Åsnes

Åsnes is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Solør. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Flisa, which is also the largest village in the municipality with around 1,700 people. Other villages in the municipality include Gjesåsen, Hof, and Kjellmyra.

The 1041 km2 municipality is the 108th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Åsnes is the 138th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 7,267. The municipality's population density is 7.2 PD/km2 and its population has decreased by 4.4% over the previous 10-year period.

General information
When municipal government was established in Norway on 1 January 1838, the Åsnes area was part of Hof Municipality. In 1849, Hof municipality was divided into two: Hof (population: 2,913) and Åsnes og Våler (population: 7,087). A short time later, in 1854, the municipality of Åsnes og Våler was divided into the two current municipalities of Våler (population: 3,410) and Åsnes (population: 3,677).

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, Hof Municipality (population: 3,222) was merged into Åsnes Municipality (population: 6,750). On 1 January 1969, the Rotberget farm area (population: 23) in the Finnskogen part of the municipality was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Grue. In the 2010s, there had been talk of further municipal mergers but the neighboring municipalities of Grue and Våler both rejected merging with Åsnes.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Åsnes farm (Ásnes) since the first Åsnes Church was built there. The first element is which means "mountain ridge". The last element is which means "headland". The headland that it is referring to is made by the river Glomma near the Åsnes farm which is located beneath a hill. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aasnes with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Åsnes, using the letter Å instead.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 9 December 2001. The official blazon is "Or, three pike hooks sable in bend sinister points in base dexter" (I gult tre skrått nedvoksende svarte fløterhaker). This means the arms have a field (background) 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 charge is three hooks for log driving that are pointing downwards diagonally. This was chosen to represent the importance of logging and forestry to the municipality throughout history. There are three poles to symbolize the three important rivers of the municipality: Glomma, Flisa, and Kynna. The arms were designed by Arvid Steen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches
The Church of Norway has six parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Åsnes. It is part of the Solør, Vinger og Odal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

Geography
The municipality is located in the southern part of Innlandet county in the traditional region of Solør. Åsnes is bordered to the north by the municipality of Våler, to the south by Grue, to the west by Nord-Odal and Stange, and to the east it borders Torsby Municipality in Värmland County, Sweden.

Finnskogen or the forest of the Finns is a belt about 32 km wide which runs continuously northwards along the border between Norway and Sweden through six Norwegian municipalities, including Åsnes.

Åsnes has several lakes and rivers throughout the forested municipality which sits in the southern Glåmdal valley. It includes the lakes Gjesåssjøen, Hukusjøen, and Vermunden. The rivers Flisa, Rotna, and Glomma all flow through the municipality.

Government
Åsnes 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 Østre Innlandet District Court and the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Åsnes is made up of 23 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 mayors (ordfører) of Åsnes (incomplete list):


 * 1910-1914: August Embretsen (Ap)
 * 1925-1928: Arne Adolf Løfsgaard (Bp)
 * 1941-1945: Gudbjørn Fleischer (NS)
 * 1945-1963: Jon Gudbjørn Dybendal (Ap)
 * 1980-1981: Johan Dybendal
 * 1982-1983: Torbjørn Konttorp
 * 1984-1992: Hans-Didrik Bakke (Ap)
 * 1992-1999: Knut Rustad (Sp)
 * 1999-2003: Hans-Didrik Bakke (Ap)
 * 2003-2007: Frank Willy Bjørneseth (Ap)
 * 2007-2011: Lars Petter Heggelund (V)
 * 2011-2019: Ørjan Bue (Sp)
 * 2019–2023: Kari Heggelund (Sp)
 * 2023-present: Per Roar Bredvold (FrP)

Notable people

 * Hans Jacob Grøgaard (1764 in Åsnes – 1836), a parish priest, writer, and representative at the Norwegian Constituent Assembly
 * Johannes Bergh (1837 in Åsnes – 1906), a barrister and the Attorney General of Norway from 1893-1904
 * Jacob Sparre Schneider (1853 in Åsnes – 1918), a Norwegian zoologist and entomologist
 * Adolf Gundersen (1865 in Åsnes – 1938), an American physician who founded Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin
 * Per Aasness (1875 at Flaen – 1959), a military officer, politician, and Mayor of Asnes from 1919-1922
 * Ole Bjerke (1881 in Åsnes – 1959), a sport shooter who competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics
 * Arne Løfsgaard (1887 at Løfsgaard – 1974), a farmer, politician, and Mayor of Åsnes from 1925-1928
 * Birger Lie (1891 in Åsnes – 1970), a sport shooter who competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics
 * Jon Gudbjørn Dybendal (1904 in Åsnes – 1985), a politician and Mayor of Åsnes from 1945-1963
 * Rolf Jacobsen (1907–1994), an author and modernist writer who twice lived in Åsnes
 * Kai Grjotheim (1919 in Åsnes – 2003), a chemist and academic who solved problems within thermodynamics of salt smelters
 * Gunnar Gundersen (born 1956 in Åsnes), a politician who also competed in the swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Tom Stræte Lagergren (born 1991 in Åsnes), a DJ and record producer who goes by the stage name Matoma
 * Emilie Enger Mehl (born 1993 in Lørenskog), a politician for the Centre Party who served as minister of justice since 2021 and Member of parliament since 2017.

Sister cities
Åsnes has sister city agreements with the following places:


 * Ballerup, Region Hovedstaden, Denmark
 * 🇸🇪 Fagersta, Västmanland County, Sweden
 * 🇫🇮 Jämsä, Länsi-Suomi, Finland
 * 🇸🇰 Myjava, Trenčín Region, Slovakia
 * 🇮🇹 Vasanello, Viterbo, Italy