Vang, Hedmark

Vang Municipality Vang herred
Former municipality
View of the local Vang Church
Hedmark within Norway
Vang within Hedmark
Coordinates: 60°48′17″N 11°06′28″E / 60.8048°N 11.1078°E / 60.8048; 11.1078
Country	Norway
County	Hedmark
District	Hedmarken
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Disestablished	1 Jan 1992
• Succeeded by	Hamar Municipality
Administrative centre	Ridabu
Government
• Mayor (1988-1991)	Odd Aspeli (Ap)
Area  (upon dissolution)
• Total	327 km2 (126 sq mi)
Population  (1992)
• Total	9,103
• Density	28/km2 (72/sq mi)
Demonym	Vangssokning[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Bokmål
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-0414[3]
Data from Statistics Norway

Vang is a former municipality in the old Hedmark county, Norway. The 327-square-kilometre (126 sq mi) municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1992 when it became part of Hamar Municipality. The administrative centre of the municipality was at Fredvang. This site, however became part of the town of Hamar in 1946, so after that time, the municipal administration was actually located outside the municipal borders in the neighboring municipality. The main church for the municipality was Vang Church in the village of Ridabu.^[4][5]

Gåsbu Ski Center lies in Vang Almenning, and has served as the backup venue for the Holmenkollrennene. This arena has been described as the cradle of all Nordic ski competition, with more than 112 years of international ski competition. The national cross-country skiing championship was last held here in 2002.

General information

The historic prestegjeld of Vang was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1848, the village of Hamar was granted kjøpstad status for a land area of about 400 decares (99 acres). This newly designated "town" (population: 1,025) was separated from Vang to become a separate municipality in 1849. This left Vang with 7,820 residents. On 1 January 1878, the town of Hamar was enlarged by annexing about 800 decares (200 acres) of land and 138 people from Vang to Hamar. In 1891, the western district of Vang (population: 3,790) was separated from Vang to become the new municipality of Furnes. This left Vang with 5,703 residents. In 1946, a large area in Vang that surrounded the town of Hamar (population: 4,087) was transferred out of Vang and into Hamar. On 13 July 1956, the parts of Vang located south of the Åkersvika bay (population: 24) were transferred to Stange Municipality.^[6][4]

On 1 January 1964, the Hamarsberget and Vikersødegården exclave areas of Vang (population: 34) were transferred to the neighboring Ringsaker Municipality. On 1 January 1967 there was a municipal land swap between Vang and Ringsaker. The 500-decare (120-acre) Stav, Valsigsvea, and Arnkvern Nedre areas of Vang (population: 50) was transferred to Ringsaker Municipality and the 450-decare (110-acre) Stensby and Holmlund areas of Ringsaker (population: 114) was transferred to Vang. On 1 January 1992, the municipality of Vang (population: 9,103) was merged with the town of Hamar (population: 16,351) and parts of the Stensby, Hanstad, Viker, and Stammerud areas of Ringsaker (population: 224) to form the new Hamar Municipality.^[7][4]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Vang farm (Old Norse: Vangr) since the first Vang Church was built there. The name is identical to the word vangr which means "meadow" or "field". Since the municipal consolidation in 1992, the name Øvre Vang (meaning "upper Vang") is used locally as the common name for the area outside the town of Hamar that was once part of the old municipality of Vang.^[5][8]

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Vang. It is part of the Hamar domprosti (arch-deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

History

Early history

Archeological evidence provides ties between the Vendel era culture in Uppland and Vang in the period from 600 to 800 AD. Most notable is finding of a fine examples of a Vendel Culture style ring sword in Vang burial mounds; each sword's hilt is adorned with a heavy gold ring upon which oaths were sworn.^[9] The use of the ring sword is also mentioned in Beowulf and the Eddas.

Åker gård (Aaker farm) in Vang was the site of an ancient Thing (ting) place; it was there that King Magnus I agreed to share power with his uncle Harald Hardråde and the two became co-rulers. In the 11th century the Thing was moved to Eidsvol.

Åker remained a king's farm during the Viking period, as well as a local headquarters for the military. At the end of the Hannibal War, General Georg von Reichwein was granted Åker gård as his residence. During the following years it continued to be the residence of senior military officers. Jørgen Otto Brockenhuus, founder of the Brockenhuss –Schack family, resided there in the early 18th century.^[9]

19th-20th centuries

Vang municipality was established in 1837, when the municipality law came into effect. The municipality borders were those which had been established by a border commission in 1730. It was named after Vang church; since the early Iron Age the region had been known as Ridabu.

In 1847, the executive council majority agreed that Hamar should be restored to kjøpstad status, but the decision was controversial and some believed the basis for the decision was illogical. When Hamar achieved this status in 1849, about 0.4 square kilometres (0.15 sq mi) of land was reassigned to it from Vang. Vang gave up additional land to Hamar in 1878, 1946, 1947 and 1965. In 1891 the district of Furnes was separated from Vang to create a municipality of its own.

The earliest village was Hjellum - a contraction of «Hjellum-by`n». It was there that the train station for the Rørosbanen line between Elverum and Hamar stopped. In the same place Sanderud asylum (now hospital) was located.

During the Second World War, especially after 1944, many resistance fighters hid in Vangsåsa. About 70 persons found refuge in the Norwegian resistance Milorg's district 77 rural huts. On 26 October, German troops assaulted one of the huts and two resistance fighters were killed. A third escaped miraculously.

After 1947 the Østland District Commandos had their headquarters at Åker gård.

After the Second World War more villages developed: Ridabu, Ingeberg, Vangli, and Wik.

Merger with Hamar

The government had been debating merging Vang and Hamar (and sometimes Løten) for several decades. There was strong local opposition in Vang — a referendum held 22 and 23 April 1990 showed 95% of the Vang residents opposed incorporation into Hamar, with a 64.7% turnout rate.^[10] Support in Hamar was stronger as Vang was a prosperous farming municipality, while Hamar suffered from urban decay. The Storting forced the merger which took place on 1 January 1992. The sponsor for the consolidation was Odd Aspeli (of the Arbeiderpartiet). He took over as Mayor in Hamar after consolidation and remained as Mayor until 1999. Another chief sponsor against consolidation, Einar Busterud, then assumed the position of Mayor.^[4]

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[11]

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Vang was made up of 29 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Mayors

The mayors of Vang:

Notable people

• Werner Hosewinckel Christie
• Werner Christie
• Mikkel Dobloug
• Olga Imerslund
• Abraham Pihl
• Matthias Stoltenberg
• Ralph Engelstad (1930-2002), an American whose grandfather Peter emigrated from Vang to Minnesota

See also

• List of former municipalities of Norway

References

• v
• t
• e

Innlandet county, Norway

• Main article: Innlandet
• Capitals: Hamar; Lillehammer
• County government: Innlandet County Municipality
• County lists:
  • County Governors
  • Villages
  • Churches

Towns and cities

• Lillehammer (1827)
• Hamar (1849)
• Kongsvinger (1854)
• Gjøvik (1861)
• Elverum (1996)
• Otta (2000)
• Fagernes (2007)
• Brumunddal (2010)
• Moelv (2010)
• Vinstra (2013)

Municipalities

Gudbrandsdalen	Dovre Gausdal Lesja Lillehammer Lom Nord-Fron Ringebu Sel Skjåk Sør-Fron Vågå Øyer
Valdres	Etnedal Nord-Aurdal Sør-Aurdal Vang Vestre Slidre Øystre Slidre
Vestoppland	Gjøvik Gran Nordre Land Søndre Land Vestre Toten Østre Toten
Glåmdal	Eidskog Grue Kongsvinger Nord-Odal Sør-Odal Våler Åsnes
Hedmarka	Hamar Løten Ringsaker Stange
Østerdalen	Alvdal Elverum Engerdal Folldal Os Rendalen Stor-Elvdal Tolga Trysil Tynset Åmot

Former Municipalities in Innlandet Hedmark   Brandval (1867-1964) Furnes (1891-1964) Hof (1838-1963) Kvikne (1838-1966) Nes (1838-1964) Rendal (1838-1880) Romedal (1838-1964) Sollia (1864-1965) Tolga-Os (1966-1976) Vang (1838-1992) Vinger (1838-1964) Ytre Rendal (1880-1965) Øvre Rendal (1880-1965) Aasnes og Vaaler (1849-1854) Oppland   Biri (1838-1964) Brandbu (1897-1962) Eina (1908-1964) Fluberg (1914-1962) Fron (1838-1851, 1966-1977) Fåberg (1838-1964) Heidal (1908-1965) Kolbu (1908-1964) Land (1838-1847) Slidre (1838-1849) Snertingdal (1910-1964) Sollia (1864-1965) Torpa (1914-1962) Vardal (1838-1964) Vestre Gausdal (1879-1962) Østre Gausdal (1879-1962) Note: The former counties of Hedmark and Oppland were merged to form Innlandet on 1 January 2020.