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Herdla

Herdla Municipality Herdla herad
Former municipality
Herlø herred  (historic name)
Aerial view of the island
Hordaland within Norway
Herdla within Hordaland
Coordinates: 60°34′24″N 04°56′51″E / 60.57333°N 4.94750°E / 60.57333; 4.94750
Country	Norway
County	Hordaland
District	Nordhordland
Established	1 Jan 1871
• Preceded by	Manger Municipality
Disestablished	1 Jan 1964
• Succeeded by	Askøy, Fjell, Meland, Radøy, and Øygarden municipalities
Administrative centre	Herdla
Area  (upon dissolution)
• Total	115 km2 (44 sq mi)
Population  (1963)
• Total	4,991
• Density	43/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1258[1]
Data from Statistics Norway

Herdla is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1871 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality encompassed a large group of about 2,000 islands and skerries covering about 115-square-kilometre (44 sq mi) of land area, to the northwest of the city of Bergen in what is now parts of Øygarden, Alver, and Askøy municipalities in Vestland county. The administrative centre of the municipality was the small island-village of Herdla. The municipality included the northern third of the island of Holsnøy, the northern third of the island of Askøy, and the islands of Misje, Turøy, Toftøy, Rongøy, Blomøy, Ona, Bognøy, and many smaller surrounding islands.^[2]

On 1 January 1871, the western island district of the municipality of Manger was separated to form the new municipality of Herlø (an old spelling that was changed to Herdla in 1917). Initially, the municipality had 2,484 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. In January 1964, the municipality of Herdla was dissolved and its land was split up as follows:^[3]

• the islands of Misje and Turøy (population: 404) became part of Fjell Municipality
• the island of Herdla and all of Herdla on the island of Askøy (population: 1,564) became part of Askøy Municipality
• all of Herdla on the island of Holsnøy (population: 811) became part of Meland Municipality
• all of Herdla located west of the Hjeltefjorden (population: 2,131) became part of Øygarden Municipality
• the island of Bognøy (population: 29) became part of Radøy Municipality

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Herlø farm (Old Norse: Herðla) since the first Herdla Church was built there. The meaning of the name is uncertain. One possibility is that it is derived from hǫrðar which is the old name for a person from medieval Hordaland. Another possibility is that it means "to split" or "to divorce", likely referring to the fact that the island on which the farm is located is separated from Askøya by the narrow Herdlesundet strait.^[4][2] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Herlø. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Herdla.^[5]

Herdla Church (Herdla kirke) dates back to 1863. The stone structure has 600 seats. The original church was demolished in the 19th century because it had too little space for the congregation.

During the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, the tower and the roofs were removed because of the belief that the British Royal Air Force used the church to navigate attacks on the west coast of Norway. The church was restored during 1910, 1935, and 1950.

During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal councilofdirectly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[6]

The municipal council (Heradsstyre) of Herdla was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Herdla.

• List of former municipalities of Norway