Skånland

Skånland (Skánit) is a former municipality that was located in the old Troms county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1926 until its dissolution in 2020 when it was merged into Tjeldsund Municipality. It was part of the Central Hålogaland region, just southeast of the city of Harstad. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Evenskjer. Other villages included Grovfjord, Renså, Sandstrand, and Tovik. The Tjeldsund Bridge in Skånland connects the island of Hinnøya (the largest coastal island in Norway) to the Norwegian mainland. At the time of its dissolution as a municipality on 1 January 2020, the municipality was the 210th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Skånland was also the 265th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,994. The municipality's population density was and its population has increased by 4.6% over the previous decade. Skånland was established on 1 July 1926 when the large municipality of Trondenes was divided into three municipalities: Sandtorg (population: 4,224) in the southwest, Skånland (population: 2,443) in the southeast, and Trondenes (population: 3,429) in the north. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the neighboring municipality of Astafjord (population: 1,120) was merged into Skånland. On the same date, the part of Skånland on the island of Rolla (population: 143) was transferred to neighboring Ibestad Municipality. On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Skånland and Tjeldsund merged to form a new, larger Tjeldsund Municipality. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Skånland farm (Skánøyjarland) since this was where the first Skånland Church was built in 1870. The first element is the genitive case of an old name for the area (Skánøy). The meaning of this name is uncertain, but it may be of Sami origin, meaning "small mountains" (skánit). The last element is land which means "land" or "farm".