Laudal (municipality)


Laudal is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1899 until 1964. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Laudal where Laudal Church is located. The municipality encompassed the central part of what is now the municipality of Marnardal.

History

The municipality was established on 1 January 1899 when the old municipality of Øyslebø og Laudal was divided into two municipalities: Øyslebø and Laudal. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Laudal municipality was dissolved and its land was merged with parts of the neighboring municipalities of Øyslebø, Bjelland, and Finsland to create the new municipality of Marnardal. Prior to the merger, Laudal had a population of 560.

Name

The municipality is named after the old Laudal farm, since that is the location of Laudal Church. The first element of the name of the farm comes from the old name for the river, Laug, and the last element means "valley". Therefore, the name means "Laug river valley".