The municipality is located in the Lofoten Islands and comprises the entire island of Flakstadøya and the northern part of the island of Moskenesøya, plus many smaller islets surrounding the main islands. The European route E10 highway runs across the whole municipality.
The 179-square-kilometre (69sqmi) municipality is the 312th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Flakstad is the 318th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,229. The municipality's population density is 6.9 inhabitants per square kilometre (18/sqmi) and its population has decreased by 10.2% over the previous 10-year period.[5][6]
General information
Flakstad churchSkagsanden beach, FlakstadNusfjord is a small harbor with traditional rorbus.
The municipality of Flakstad was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 July 1916, the southern part of the municipality (population: 1,306) was separated to form the new Moskenes Municipality. This left Flakstad with 1,667 residents.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Flakstad Municipality (population: 2,067) was merged into the neighboring Moskenes Municipality (population: 2,001), creating a new, larger Moskenes Municipality. This merger, however, only lasted for twelve years. On 1 January 1976, the merger was undone with Moskenes Municipality (population: 1,705) and Flakstad Municipality (population: 2,007) becoming separate municipalities once again.[7]
Name
Flakstad
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Flakstad farm (Old Norse: Flakstaðir or Flatarstaðir) since the first Flakstad Church was built there. The first element of the name is uncertain. It may come from the word flak which may have meant "reckless". Another option is that it derived from the word flag which meant "rock wall", possibly referring to the large cliff near the church site. The last element is the plural form of staðr which means "homestead", "abode", or "farm".[8][9]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 14 July 1989. The official blazon is "Azure, a mooring bollard argent" (Norwegian: I blått en sølv tørnbolt). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a mooringbollard which is a type of fixed device used for tying a hawser line from a boat to the dock. The mooring bollard has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The blue color in the field symbolizes the importance of the sea and the mooring bollard was chosen to represent the municipality's seafaring history. The arms were designed by Jorunn Thomassen and Jarle Henriksen.[10][11][12]
The municipality's economy is dominated by fishing. The fishing fleet mainly consists of small boats. There are also several fish farm in Flakstad. There is some agriculture in Flakstad, but mostly cattle and sheep farming rather than growing crops.[9]
The municipal council(Kommunestyre) of Flakstad is made up of 11 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
The mayor (Norwegian: ordfører) of Flakstad is the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who have held this position (incomplete list):[30]
Located near the southern end of the Lofotenarchipelago, Flakstad comprises all of the island of Flakstadøya and the northern part of the island of Moskenesøya. The islands are connected by the Fredvang Bridges and the Kåkern Bridge. The large lake Solbjørnvatnet lies on the northern part of Moskenesøya in Flakstad. The highest point in the municipality is the 938.71-metre (3,079.8ft) tall mountain Stjerntinden.[1]
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