Stjørdal

Stjørdal () or is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal, also called Stjørdalshalsen. Some of the villages in the municipality include Elvran, Flornes, Hegra, Hell, Kvithammer, Prestmoen, Skatval, Skjelstadmarka, Sona, and Værnes. The municipality is known for the village of Hell which is located in the Lånke area of Stjørdal. Hell is especially known for its train station, Hell Station, where you find the old sign saying Gods-expedition (meaning "Cargo handling"). The municipality is the 125th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Stjørdal is the 50th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 24,287. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 10.1% over the previous 10-year period. The old prestegjeld of Stjørdalen was established as the municipality of Stjørdalen on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1850, Stjørdalen municipality was divided into two new municipalities: Øvre Stjørdal (population: 5,199) in the east and Nedre Stjørdal (population: 6,543) in the west. Later, on 1 January 1874, Øvre Stjørdal municipality was divided into two new municipalities: Hegra (population: 3,409) in the west and Meråker (population: 1,861) in the east. On 1 January 1902, Nedre Stjørdal municipality was divided into three new municipalities: Lånke (population: 1,449) in the south, Skatval (population: 2,125) in the north, and Stjørdal (population: 3,158) in the central part. This Stjørdal was quite small in comparison to its size today, but over time it was expanded. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the municipalities of Stjørdal (population: 6,204), Hegra (population: 2,704), Lånke (population: 1,967), and Skatval (population: 1,944) were all merged to form a much larger municipality of Stjørdal.