Stjørdal () () is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Stjørdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Stjørdal (also called Stjørdalshalsen). Some of the villages in the municipality include Elvran, Flornes, Hegra, Hell, Kvithammer, Prestmoen, Skatval, Skjelstadmarka, Sona, and Værnes.
The municipality is the 125th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Stjørdal Municipality is the 51st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 24,717. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 9% over the previous 10-year period.
The municipality is well-known for the village of Hell which is located south of Stjørdalshalsen. Hell is especially known for its train station, Hell Station, where you find the old sign saying (meaning "Cargo handling").
In 1997, the municipal council declared Stjørdalshalsen to have town status. Stjørdal is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Trøndelag due to its proximity to the city of Trondheim and also to Statoil's presence (it controls a large part of the petroleum activity in the Norwegian Sea from Stjørdal).
General information
The old prestegjeld of Stjørdalen was established as Stjørdalen Municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1850, Stjørdalen Municipality was divided into two new municipalities: Øvre Stjørdalen Municipality (population: 5,199) in the east and Nedre Stjørdalen Municipality (population: 6,543) in the west. Later, on 1 January 1874, Øvre Stjørdalen Municipality was divided into two new municipalities: Hegra Municipality (population: 3,409) in the west and Meråker Municipality (population: 1,861) in the east.
The present-day Stjørdal Municipality was established on 1 January 1902 when the old Nedre Stjørdalen Municipality was divided into three new municipalities: Lånke Municipality (population: 1,449) in the south, Skatval Municipality (population: 2,125) in the north, and Stjørdal Municipality (population: 3,158) in the central part. Originally, Stjørdal Municipality was quite small in comparison to its size today, but over time it was expanded.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, Stjørdal Municipality (population: 6,204) was merged with three neighbors: Hegra Municipality (population: 2,704), Lånke Municipality (population: 1,967), and Skatval Municipality (population: 1,944) to form a much larger Stjørdal Municipality.
On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Nord-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
Name The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Stjørdalen valley (). The first element is the genitive case of the local river name (now called the Stjørdalselva river). The meaning of the river name is unknown. The last element is which means "valley" or "dale". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Stjørdalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Stjørdal. The pronunciation of the name Stjørdal in the local dialect is .
Coat of arms and flag
On 29 September 1983, by resolution of its municipal council, Stjørdal adopted a new municipal coat of arms in red and gold, bearing a gold or yellow Lindworm (a two-legged dragon or wyvern) on a field of red. The arms were granted on 25 November 1983.
The official blazon is "Gules, a lindworm couchant Or" (). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a lindworm with two legs and two wings (also known as a wyvern. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The arms were designed by Hallvard Trætteberg. Most Norwegian municipalities have a banner of their respective coats of arms as a flag, and accordingly, the municipal flag of Stjørdal similarly bears a yellow wyvern on a red field.
Although the coat of arms is from modern times, the dragon motif of the arms was inspired by a medieval seal for the district, dating from 1344. The old municipal seal was considered unsuitable for selection as the municipal coat of arms, because to obtain a municipal coat of arms and flag, a Norwegian municipality must fulfill certain heraldic requirements that do not apply to a seal. For example, a coat of arms will generally contain only one pictorial motif, while Stjørdal's seal had three motifs and failed to meet additional requirements concerning color elements. The municipality sought assistance from the National Archives of Norway, and was referred to archivist Hallvard Trætteberg, resulting in a collaboration to develop the new coat of arms.
The dragon is a symbol of Saint Margaret of Antioch, and its depiction is derived from Stjørdal's old seal, which showed Saint Margaret standing on a slain dragon. According to Stjørdal's municipal website, both the four-legged dragon and the two-legged wyvern are used in ancient designs of arms going back thousands of years, and have "always stood as a symbol of authority, power, and exalted dignity of great national cultures."
Churches
The Church of Norway has four parishes () within Stjørdal Municipality. It is part of the Stjørdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.
Churches in Stjørdal MunicipalityParish ()Church nameLocation of churchYear builtHegraHegra ChurchHegra1783Floren ChapelFlornes1936Okkelberg ChapelSkjelstadmarka1905LånkeLånke ChurchHell1899Elvran ChapelElvran1893SkatvalSkatval ChurchSkatval1901StjørdalVærnes ChurchPrestmoen1100Stjørdal ChurchStjørdal2015
History
The Leirfall rock carvings is one of the largest collections of petroglyphs in the Nordic region, with a total of approximately 900 figures.
Stjørdal is the location of Steinvikholm Castle, the residence of Norway's last Catholic archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson. It is located on the Skatval peninsula.
Hegra Fortress is located in the central part of the municipality. It was used as a defense against the Swedish military. It was also used during World War II in the Battle of Hegra Fortress.
The Stjørdal Folk Academy was founded in 1908 by Nils Anton Vaagland, who was later mayor of Stjørdal and also served as the academy's director for 10 years.
Government Stjørdal Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Trøndelag District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal. Waste management has since 1998 been provided by the intermunicipal agency Innherred Renovasjon, and waste collection has been operated by ReTrans Midt since 2018.
Municipal council The municipal council () of Stjørdal Municipality is made up of 37 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.
Mayors The mayor () of Stjørdal Municipality is the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who have held this position:
1902–1907: Bernhard Øverland (V) 1908–1910: Peter Andreas Hofstad (V) 1911–1925: Nils M. Vaagland (V) 1926–1934: Marius Stokke (Bp) 1935–1937: Gustav Johnsen (V) 1938–1941: Peder Bjerve (V) 1941–1942: Agnar Nordback (NS) 1942–1944: Reidar Foss (NS) 1944–1945: Arnt Hegstad (NS) 1945–1945: Peder Bjerve (V) 1946–1951: Arne Holtesmo (Ap) 1952–1955: Johan A. Vikan (Bp) 1956–1959: Joar Eimhjellen (Ap) 1960–1966: Johan A. Vikan (Sp) 1966–1967: Lars Bidtnes (V) 1968–1975: Karl Eidsvik (Sp) 1976–1979: Kaare J. Forø (V/DNF) 1980–1985: Håvard Alstadheim (V) 1986–1993: Alf Daniel Moen (Ap) 1994–1995: Einar Wollebæk Andersen (H) 1995–1999: Alf Daniel Moen (Ap) 1999–2013: Johan Arnt Elverum (Sp) 2013–2022: Ivar Vigdenes (Sp) 2022–present: Eli Arnstad (Sp)
Geography
Stjørdal Municipality consists of the lands from the old Skatval Municipality, Hegra Municipality, and Lånke Municipality. The Stjørdalselva river runs through the Stjørdalen valley, with the Skatval peninsula on the northern side. The Forbordsfjellet mountain sits in the northern part of the municipality. The Skarvan and Roltdalen National Park lies in the eastern part of the municipality, as is a tiny part of the lake Feren. The highest point in the municipality is the tall mountain Storskarven, a tripoint border with Stjørdal Municipality, Meråker Municipality, and Selbu Municipality.
Trondheim Municipality is only about from Stjørdal either by road (European route E6) or train (Trønderbanen). Stjørdal is in the process of "growing together" with Trondheim, a show of regional urbanization. The distance to Steinkjer is about , and the towns of Levanger and Verdalsøra are both about to the north. All four of these towns are located on the eastern shore of Trondheimsfjord.
Climate
Trondheim Airport Værnes in Stjørdal Municipality is used by Norway's met office as climate reference station for the Trøndelag region, and is sometimes used as reference station for the city of Trondheim. The weather station started operating in 1946. The location near the wide and deep Trondheimsfjord moderates winter temperatures.
High pressure over Central Norway or to the east can last for weeks, while Atlantic Lows from the west also can dominate for weeks. Such stuck opposite weather patterns was evident in 2020, when May saw northwesterlies with cold air even bringing some snowfall, while the following June was warm and sunny with 345 sun hours and new record high , Norway's warmest high in 2020. The sunniest month on record is May 2024 with 366 sunhours. The airports all-time high is from 17 July 2025.
The coldest month recorded at Værnes was February 1966 with mean and average daily high . The warmest month was July 2014 with mean and average high , while the weather station at nearby Kvithammar in Stjørdal recorded average high in July 2014. On 27 June 2020, Værnes set a new record high with .
The record lows are all from before year 2000, the most recent is the January record low from 1996. Half of the monthly record highs are from 2000 or later. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Stjørdal was at an earlier weather station on 17 July 1945 with , the warmest temperature recorded in the former Nord-Trøndelag county.
The driest month at Værnes was January 1972 with of precipitation, and the wettest was December 1975 with . The largest snow depth recorded is in March 1956, while the largest snow depth after 1980 is in January 1986. There are on average 14 days during winter with at least of snow cover on the ground based on the years 1971–2000. Temperatures have tended to be warmer in more recent decades with less snow cover in winter due to melting. The only year air frost has been recorded in August was in 1956, and the second-coldest low recorded in August is in 1966. The only recording of air frost in June was in 1975.
Birdlife The Stjørdal area has a rich bird life with well over 260 recorded species and several good birding localities. Though Stjørdal can not boast of a long coastline (it's only long) some of best birding areas are to be found along Stjørdalfjorden. Halsøen is virtually situated near the centre of Stjørdal, and can be easily viewed from a number of advantage points from route E6 in the east or Langøra in the west. Formed by the old river outlet, this tidal area is well worth checking. Due to the shallow waters and extensive areas of mud at low tide, Halsøen is used both as a wintering area and a migration stopover point by many species.
Culture