Country Norway Administrative centre Leksvik Demonym(s) Leksværing Population 3,522 (2011) Official language form Norwegian Language | County Nord-Trøndelag Area rank 230 in Norway Time zone CET (UTC+1) Local time Wednesday 9:04 AM | |
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Weather 2°C, Wind W at 37 km/h, 82% Humidity Area 430.2 km² (399.7 km² Land / 30.53 km² Water) | ||
Leksvik is a village and a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Leksvik. Other villages in Leksvik include Vanvikan, Seter, and Dalbygda. Norwegian County Road 755 is the main road that connects the whole municipality from north to south.
Contents
- Map of 7120 Leksvik Norway
- General information
- Name
- Coat of arms
- Churches
- Geography
- Government
- Municipal council
- History
- Attractions
- References
Map of 7120 Leksvik, Norway
The 1.18-square-kilometre (290-acre) village of Leksvik has a population (2013) of 1,092. The population density of the village is 925 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,400/sq mi). Leksvik and Vanvikan are especially known for their high tech industries which have developed to become advanced and in demand. Areas with agriculture are also widespread, but most of the municipality is covered in forests and mountains where the wildlife rules with animals such as moose and reindeer. The moose go all the way down to the heart of Leksvik and Vanvikan, where modern downtown areas with commercial and residential developments are growing.
General information
Leksvik was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). It is one of very few municipalities in Norway with unchanged borders since that date.
Name
The Old Norse form of the name was Lexuvík. The first element is the genitive case of a river name Lexa and the last element is vík which means "inlet". The river name is, maybe, derived from the word lax which means "salmon". The name has also, historically, been spelled Lexvigen or Leksviken.
Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times; they were granted on 28 September 1990. The arms show the blue Trondheim Fjord and a silver part representing the land with a clover at the end of it to represent life and growth.
Churches
The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Leksvik. It is part of the Fosen deanery and the Diocese of Nidaros.
Geography
Leksvik is located on the eastern side of the Fosen peninsula along the coast of Trondheim Fjord. There are two large lakes located in Leksvik: Storvatnet and Meltingvatnet.
Government
All municipalities in Norway, including Leksvik, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.
Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Leksvik is made up of 25 representatives that are elected to every four years. Currently, the party breakdown is as follows:
History
The first inhabitants are believed to have moved to Leksvik some 3,000 years ago. They left several pieces of cutting tools which are now placed in museums. But Leksvik does not appear in recorded history before the Viking Age when the villages Leksvik and Hindrem became quite important in the local area. In both Leksvik and Hindrem there have been found great tombs and ruins of buildings and longboats. On Borgen, there is a hill between Hindrem and Seter that may have been a great Viking fortress, but this could also be tracks made by the glaciers during the last ice age. After the Black Death struck Norway in 1349, Leksvik fell into silence for some 300 years.
In more modern history, Leksvik and Hindrem are small and relatively isolated villages, north of Trondheim Fjord. Two churches stood here, a church in Leksvik and a stave church in Hindrem, but this broke down in 1655 and was replaced by a modern wooden church. In the 19th century, the church of Hindrem was demolished, and the new Stranda Church was built in Vanvikan. Leksvik became well known for its goats and had 5,000 of them at their peak number.
During World War II, Leksvik was settled by German troops with the main camp on the top of Våttåhaugen, a hill north of the village of Leksvik. But as a small and isolated village, nothing of great importance happened there during the war, and it was mostly peaceful although bombs fell over Trondheim, on the south side of the fjord. After electric power first came to Leksvik, Bjørn Lyng founded the first industry in Vanvikan and Leksvik. After the first road was finally finished in the early 1960s, industry grew rapidly and replaced the goats.