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Austrheim

Austrheim kommune
Municipality
Mongstad.1.jpg
Coat of arms of Austrheim kommune
Coat of arms
Official logo of Austrheim kommune
Hordaland within
Norway
Austrheim within Hordaland
Austrheim within Hordaland
Coordinates: 60°46′16″N 04°55′34″E / 60.77111°N 4.92611°E / 60.77111; 4.92611Coordinates: 60°46′16″N 04°55′34″E / 60.77111°N 4.92611°E / 60.77111; 4.92611
Country Norway
County Hordaland
District Nordhordland
Administrative centre Årås
Government
 • Mayor (2011) Per Lerøy (Ap)
Area
 • Total 57.55 km2 (22.22 sq mi)
 • Land 56.82 km2 (21.94 sq mi)
 • Water 0.73 km2 (0.28 sq mi)
Area rank 420 in Norway
Population (2014)
 • Total 2,833
 • Rank 279 in Norway
 • Density 49.9/km2 (129/sq mi)
 • Change (10 years) 11.8 %
Demonym(s) Austrheiming
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-1264
Official language form Nynorsk
Website www.austrheim.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Austrheim is a municipality in the Nordhordland region of Hordaland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Årås. Other villages in the municipality include Austrheim and Kaland. The Mongstad industrial area lies along the border of Austrheim and neighboring Lindås municipality. The westernmost point of mainland Norway lies in the municipality at Vardetangen.

In 2016 the chief of police formally suggested that the police station in Austrheim og Fedje, be closed down.

Historically, Austrheim was a part of the large municipality of Lindås. On 1 January 1910, the northwestern district of Lindås (population: 2,518) was separated from Lindås to form the new municipality of Austrheim. On 1 January 1947, all of the islands located west of the Fedjefjorden (population: 920) was separated to form the new municipality of Fedje. On 1 January 1964, the Straume area on the island of Radøy (population: 56) was transferred from Austrheim to the new municipality of Radøy.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Austrheim farm (Old Norse: Austrheimr), since the first church (Austrheim Church) was built there. The first element is austr which means "east" and the last element is heimr which means "homestead" or "farm". Until 1889, the name was written Østereim. After that the spelling was Austreim, and most recently it is spelled Austrheim.

The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted on 17 February 1989. It shows three silver bows (as in the shape of a rainbow) on a blue background. The three bows represent the many bridges in the island municipality.


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Wikipedia

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