Editing Suldal (section)

==General information==
[[File:Suldalsporten (3613048529).jpg|thumb|left|View of the Suldalsporten in the lake [[Suldalsvatnet]]]]
[[File:Jelsa kyrkje.jpg|thumb|left|View of [[Jelsa Church]]]]
The parish of ''Suledal'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). In 1842, the northern district of the municipality (population: 1,584) was separated to become the new municipality of [[Sauda|Søvde]]. This left Suldal with 2,030 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. On 1 January 1965, Suldal (population: 1,412) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of [[Sand (municipality)|Sand]] (population: 1,135) and [[Erfjord]] (population: 610) as well as all of the municipality of [[Jelsa (municipality)|Jelsa]] except for the parts on the island of [[Ombo]] (population: 928) and the parts of [[Imsland]] municipality located south of the [[Vindafjorden]] (population: 61). On 1 January 1978, the parts of [[Vindafjord Municipality]] located southeast of the [[Vindafjorden]] on the ''Ropeid'' peninsula (population: 13) was transferred to Suldal.<ref name="Dag">{{Cite book |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |year=1999 |isbn=9788253746845 |language=no}}</ref>

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[prestegjeld|parish]]) is named after the Suledalen valley ({{langx|non|Súladalr}}) since it was a central geographical feature of the municipality. The first element is the plural [[genitive case]] of {{wikt-lang|non|súla}} which means "pillar" or "column" (likely referring to the mountain pass [[Suldalsporten]]). The last element is {{wikt-lang|non|dalr}} which means "[[valley]]" or "dale". Before 1891, the name was written ''"Suledal"''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4pBAAAAIAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Stavanger amt |date=1915 |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |edition=10 |location=Kristiania, Norge |pages=363–364 |language=no |authorlink=Oluf Rygh}}</ref>

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 11 March 1976. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Gules]], three [[Bend (heraldry)|bendlets]] wavy [[Or (heraldry)|Or]]"'' ({{langx|no|I raudt ein gull bølgjeforma trillingstreng, skråstilt høgre venstre}}). This means the arms have a red [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is a set of the three diagonal wavy lins. The charge has a [[tincture (heraldry)|tincture]] of [[Or (heraldry)|Or]] which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The lines represent the local river [[Suldalslågen]] which runs through the municipality. The arms were designed by Magnus Hardeland. 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=Suldal |access-date=2023-07-03 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Suldal, Rogaland (Norway) |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-11-34.html |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1976-03-11 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1976-03-11-6 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref>

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has four parishes ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within the municipality of Suldal. It is part of the [[Ryfylke prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Stavanger]].

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Suldal'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="1"|Erfjord||[[Erfjord Church]]||[[Hålandsosen]]||1877
|-
|rowspan="1"|Jelsa||[[Jelsa Church]]||[[Jelsa, Norway|Jelsa]]||1647
|-
|rowspan="2"|Sand||[[Sand Church (Rogaland)|Sand Church]]||[[Sand, Rogaland|Sand]]||1853
|-
|[[Marvik Chapel]]||[[Marvik]]||1920
|-
|rowspan="2"|Suldal||[[Suldal Church]]||[[Suldalsosen]]||1852
|-
|[[Nesflaten Chapel]]||[[Nesflaten]]||1853
|}