Hålandsdal

Hålandsdal is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The 131 km2 municipality existed from 1903 until 1964. It encompassed the eastern part of what is now Bjørnafjorden Municipality in Vestland county. It included the large lakes Skogseidvatnet and Gjønavatnet and all of their surrounding valleys. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Holdhus where the Holdhus Church is located.

History
On 1 January 1903, the parish of Hålandsdal (historically spelled Haalandsdalen) was separated from the municipality of Fusa to form a separate municipality of its own. Initially, Hålandsdal had a population of 647.

It was a small municipality and so in the early 1960s, the Schei Committee recommended that it be merged with two of its neighbors: Fusa and Strandvik. So, on 1 January 1964, Hålandsdal was merged with Strandvik and most of Fusa, creating a new, larger municipality of Fusa. Prior to the merger, Hålandsdal had a population of 528.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the valley that is the site of the old Haaland farm (Hávaland or Háland) since the first Hålandsdal Church was built there. The first element comes from the word which means "high" or "tall". The second element is which means "land". The last element of the name comes from which means "valley" or "dale".

Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Haalandsdalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Haalandsdal, removing the definite form ending -en. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Haalandsdal with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Hålandsdal, using the letter å instead.

Government
During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Heradsstyre) of Hålandsdal was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: