Osterøy

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Osterøy kommune

County	Hordaland
District
Municipality	NO-1253
Administrative centre	Lonevåg
Mayor (2003 Adelheid)
Official language form	Nynorsk
Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage	Ranked 288 275 km² 270 km² 0.08 %
Population  - Total (2004)  - Percentage  - Change (10 years)  - Density	Ranked 140 7,174 0.16 % 2.8 % 27/km²
Coordinates	60°31′N, 5°32′E
www.osteroy.kommune.no Data from Statistics Norway

Coordinates: 60°31′N, 5°32′E

Osterøy is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Osterøy is the largest inland island in Norway. It is located just northeast of Bergen, surrounded by the fjords Osterfjorden and Sørfjorden. Nineteenth century musician and composer Ole Bull had a home on the island at Valestrand. The Havrå farm is located on the island.

The town hall is located in Lonevåg in the centre of the island. The village with the biggest population is Valestrandsfossen with 953 inhabitants ^[1]. The mayor is Adelheid from the Norwegian Labour Party.

Contents 1 The name 2 Coat-of-arms 3 History 4 References

[edit] The name

The Norse form of the name was (just) Óstr. (The last element øy f 'island' was added later.) The meaning of the name is unknown. (Maybe identical with the word óstr m 'the arch of the neck' - words for parts of the body are common in Norwegian place names.)

[edit] Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1985). It shows three broad axes. (Used in the construction of timber houses - which has long traditions in the municipality.)

[edit] History

On January 1, 1964 a part of Haus municipality located on the island Osterøy was moved to Osterøy municipality ^[2].

[edit] References

Municipalities of Hordaland
Askøy | Austevoll | Austrheim | Bergen | Bømlo | Eidfjord | Etne | Fedje | Fitjar | Fjell | Fusa | Granvin | Jondal | Kvam | Kvinnherad | Lindås | Masfjorden | Meland | Modalen | Odda | Os | Osterøy | Radøy | Samnanger | Stord | Sund | Sveio | Tysnes | Ullensvang | Ulvik | Vaksdal | Voss | Øygarden