Haram, Norway


Haram is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It was part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative center was Brattvåg, the industrial center of Sunnmøre. Other important villages in the municipality included Austnes, Eidsvik, Helle, Longva, Hildrestranda, Søvik, Tennfjord, and Vatne.
Brattvåg IL is a sports club based in the municipality. Tennfjord Mannskor is a male choir from the village of Tennfjord. The Ulla Lighthouse and Hellevik Lighthouse are both located in the northwestern part of the municipality.
At the time if its dissolution in 2020, the municipality is the 294th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Haram is the 122nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 9,345. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 8.4% over the last decade.

General information

The parish of Haram was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. The western island district of Roald was separated from Haram on 1 January 1890 to form the new municipality of Roald. This left 1,956 people left in Haram.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, three municipal changes involving Haram occurred:
These three boundary changes created a much larger municipality of Haram.
On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Haram, Skodje, Ørskog, Sandøy, and Ålesund were merged to form a new, large municipality of Ålesund. This occurred because in June 2017, the Parliament of Norway voted to approve the merger.

Name

The municipality is named after the old Haram farm, since the first Haram Church was built there. The meaning of the first element is unknown and the last element is hamarr which means "rocky hill". Before 1889, the name was written Harham.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 7 August 1987. The arms show three waves in blue with a silver or white background, symbolizing the importance of the sea in this island municipality.

Dialect

The dialect of the district was well known for its practice of H-dropping and the old and traditional pronunciation of the name of the municipality was .

Churches

The Church of Norway has five parishes within the municipality of Haram. It is part of the Nordre Sunnmøre prosti in the Diocese of Møre.
Parish Church nameLocation of the churchYear built
HaramHaram ChurchAustnes1838
HaramLepsøy ChapelLepsøya1896
FjørtoftFjørtoft ChurchFjørtofta1878
VatneVatne ChurchVatne1868
HamnsundHamnsund Churchjust south of Søvik1875
BrattvågBrattvåg ChurchBrattvåg1977
BrattvågHildre ChurchHildrestranda1905

Geography

The municipality of Haram includes many islands including Bjørnøya, Fjørtofta, Haramsøya, Løvsøya, Skuløya, and Terøya. The islands of Bjørnøya and Terøya are connected to the mainland via causeways. The islands of Haramsøya and Skuløya are connected with the Ullasund Bridge. The rest of the islands have ferry connections to the mainland. The new Nordøyvegen bridge and tunnel network will connect all of the main islands of Haram to the mainland when it is completed in 2022. The Haramsfjorden, Vatnefjorden, and Romsdal Fjord all flow through the municipality.
The municipality shares land borders with Vestnes Municipality to the east and Skodje Municipality to the south. The rest of the municipality is surrounded by sea. The municipality also borders Sandøy Municipality and Midsund Municipality to the northeast, Ålesund Municipality to the south, and Giske Municipality to the west.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Haram, are responsible for primary education, 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. The municipality falls under the Sunnmøre District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council of Haram is made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

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