Møre og Romsdal

Map of the three districts in the county. Green is Sunnmøre, purple is Romsdal, and blue is Nordmøre.

The name Møre og Romsdal was created in 1936. The first element refers to the districts of Nordmøre and Sunnmøre, and the last element refers to Romsdal. Until 1919, the county was called "Romsdalens amt", and from 1919-1935 "Møre fylke".

For hundreds of years (1660-1919), the region was called Romsdalen amt, after the Romsdalen valley in the present-day Rauma Municipality. The Old Norse form of the name was Raumsdalr. The first element is the genitive case of a name Raumr derived from the name of the river Rauma, i.e. "The Dale of Rauma". Raumr may refer to stream or current,[4] or to booming or thundering waterfalls like Sletta waterfall.[5] The name may also refer to Raum the Old, one of the sons of Nór, the eponymous Saga King of Norway. Since the majority of the residents of the county lived in the Sunnmøre region, there was some controversy over the name. In 1919, many of the old county names were changed and this county was renamed Møre fylke.

The name Møre was chosen to represent the region where the majority of the county residents lived. That name is dative of Old Norse: Mǿrr (á Mǿri) and it is probably derived from the word marr referring to something wet like bog (common along the outer coast) or the sea itself. The name is interpreted as "coastland" or "bogland". Møre was originally the name of the coastal area from Stad and north including most of Fosen.[6] (There is also a coastal district in Sweden that has the same name: Möre.) The change in name from Romsdalen to Møre was controversial and it did not sit well with the residents of the Romsdal region. Finally in 1936, the name was changed again to a compromise name: Møre og Romsdal (English: Møre and Romsdal).

The ambiguous designation møring—"person from Møre"—is used strictly about people from Nordmøre (and less frequently for people from Sunnmøre), excluding the people from Romsdal (while, consequently, romsdaling—"person from Romsdal"— is used about the latter).

The coat of arms was granted on 15 March 1978. It shows three gold-colored Viking ships on a blue background. Shipping and shipbuilding were historically very important to the region, so boats were chosen as the symbol on the arms. The masts on the Viking ships form crosses, which symbolize the strong Christian and religious beliefs as well as the strong religious organisations in the county. There are three boats to represent the three districts of the county: Sunnmøre, Romsdal and Nordmøre.[7]

Traditionally, the county has been divided into three districts. From north to south, these are Nordmøre, Romsdal, and Sunnmøre. Although the districts do not have separate governments and despite modern road, sea and air connections throughout the county, the three districts still have their own identities in many ways. Historically speaking, connections have been stronger between Nordmøre and Sør-Trøndelag to the north, Romsdal and Oppland to the east, and Sunnmøre and Sogn og Fjordane to the south, than internally. Differences in dialects between the three districts bear clear evidence of this. Due to geographical features, the county has many populated islands and is intersected by several deep fjords. Due to its difficult terrain, Møre og Romsdal has been very dependent on boat traffic, and its main car ferry company, MRF, has existed since 1921.

Municipalities

Møre og Romsdal has a total of 26 municipalities.[10][11]

Municipal Number	Name	Adm. Centre	Location in the county	Established	Includes (former municipalities)
1505	Kristiansund	Kristiansund		1 Jan 2008	1554 Bremsnes (part) 1555 Grip 1556 Frei
1506	Molde	Molde		1 Jan 2020	1542 Eresfjord og Vistdal 1543 Nesset 1544 Bolsøy 1545 Midsund 1545 Sør-Aukra
1507	Ålesund	Ålesund		1 Jan 2020	1523 Ørskog 1529 Skodje 1530 Vatne 1531 Borgund 1534 Haram 1546 Sandøy (part)
1511	Vanylven	Fiskåbygd		1 Jan 1838	1512 Syvde 1513 Rovde (part)
1514	Sande	Larsnes		1 Jan 1867	1513 Rovde (part)
1515	Herøy	Fosnavåg		1 Jan 1838
1516	Ulstein	Ulsteinvik		1 Jan 1838
1517	Hareid	Hareid		1 Jan 1917
1520	Ørsta	Ørsta		1 Aug 1883	1521 Vartdal 1522 Hjørundfjord
1525	Stranda	Stranda		1 Jan 1838	1523 Sunnylven
1528	Sykkylven	Aure		1 Aug 1883
1531	Sula	Langevåg		1 Jan 1977
1532	Giske	Valderhaugstrand		1 Jan 1908	1533 Vigra
1535	Vestnes	Vestnes		1 Jan 1838	1536 Tresfjord
1539	Rauma	Åndalsnes		1 Jan 1964	1537 Voll 1537 Eid og Voll 1538 Eid 1539 Grytten 1540 Hen 1541 Veøy (part)
1547	Aukra	Falkhytta		1 Jan 1838	1546 Sandøy (part)
1554	Averøy	Bruhagen		1 Jan 1964	1552 Kornstad 1553 Kvernes 1554 Bremsnes
1557	Gjemnes	Batnfjordsøra		1 Sep 1893	1553 Kvernes (part) 1558 Øre
1560	Tingvoll	Tingvollvågen		1 Jan 1838	1559 Straumsnes 1564 Stangvik (part)
1563	Sunndal	Sunndalsøra		1 Jan 1838	1561 Øksendal 1562 Ålvundeid 1564 Stangvik (part)
1566	Surnadal	Skei		1 Jan 1838	1564 Stangvik (part) 1565 Åsskard
1573	Smøla	Hopen		1 Jan 1960	1573 Edøy 1574 Brattvær 1575 Hopen
1576	Aure	Aure		1 Jan 1838	1568 Stemshaug 1570 Valsøyfjord 1572 Tustna
1577	Volda	Volda		1 Jan 1838	1444 Hornindal 1518 Dalsfjord
1578	Fjord	Stordal		1 Jan 2020	1524 Norddal 1526 Stordal
1579	Hustadvika	Elnesvågen		1 Jan 2020	1548 Fræna 1549 Bud 1550 Hustad 1551 Eide

Religion in Møre og Romsdal[12][13]
religion			percent
Christianity			90.23%
Islam			0.39%
Buddhism			0.12%
Other			9.26%

Møre og Romsdal is served by nine airports, of which only the four airports located near the four largest centres have regular domestic flights. The largest airport in the county is Ålesund Airport, Vigra, which offers the only scheduled international routes from any airport in Møre og Romsdal. Ålesund Airport had 732,614 passengers in 2006. Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget, had 364,350 passengers in 2007, while Molde Airport, Årø, had 401,292, down from 444,677 in 2006. Ørsta–Volda Airport, Hovden, had 49,842 passengers in 2006. None of the airports in Møre og Romsdal offer regular flights to each other.[14]

In 2007, Møre og Romsdal had 6,339 kilometres (3,939 mi) of public roads, an increase of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) since the previous year, as well as 4,258 kilometres (2,646 mi) of private roads, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) more than in 2006.[15]

There is one railway, the Rauma Line, which starts at Åndalsnes and connects to the main railway network of Norway. Public buses are operated by the county, using the brand name Fram.

The county (with its current borders) was established in 1671 - but after just four years (in 1675) it was divided into two amts (counties): Romsdal (which included Nordmøre) and Sunnmøre (which included Nordfjord). In 1680 (only 5 years later), Sunnmøre (including Nordfjord) was merged into Bergenhus amt. Then in 1689 (another 9 years later), the three regions of Romsdal, Sunnmøre and Nordmøre were again merged into one amt/county: Romsdalen. Then in 1701 (another 11 years later) Romsdalen amt was split and divided between Trondhjems amt (which got Romsdal and Nordmøre) and Bergenhus amt (which got Sunnmøre). In 1704 (a mere 4 years later), the three regions of Romsdal, Sunnmøre and Nordmøre were again merged into one county. The borders of the county have not been changed much since 1704. The annex parish of Vinje within the larger Hemne parish was transferred from Romsdalens amt to Søndre Trondhjems amt in 1838 (according to the 1838 Formannskapsdistrikt law, a parish could no longer be divided between two counties, so Vinje had to be in the same county as the rest of the parish). On 1 January 2019, the municipality of Rindal was transferred from Møre og Romsdal county to the neighboring Trøndelag county. On 1 January 2020, the municipality of Halsa will become part of the new municipality of Heim in Trøndelag county.

Edøy Church

In 2019, archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, using large-scale high-resolution georadar technology, determined that a 17 meter long Viking ship was buried on the island of Edøya near Edøy Church. They estimate the ship's age as over 1,000 years: from the Merovingian or Viking period; the group planned to conduct additional searches in the area. A similar burial was found previously by a NIKU team in 2018, in Gjellestad.[17]

• Augustinius Neldal Lossius

• Møre og Romsdal county
• Media related to Møre og Romsdal at Wikimedia Commons
• Møre og Romsdal travel guide from Wikivoyage