Gjesdal

Infobox_Kommune
name = Gjesdal
idnumber = 1122

---

county = Rogaland
landscape = Jæren
capital = Ålgård
demonym = Gjesdalbu
language = Neutral


munwebpage = www.gjesdal.kommune.no
governor = Olaug V. Bollestad (KrF)
governor_as_of = 2007
arearank = 179
area = 618
arealand = 558
areapercent = 0.19
population_as_of = 2004
populationrank = 110
population = 9,248
populationpercent = 0.20
populationdensity = 17
populationincrease = 15.6
lat_deg = 58 | lat_min = 46 | lat_sec = 55 | lon_deg = 6 | lon_min = 0 | lon_sec = 31
utm_zone = 32V | utm_northing = 6519634 | utm_easting = 0327093 | geo_cat = adm2nd

Gjesdal is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. In the north west the municipality borders Sandnes, to the north Forsand, to the east Sirdal, to the south Bjerkreim, and to the west Time.

"Gjæsdal" was established as a municipality in 1838, and in 1965 it was merged with parts of Bjerkreim, Forsand, and Høle.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old "Gjesdal" farm (Old Norse: "Gesdalir"), since the first church was built there. The first element is probably an old river name and the last element is the plural form of "dalr" which means "valley" or "dale".

Before 1889, the name was written "Gjæsdal", which is the Danish spelling. During the period from 1889-1917 it was spelled "Gjesdal" (Norwegian language version). Then from 1918-1964 it was spelled "Gjestal" (German language version). In 1964, the spelling was changed back to the Norwegian language form of "Gjesdal".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 15 March 1985. The arms show a sheep's head as a symbol for the sheep breeding and the oldest industry in the village, the textile industry. Both were of great importance in historical times in the municipality. [cite web|url=http://www.ngw.nl/int/nor/g/gjesdal.htm|author=Norske Kommunevåpen|date=1990|title=Nye kommunevåbener i Norden|accessdaymonth=8 October|accessyear=2008]

History

The parish of "Gjæsdal" was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). According to the 1835 census the municipality had a population of 862.

On 1 January 1965, Gjestal (pop: 3,353) was merged with Frafjord, Dirdal, Byrkjedal, Øvre Maudal and Østabødal districts of Forsand (pop: 621), Nedre Maudal of Bjerkreim (pop: 40) and Oltesvik of Høle (pop: 37), greatly increasing the area of the municipality.

On 1 January 1970 and on 1 January 1989, there were small boundary changes along Gjesdal's border with Time.cite web|first=Dag|last=Jukvam|publisher=Statistisk sentralbyrå|title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen|date=1999|url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf no icon] [cite web|url=http://www.rhd.uit.no/dok/nos11.html|title=Hjemmehørende folkemengde Rogaland 1801-1960|author=Registreringssentral for historiske data |publisher=University of Tromsø no icon]

Geography

The waterfall Månafossen, the largest waterfall of the county, is located in the Frafjord valley.

Famous residents

*Finn E. Kydland, winner of Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2004
*Footballer Dagny Mellgren come from Ålgård in Gjesdal.

References