Årstad Municipality

Årstad or Aarstad is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1915. The area is now part of Bergen Municipality in the traditional district of Midhordland in Vestland county. The administrative centre was the village of Kronstad. The area of the old municipality somewhat corresponds to the present-day borough of Årstad, just south of the city centre of Bergen. The municipality is named after the medieval farm Alrekstad, located on this site.

General information

The parish of Aarstad was established as a municipality 1 January 1838. Originally, it sat south of both the city of Bergen and the rural municipality called Bergen Landdistrikt. Aarstad and the city of Bergen worked closely together from the start since both made up one large urban area. In fact, most of Aarstad had been part of the Bergen Police District since 1808.
On 1 July 1915, Årstad Municipality was merged with the city of Bergen increasing the area of Bergen Municipality from. The merger happened after a long political process, following decades of close cooperation between the two municipalities. The merger also moved the area of Årstad Municipality from Søndre Bergenhus county to Bergen county.

Name

The municipality is named after the old Aarstad royal estate since the first Årstad Church was built there. The first element is identical to the old male name Álrekr. The male name is a compound word that is derived from which means "all" and which means "mighty". This is the same root as the nearby mountain Ulriken. The last element is the plural form of which means "town" or "abode".
During its time as a municipality, it was always spelled Aarstad. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aarstad with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Årstad, using the letter å instead. Since then, when referring to the old municipality, the new spelling is used, but the letter "Å" was never used while the municipality existed.

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish within Årstad Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Årstad prestegjeld and the Bergen domprosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Parish	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Årstad	Årstad Church	Årstad	1890

Geography

The municipality of Årstad was a southern suburb of the city of Bergen, mostly located in the valley to the south of the bay Store Lungegårdsvannet and the Puddefjorden all the way south to the village of Nattland. The mountain Ulriken lies to the east of Årstad and the mountain Løvstakken lies to the west. The highest point in the municipality was the tall mountain Haukelandsstikkene, on the border with Haus Municipality.
Hamre Municipality was located to the north, Haus Municipality was located to the east, Fana Municipality was located to the south, Askøy Municipality was located to the west, and Bergen Municipality was located to the northwest.

Government

While it existed, Årstad Municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Mayors

The mayor of Årstad Municipality was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. The following people have held this position:

1838–1850: C. Wiese
1850–1856: Ole Nicolai Løberg
1856–1860: Samuel B. Meyer
1860–1862: A. Christie
1862–1876: Hjalmar Løberg
1876–1880: Anders Paulsen
1880–1882: A. Christie
1882–1887: Carl Berg
1888–1896: J.C. Meyer
1896–1899: Samuel B. Michelsen
1899–1902: Statius Arentz
1902–1906: Halvor Kloster
1906–1915: Gerdt Meyer Bruun