 July 1944, the small lading place of Sogndal (population: 311) was reincorporated into Sokndal. In 1947, a small area in Sokndal (population: 7) was transferred to Eigersund. On 1 January 1967, the Tjørn farm (population: 10) was transferred from Eigersund to Sokndal.^[3]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Soknedalen valley (Template:Langx) since the first Sokndal Church was built there. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Sókn (now Sokno). That river name is derived from the verb Template:Wikt-lang which means "to seek" or "to strive for". The last element is Template:Wikt-lang which means "valley" or "dale". Thus, the meaning is "the valley with the river which seeks (finds/forces) its way".^[4] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Soggendal or Sogndal. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Sokndal.^[5] Script error: No such module "Hatnote".

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 8 July 1988. The official blazon is "Or, three pickaxes bendwise sable" (Template:Langx). This means the arms have a field (background) has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The charge is a set of three pickaxes with two over one. This design was chosen to symbolize the importance of mining and agriculture in the municipality. The arms were designed by John Digernes from Haugesund. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".) within the municipality of Sokndal. It is part of the Dalane prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger.

**Churches in Sokndal**
Parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Sokndal	Sokndal Church	Hauge	1803
Sokndal	Åna-Sira Church	Åna-Sira	1888

Geography

The municipality is the southernmost in Rogaland county. The North Sea lies to the south and west, the river Sira and the Åna fjord lie to the southeast (separating it from Flekkefjord in Agder county), the municipality of Lund lies to the east and north, and the municipality of Eigersund lies to the northwest. The lakes Grøsfjellvatnet and Eiavatnet both lie on the northern border of the municipality. The coastline of Sokndal is fairly smooth, although there are two larger fjords which cut into the municipality: the Rekefjorden and Jøssingfjorden. The Lille Presteskjær Lighthouse marks the entrance to the Rekefjorden. The southeastern part of the municipality is very rocky and rugged. As part of Magma Geopark, much of the landscape is characteristic and open.^[9] It is the site of the large Tellnes mine, a large producer of titanium.^[10]

Climate

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Economy

File:Tellnes.jpg

Tellnes opencast Ilmenite mine

At Tellnes, just east of Hauge i Dalane, there is an ilmenite mine run by Titania AS, supplying 10% of the world production of ilmenite (a type of titanium). It's also the world's largest opencast ilmenite mine.

Government

Sokndal 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.^[11] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sør-Rogaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of Sokndal is made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.