Haram, Norway

Haram is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative center is Brattvåg, the industrial center of Sunnmøre. Other important villages in the municipality include Austnes, Eidsvik, Helle, Longva, Hildrestranda, Søvik, Tennfjord, and Vatne.

The 261 km2 municipality is the 294th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Haram is the 122nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 9,345. The municipality's population density is 36.7 PD/km2 and its population has increased by 8.4% over the last decade.

Brattvåg IL is a sports club based in the municipality. Tennfjord Mannskor is a male choir from the village of Tennfjord. The Ulla Lighthouse and Hellevik Lighthouse are both located in the northwestern part of the municipality.

General information
The parish of Haram was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The western island district of Roald was separated from Haram on 1 January 1890 to form the new municipality of Roald. This left 1,956 people left in Haram.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, three municipal changes involving Haram occurred: These three boundary changes created a much larger municipality of Haram.
 * The part of Haram Municipality on the island of Harøya, including the Myklebost area and the smaller surrounding islands to the west of there (population: 287), was separated from Haram Municipality and merged into the neighboring Sandøy Municipality to the northeast.
 * Most of Vatne Municipality (population: 2,260) to the southeast of Haram Municipality was merged into Haram Municipality.
 * The Søvik area in Borgund Municipality (population: 1,191) to the south of Haram Municipality were merged into Haram.

On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Haram, Skodje, Ørskog, Sandøy, and Ålesund were merged to form a new, large municipality of Ålesund. This occurred because in June 2017, the Parliament of Norway voted to approve the merger. Soon after the merger, there was discontent among the people who had lived in the old Haram municipality. After lots of discussions, the municipal council of the new Ålesund petitioned the government to reverse that part of the merger and split Haram off as a separate municipality once again. On 3 October 2022, the Parliament of Norway approved a law to split Haram off as a separate municipality effective on 1 January 2024.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Haram farm (Harhamarr) since the first Haram Church was built there. The first element is prefix har- which has an unknown meaning. The last element is which means "stone" or "steep cliff". Prior to 1889, the name was written Harham.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 7 August 1987 and it was in use until 2020 when the municipality ceased to exist. The official blazon is "Per fess engrailed of three lobes argent and azure" (Delt av sølv og blått med omvend bogesnitt med tre bogar). This means the arms have are divided with a horizontal line that is engrailed three times. The field (background) below the line has a tincture of azure. Above the line, the field has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The design was chosen to look like three waves, symbolizing the importance of the sea in this island municipality. The arms were designed by Eldar Tandstad. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Dialect
The dialect of the area was well known for its practice of H-dropping and the old and traditional pronunciation of the name of the municipality was.

Churches
The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Haram. It is part of the Nordre Sunnmøre prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Møre.

Geography
The municipality of Haram includes many islands including Bjørnøya, Fjørtofta, Haramsøya, Løvsøya, Skuløya, and Terøya. The islands of Bjørnøya and Terøya are connected to the mainland via causeways. The islands of Haramsøya and Skuløya are connected with the Ullasund Bridge. The rest of the islands have ferry connections to the mainland. The new Nordøyvegen bridge and tunnel network will connect all of the main islands of Haram to the mainland when it is completed in 2022. The Haramsfjorden, Vatnefjorden, and Romsdal Fjord all flow through the municipality.

The municipality shares land borders with Vestnes Municipality to the east and Skodje Municipality to the south. The rest of the municipality is surrounded by sea. The municipality also borders (by sea) Sandøy Municipality and Midsund Municipality to the northeast, Ålesund Municipality to the south, and Giske Municipality to the west.

Government
Haram 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 Møre og Romsdal District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Haram is made up of 27 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 (ordførar) of Haram:


 * 1837–1841: Sjur Olsen Hatlemark
 * 1842–1851: Carl Sjursen Haram
 * 1852–1857: Nils Rasmussen Aakre
 * 1858–1862: Jens Kobro Daae
 * 1863–1867: Nils Rasmussen Aakre
 * 1868–1878: Hans Rasmussen Vestre
 * 1879–1900: Nils Ingebrigtsen Alvestad (V)
 * 1901–1911: Nils Nilsen Aakre (V)
 * 1911–1912: Knudt Severin Jonas Olsen Otterlei (V)
 * 1913–1921: Ole Rasmus Knutsen Flem (V)
 * 1922–1925: Knudt Severin Jonas Olsen Otterlei (V)
 * 1926–1928: Martinus Eriksen Otterlei
 * 1929–1934: Karl Gunnarson Rogne (V)
 * 1935–1941: Ole Johanson Skjelten
 * 1941–1945: Martinus Kjerstad (NS)
 * 1945–1955: Lars Larsson Fjørtoft (V)
 * 1984–1985: Robert Hurlen (H)
 * 1986–1988: Svein Ottar Sandal (KrF)
 * 1989–1989: Knut Wahl (Ap)
 * 1990–1991: Robert Hurlen (H)
 * 1992–1999: Margrethe Tennfjord (KrF)
 * 1999–2007: Oddbjørn Vatne (Sp)
 * 2007–2015: Bjørn Sandnes (H)
 * 2015–2019: Vebjørn Krogsæter (Sp)
 * (2020-2023: Haram Municipality was merged into Ålesund Municipality)
 * 2024-present: Vebjørn Krogsæter (Sp)