Editing Mandal (municipality) (section)

==General information==
[[File:Mandal Strasse.jpg|thumb|left|Part of Mandal town center]]
[[File:Mandal. gjestehavn og bryggegata.JPG|thumb|left|[[Marina]] in Mandal]]
[[File:Utsikt Tregde.jpg|thumb|left|View of the Tregde area]]
The town of [[Mandal, Norway|Mandal]] was established as a [[Market town#Norway|ladested]] municipality on 1 January 1838 (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). On 1 July 1921, a part of the neighboring municipality of [[Halse og Harkmark]] (population: 221) that was next to the town of Mandal was merged with the town. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. On 1 January 1964, the town of Mandal (population: 5,446) was merged with the rural municipalities of [[Halse og Harkmark]] (population: 3,676) and [[Holum]] (population: 1,127) to form a new, large municipality of Mandal. On 1 January 1965, an unpopulated area of Mandal called Svalemyren was transferred to the neighboring municipality of [[Søgne]].<ref name="Dag">{{Cite web |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |year=1999 |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |language=no |isbn= 9788253746845 }}</ref>

On 1 January 2020, the three neighboring municipalities of Mandal, [[Marnardal]], and [[Lindesnes]] will be merged into one large municipality called ''Lindesnes'' with its [[administrative centre]] being the town of Mandal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lindesnes.kommune.no/lokaldemokratipolitikk-rad-og-utvalg/kommunereformen/1548-nye-lindesnes|title=Nye Lindesnes|language=Norwegian|accessdate=2017-11-05|publisher=Lindesnes kommune}}</ref>

===Name===
The municipality is named after the town of [[Mandal, Norway|Mandal]] ({{langx|non|Marnardalr}}), which in turn is named after the [[Mandalen]] river valley in which it is located. The first element is the [[genitive case]] of the river name ''Mǫrn'' which is now called [[Mandalselva]]. The meaning of this old river name is uncertain, but it may be derived from the word {{wikt-lang|non|marr}} which means "[[sea]]". The last element is {{wikt-lang|non|dalr}} which means "[[valley]]" or "dale".<ref name="snl">{{cite web|url=https://snl.no/Mandal|title=Mandal|author=Store norske leksikon|author-link=Store norske leksikon|language=Norwegian|accessdate=2016-12-29}}</ref>

Prior to 1653, the town of Mandal was named ''Vesterrisør'' (meaning "western Risør"). The name was originally referring to the island ''Risøya'' outside the town, and the first element was added in the 16th century to distinguish it from the town of ''Østerrisør'' (meaning "eastern Risør"), which is now simply called ''[[Risør (town)|Risør]]''. {{See also2|the names of [[Marnardal]] and [[Risør]]}}

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 2 July 1921, just after Mandal became a town, and it was in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality was dissolved. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Azure (heraldry)|Azure]], three salmon [[naiant]] [[argent]]"'' ({{langx|no|I blått tre hvite lakser, 1-1-1}}). This means the arms have a blue [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is three [[salmon]] shown swimming horizontally and stacked vertically. The salmon have a [[tincture (heraldry)|tincture]] of [[argent]] which means they are commonly colored white, but if the arms are made out of metal, then silver is used. The blue color in the field and the salmon were chosen to symbolize the importance of salmon fishing on the river [[Mandalselva]]. Mandal is the southernmost municipality in Norway that has a large salmon population, so therefore, salmon fishing also played a major role in the economic development of the village and its trade with the rest of southern Norway. The municipality usually added a [[Crown (heraldry)|mural crown]] to the top of the arms to show that the municipality included the [[Mandal, Norway|town of Mandal]]. The arms were designed by [[Hallvard Trætteberg]]. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civic heraldry of Norway - Norske Kommunevåpen |url=https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Mandal |access-date=2023-01-21 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mandal, Vest-Agder |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-10-02.html |website=Flags of the World |access-date=2023-01-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1995-04-30 |title=Godkjenning av flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LFO/forskrift/1995-02-24-208 |access-date=2023-01-21 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref> {{See also2|Coats of arms for the municipalities of [[Coat of arms of Grane|Grane]], [[Coat of arms of Kvalsund|Kvalsund]], and [[Coat of arms of Nordreisa|Nordreisa]]}}

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has two parishes ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within the municipality of Mandal. It is part of the [[Mandal prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Agder og Telemark]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Mandal'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="1"|Holum||[[Holum Church]]||[[Krossen]]||1825
|-
|rowspan="2"|Mandal||[[Harkmark Church]]||[[Harkmark]]||1613
|-
|[[Mandal Church]]||[[Mandal, Norway|Mandal]]||1821
|}