Gausdal Municipality Gausdal kommune
Municipality
View of the Aulstad Church area in Gausdal
Flag Coat of arms
Innlandet within Norway
Gausdal within Innlandet
Coordinates: 61°16′36″N 9°55′21″E / 61.27667°N 9.92250°E / 61.27667; 9.92250
Country	Norway
County	Innlandet
District	Gudbrandsdal
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Disestablished	1879
• Succeeded by	Vestre Gausdal and Østre Gausdal
Re-established	1 Jan 1962
• Preceded by	Vestre Gausdal and Østre Gausdal
Administrative centre	Segalstad bru
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Anette Musdalslien (Sp)
Area
• Total	1,191.16 km2 (459.91 sq mi)
• Land	1,146.41 km2 (442.63 sq mi)
• Water	44.74 km2 (17.27 sq mi)  3.8%
• Rank	#91 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	6,129
• Rank	#157 in Norway
• Density	5.3/km2 (14/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−0.2%
Demonym	Gausdøl[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Neutral
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-3441[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segalstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forset, and Svingvoll.

The 1,191-square-kilometre (460 sq mi) municipality is the 91st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Gausdal is the 157th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 6,129. The municipality's population density is 5.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (14/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 0.2% over the previous 10-year period.^[4][5]

Logging, farming, and tourism are important industries in the municipality.

General information

The parish of Gausdal was established as a civil municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1867, a small area of neighboring Øyer Municipality (population: 40) was transferred into Gausdal. In 1879, the municipality of Gausdal was divided into two separate municipalities: Vestre Gausdal in the northwest (population: 2,362) and Østre Gausdal in the southeast (population: 5,911). On 27 July 1956, a small area of Sør-Fron municipality (population: 7) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Vestre Gausdal. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the two municipalities of Vestre Gausdal (population: 2,590) and Østre Gausdal (population: 3,942) were merged into a new Gausdal Municipality.^[6]

Coat of arms

Skeikampen mountain – the outline is the inspiration for the municipal arms.

The coat of arms was granted on 19 September 1986. The official blazon is "Per fess azure and argent, a single stair step section slanting outwards" (Norwegian: Delt av blått og sølv ved enkelt trappesnitt skrått utover). This means the arms have are divided with a line that is divided horizontally in the shape of a stair step that is slanting to the right. The field (background) above the line has a tincture of blue. Below the line, the field has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The arms were designed to mimic the shape of one of the main mountains in the municipality, Skeikampen. The bottom argent part represents the snowy mountain and the top blue part represents the sky. The arms were designed by Inger Line Thallaug. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^{[8][9][10][11]}

History

Number of minorities (1st and 2nd generation) in Gausdal by country of origin in 2017^[12]

Ancestry	Number
Poland	84
Denmark	42
Lithuania	36
Germany	27
Thailand	24
Somalia	23
Sweden	16

The old Follebu Church was built of stone in the early Middle Ages (around 1250). It is unusual in that the chancel and nave were built as one continuous piece.

In the 1880s, there was mining for nickel in the Espedalen valley in the northwest part of the municipality. The search for nickel was taken up again in 2004 by Blackstone Venture, a Canadian company. As of 2006, they are still drilling for mineral samples only.

Geography

An old barn at Torshov farm in Vang to the west. Gausdal resident Abraham Pihl was the architect.

Gausdal is bordered on the northwest by Sør-Fron Municipality, on the northeast by Ringebu Municipality and Øyer Municipality, on the southeast by Lillehammer Municipality, on the south by Nordre Land Municipality, and on the southwest by Nord-Aurdal Municipality and Øystre Slidre Municipality.

The famous Peer Gynt mountain road begins here and leads to the town of Vinstra.

A popular ski area is located on the south slope of Skeikampen mountain.

Western tributaries of the Gudbrandsdalslågen river include the Gausa River, which flows through Gausdalen valley. The lake Dokkfløyvatn is located in the municipality.

Norway's smallest national park, Ormtjernkampen National Park, lies within the municipality.

Government

Gausdal 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.^[13] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Vestre Innlandet District Court and the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

Notable people

The Arts

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, 1909

• Simen Fougner (1701 in Follebu – 1783), a Norwegian farmer, poet, and non-fiction writer
• Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910), a Norwegian author and Nobel Prize in Literature winner in 1903; lived in Aulestad in Follebu, 1874-1910
• Iver Holter (1850 in Gausdal – 1941), a composer and conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1882-1886
• Ole Amundsen Buslett (1855 in Gausdal – 1924), a Norwegian-American author, newspaperman, and politician
• Clara Tschudi (1856–1945), a Norwegian writer who lived in Gausdal
• Hans Aanrud (1863–1953), a writer of plays, poetry, and stories of rural life in Gudbrandsdalen; raised in Auggedalen
• Inge Krokann (1893 – 1962 in Gausdal), a writer who wrote idiosyncratic nynorsk works
• Carl Gustav Sparre Olsen (1903–1984), a violinist and composer of Norwegian folk tunes; lived in Gausdal from 1947-1966
• Magne Elvestrand (1914 in Østre Gausdal – 1991), a pianist, harpsichordist, and organist
• Else Kveine, (Norwegian Wiki) (1933 in Gausdal - 2013), a Norwegian poet

Sister cities

Gausdal has sister city agreements with the following places:^[31]

• – Mora, Dalarna County, Sweden

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gausdal.

Look up Gausdal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Innlandet travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Gudbrandsdalen travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Tourist information
• Gausdølen - local newspaper (in Norwegian)
• Art of the States: Bright Days of Little Sunlight musical work inspired by the mountains near Gausdal