Steigen Municipality

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Steigen (Script error: No such module "IPA".)Template:Needs IPA 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 Leinesfjorden. Other villages include Leirvikbogen, Leines, Nordfold, Nordskot, and Sørskot. Engeløy Airport, Grådussan is located in the northern part of the municipality. Måløy–Skarholmen Lighthouse is located in the Vestfjorden in the western part of the municipality. The only road access to the municipality is via the Steigen Tunnel.

The Script error: No such module "convert". municipality is the 114th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Steigen Municipality is the 245th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,672. The municipality's population density is Script error: No such module "convert". and its population has increased by 3.6% over the previous 10-year period.^[1]^[2]

General information

The municipality of Steigen was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The southern part of Steigen Municipality was separated on 1 September 1900 to form the new Ledingen Municipality. This left 2,216 residents in Steigen Municipality.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place. A new Steigen Municipality was created by the merging the following areas:

all of Steigen Municipality (population: 1,829)
all of Leiranger Municipality (population: 1,397)
most of Nordfold Municipality except the Mørsvikbotn area (population: 1,212)
the small Brennsund area of Kjerringøy Municipality (population: 30)
the part of Hamarøy Municipality that was south of the Sagfjorden and between the lake Storvatnet and the Veggfjellan mountain area (population: 77)

Prior to the merger, the population of Steigen Municipality was 1,843, and after the merger, the new municipality had 4,545 residents.^[3]^[4]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Steigen farm (Template:Langx) since the first Steigen Church was built there. The name is derived from the verb Script error: No such module "Lang". which means "mount" or "rise". This is referring to the high and steep mountain Steigtinden (-tinden means "the peak") behind the farm.^[5]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 12 October 1988, but they were not formally approved by the government until 11 January 1991. The official blazon is "Or three axe blades sable in bend" (Template:Langx). This means the arms have a field (background) that 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 three axe heads from the Viking Age that are lined up diagonally. The design was chosen to represent the Viking history of the municipality. There are three axe heads to represent that three municipalities were merged in 1964 to form the present municipality. The arms were designed by Henry Tømmerås, the municipal cultural secretary at the time.^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

Churches

The Church of Norway has three parishes (Script error: No such module "Lang".) within Steigen Municipality. It is part of the Salten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

Churches in Steigen Municipality
Parish (Script error: No such module "Lang".)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Leiranger	Leiranger Church	Leines	1911
	Leinesfjord Chapel	Leinesfjorden	1912
	Sørskot Chapel	Sørskot	1953
Nordfold	Nordfold Church	Nordfold	1976
Steigen	Steigen Church	Steigen (Engeløya)	1250
Steigen	Bogen Chapel	Leirvikbogen	1926

Part of the old garden at Løvøy

Part of the old garden at Løvøy
Steigen Sagaspill (historical play), based on an old tale

Steigen Sagaspill (historical play), based on an old tale
Løvøy old trading centre in Steigen

Løvøy old trading centre in Steigen

Geography

File:Brennviksanden.jpg

Brennviksanden beach and Vestfjord seen from the 1048 m high mountain Kråktind

The municipality is located along the coast of the Vestfjorden, about Script error: No such module "convert". north of the town of Bodø, well inside the Arctic Circle. The road to Steigen departs from European route E6 and makes use of the Script error: No such module "convert". long Steigentunnelen (see World's longest tunnels). Steigen borders Hamarøy Municipality in the north and Sørfold Municipality to the south. The Vestfjorden and Lofoten are located west of Steigen. The Sagfjorden lies on the north and the Folda fjord in the south.

The municipality is mainly located on a peninsula dissected by many fjords. Steigen also includes several islands. The largest island is Engeløya, where there are ancient burial mounds (such as Sigarshaugen) and the world's most northerly naturally occurring Hazel forest in Prestegårdsskogen Nature Reserve. The largest glacier is Helldalsisen encircling a Script error: No such module "convert". mountain. The island of Engeløya is connected to the mainland by the Engeløy Bridges and just to the north of that lies the uninhabited island of Lundøya. The highest point in the municipality is the Script error: No such module "convert". tall mountain Helldalisen.^[10]

File:Steigen breivikamotbrattfjorden.jpg

Steigen winter panorama

Steigen has fertile lowlands in between the mountains and the sea. There are several archeological sites showing settlements from the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Viking Age. Lakes in the region include Forsanvatnet, Hopvatnet, Makkvatnet, and Straumfjordvatnet.

Climate

The monthly 24-hr averages range from Script error: No such module "convert". in January and February to Script error: No such module "convert". in July and August, with precipitation ranging from Script error: No such module "convert". in May to Script error: No such module "convert". in October; annual average is Script error: No such module "convert". and mean annual temperature is Script error: No such module "convert"..^[11]

Government

Steigen 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.^[12] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Salten og Lofoten District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of Steigen Municipality is made up of 17 representatives that are elected for four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.