Siljan, Norway

Siljan kommune
Siljan kommune
	Municipality
	Coat of arms Vestfold og Telemark within ; Norway
	Siljan within Vestfold og Telemark
	Coordinates: 59°17′51″N 9°42′23″E
Country	Norway
County	Vestfold og Telemark
District	Grenland
Administrative centre	Siljan
Government
• Mayor (2007)	Ole Kristian Holtan (Ap)
Area
• Total	214 km2 (83 sq mi)
• Land	202 km2 (78 sq mi)
Area rank	324 in Norway
Population (2004)
• Total	2,349
• Rank	314 in Norway
• Density	12/km2 (30/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	3.1%
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-3812
Official language form	Neutral[1]
Website	www.siljan.kommune.no
	Data from Statistics Norway

Siljan is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Siljan. The parish of Slemdal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The name was later changed to Siljan.

The municipality is located northeast of Skien and borders Buskerud county in the north and Vestfold og Telemark county in the east. There is a forest district on both sides of Skiensvassdraget (Skien river). The older main road to Skien, Larvik, and Oslo, passes through Siljan.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Siljan farm (Old Norse: Seljur), since the first church was built there. The name is (probably) the plural form of selja which means "sallow tree" or "willow". Prior to 1918, the name of the municipality was Slemdal.[2]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted in 1989. The arms show three white saw blades on a green background. It was chosen to represent the timber industry of the municipality.

Notable people

Kristian Norheim (born 1976) a Norwegian politician, municipal councillor in Siljan, 1995 to 1999

References

"Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.
Rygh, Oluf (1914). Norske gaardnavne: Bratsbergs amt (dokpro.uio.no) (in Norwegian) (7 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius bogtrikkeri. p. 93.

External links

Media related to Siljan at Wikimedia Commons
Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
Telemark travel guide from Wikivoyage

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.

[2] Rygh, Oluf (1914). Norske gaardnavne: Bratsbergs amt (dokpro.uio.no) (in Norwegian) (7 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius bogtrikkeri. p. 93.