Fron is a former municipality in the old Oppland county, Norway. The 2,389-square-kilometre (922 sq mi) municipality has existed twice: from 1838-1851 and again from 1966-1977. The municipality was dissolved in 1977 and split up into the present-day municipalities of Nord-Fron and Sør-Fron which are both part of Innlandet county. The administrative centre of Fron was the village of Hundorp where the Sør-Fron Church is located.[3]
History
The prestegjeld of Fron was established as a civil municipality on 1 January 1838 when the new formannskapsdistrikt law went into effect. On 1 January 1851, the municipality was divided in two. The northwest portion became Nord-Fron Municipality (population: 4,685) and the southeast portion became Sør-Fron Municipality (population: 3,421). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the Sjoa area (population: 413) was transferred from Nord-Fron to the neighboring municipality of Sel. Then, on 1 January 1966, the municipalities of Nord-Fron (population: 5,758) and Sør-Fron (population: 3,648) were merged to form a new Fron Municipality (with similar borders to the old Fron municipality that existed from 1838-1851 minus the Sjoa area which was then part of Sel). This merger was not well-liked among the residents of the new municipality. On 1 January 1977, the merger was reversed and Nord-Fron (population: 6,131) and Sør-Fron (population: 3,509) were recreated using their old borders from 1965.[3][4]
Since that time, there have been talks about reuniting the two municipalities once again, but the plans have not come to pass. In the 2010s, Nord-Fron, Sør-Fron, and Ringebu looked into merging, but this did not happen. Nord-Fron also made inquiries to merge with Sel, but this did not happen either.[5]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Fron farm (Old Norse: Frón) since the first Fron Church was built there. The meaning of the name is uncertain, but it may come from the word frón which means "earth" or "land".[6]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Fron was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
Note: On 1 January 1966, Sør-Fron Municipality and Nord-Fron Municipality were merged into Fron Municipality. The first council was the merger of the two old councils for Sør-Fron and Nord-Fron.
