Rollag

This article is about the municipality in Norway. For the community in Minnesota, see Rollag, Minnesota.

Rollag Municipality Rollag kommune
Municipality
Flag Coat of arms
Buskerud within Norway
Rollag within Buskerud
Coordinates: 60°1′2″N 9°14′2″E
Country	Norway
County	Buskerud
District	Numedal
Administrative centre	Rollag
Government
• Mayor (2003)	Steinar Berthelsen (Ap)
Area
• Total	449 km^2 (173 sq mi)
• Land	430 km^2 (170 sq mi)
• Rank	#225 in Norway
Population  (2021)
• Total	1,369
• Rank	#369 in Norway
• Density	3/km^2 (8/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−0.9%
Demonym	Rølling[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Neutral
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-3336[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Rollag is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rollag, although the most populated area in the municipality is Veggli. Rollag is bordered in the north by Nore og Uvdal, in the east by Sigdal, in the south by Flesberg, and in the west by Tinn in Telemark.^[4]

General information

History

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Rollag farm (Old Norse: Roll(u)lag), since the first church was built here. The first element is probably (the genitive case of) a river name Rolla (now called the Troelva river) and the last element is lag which means "fishing place".^[5]

The municipality of Rollag was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Nore og Uvdal was separated from Rollag in 1858. The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted in 1993. The arms show two gold-colored lines on a red background. The lines represent an old warning cairn made of timber.

Number of minorities (1st and 2nd generation) in Rollag by country of origin in 2017^[6]

Ancestry	Number
Somalia	31
Eritrea	17
Lithuania	15

Geography

The municipality lies in the heart of the Numedal traditional region and valley, the westernmost valley in southeastern Norway. The river Numedalslågen flows through Rollag and into the Ytre Oslofjord at Larvik. In the northwest of the Rollag lie the Vegglifjell mountains, which are an entryway into the Hardangervidda. The municipality's highest point is Storegrønut at 1,289 metres (4,229 ft) located in the Vegglifjell mountains.^[7][8]

Rollag stave church

Rollag stave church

Rollag stave church (Rollag stavkirke) was built around 1150–1200. It is located a few kilometres north of the centre of Rollag. It was extended and windows were added in 1652. A new Apse was added in 1666. The transept was constructed in 1697–1698. A gallery was added in 1702. The sacristy was built in 1739. A Baroque pulpit was added in 1763.^[9][10]

Sister cities

The following cities are twinned with Rollag:^[11]

• Jokioinen, Southern Finland, Finland

Notable people

Niels Andreas Vibe

• Niels Andreas Vibe (1759 in Rollag – 1814) a Norwegian military officer, civil and royal servant
• Ole Knudsen Nattestad (1807 in Veggli – 1886) a Norwegian-American pioneer immigrant settler
• Christian Sparre (1859–1940) a Commanding Admiral and politician; brought up in Rollag
• Herbrand Lofthus (1889 in Veggli 1972) a lightweight Greco-Roman wrestler, competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics
• Kittill Kristoffersen Berg (1903 in Rollag – 1983) a labourer, log driver, farmer and politician
• Halvor Kongsjorden (1911 in Veggli – 1990) a sport shooter, Olympic competitor in 1948 and a Norwegian resistance member
• Ragnar Tveiten (born 1938 in Veggli) a former Norwegian biathlete

References

1. "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet.
2. "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.
3. Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (2023-01-26). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.
4. Geir Thorsnæs. "Rollag". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
5. "Rollag. Rollag herad. Buskerud". Matrikkelutkastet av 1950. May 21, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
6. "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, by immigration category, country background and percentages of the population". ssb.no. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
7. Geir Thorsnæs. "Numedal". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
8. "Numedalslågen". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
9. "Rollag stavkirke". Riksantikvaren. May 21, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
10. Nina Aldin Thune. "Rollag stavkirke". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
11. "Jokioinen" (in Norwegian). Rollag kommune. Retrieved 2009-01-11.^{[permanent dead link]}

External links

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
• Buskerud travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Culture in Rollag on the map from Kulturnett.no
• Another map of Rollag^{[permanent dead link]}