Åsnes

Template:Short description Template:Infobox kommune

Åsnes is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Solør. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Flisa, which is also the largest village in the municipality with around 1,700 people. Other villages in the municipality include Gjesåsen, Hof, and Kjellmyra.

The Template:Convert municipality is the 108th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Åsnes is the 138th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 7,267. The municipality's population density is Template:Convert and its population has decreased by 4.4% over the previous 10-year period.<ref name="ssb pop">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ssb area">Template:Cite web</ref>

General information

File:Gjesåssjøen.jpg

View of Gjesåssjøen lake

File:Åsnes Finnskog kirke.JPG

Åsnes Finnskog kirke

When municipal government was established in Norway on 1 January 1838, the Åsnes area was part of Hof Municipality. In 1849, Hof municipality was divided into two: Hof (population: 2,913) and Åsnes og Våler (population: 7,087). A short time later, in 1854, the municipality of Åsnes og Våler was divided into the two current municipalities of Våler (population: 3,410) and Åsnes (population: 3,677).<ref name="Dag" />

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, Hof Municipality (population: 3,222) was merged into Åsnes Municipality (population: 6,750). On 1 January 1969, the Rotberget farm area (population: 23) in the Finnskogen part of the municipality was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Grue.<ref name="Dag">Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2010s, there had been talk of further municipal mergers but the neighboring municipalities of Grue and Våler both rejected merging with Åsnes.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Åsnes farm (Template:Langx) since the first Åsnes Church was built there. The first element is Template:Wikt-lang which means "mountain ridge". The last element is Template:Wikt-lang which means "headland". The headland that it is referring to is made by the river Glomma near the Åsnes farm which is located beneath a hill.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Aasnes with the digraph "Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Åsnes, using the letter Å instead.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 9 December 2001. The official blazon is "Or, three pike hooks sable in bend sinister points in base dexter" (Template:Langx). This means the arms have a field (background) has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The charge is three hooks for log driving that are pointing downwards diagonally. This was chosen to represent the importance of logging and forestry to the municipality throughout history. There are three poles to symbolize the three important rivers of the municipality: Glomma, Flisa, and Kynna. The arms were designed by Arvid Steen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:See also-text

Churches

The Church of Norway has six parishes (Template:Lang) within the municipality of Åsnes. It is part of the Solør, Vinger og Odal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

**Churches in Åsnes**
Parish (Template:Lang)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Arneberg	Arneberg Church	Jammerdalen	1878
Gjesåsen	Gjesåsen Church	Gjesåsen	1863
Hof	Hof Church	Hof	1861
Hof Finnskog	Hof Finnskog Church	Dulpetorpet	1953
Åsnes	Åsnes Church	Flisa	1744
Åsnes Finnskog	Åsnes Finnskog Church	Vermundsjøen	1861

Geography

Number of minorities (1st and 2nd generation) in Åsnes by country of origin in 2017<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ancestry	Number
Template:Flag	59
Template:Flag	58
Template:Flag	55
Template:Flag	32
Template:Flag	29
Template:Flag	25
Template:Flag	23
Template:Flag	22

The municipality is located in the southern part of Innlandet county in the traditional region of Solør. Åsnes is bordered to the north by the municipality of Våler, to the south by Grue, to the west by Nord-Odal and Stange, and to the east it borders Torsby Municipality in Värmland County, Sweden.

Finnskogen or the forest of the Finns is a belt about Template:Convert wide which runs continuously northwards along the border between Norway and Sweden through six Norwegian municipalities, including Åsnes.

Åsnes has several lakes and rivers throughout the forested municipality which sits in the southern Glåmdal valley. It includes the lakes Gjesåssjøen, Hukusjøen, and Vermunden. The rivers Flisa, Rotna, and Glomma all flow through the municipality.

Government

Åsnes 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.<ref name="ks">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Østre Innlandet District Court and the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

Mayors

Template:Incomplete list The mayors (Template:Langx) of Åsnes (incomplete list): Template:Div col

1910-1914: August Embretsen (Ap)
1925-1928: Arne Adolf Løfsgaard (Bp)
1941-1945: Gudbjørn Fleischer (NS)
1945-1963: Jon Gudbjørn Dybendal (Ap)
1980-1981: Johan Dybendal <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1982-1983: Torbjørn Konttorp
1984-1992: Hans-Didrik Bakke (Ap)
1992-1999: Knut Rustad (Sp)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1999-2003: Hans-Didrik Bakke (Ap)
2003-2007: Frank Willy Bjørneseth (Ap)
2007-2011: Lars Petter Heggelund (V)
2011-2019: Ørjan Bue (Sp)
2019–2023: Kari Heggelund (Sp)
2023-present: Per Roar Bredvold (FrP)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Div col end

Notable people

File:Wilhelm Holter - Portrett av Johannes Bergh - 1914 (etter foto fra ca. 1890) - Oslo Museum - OB.00181.jpg

Johannes Bergh, 1890

File:Gunnar Gundersen.JPG

Gunnar Gundersen, 2008

Hans Jacob Grøgaard (1764 in Åsnes – 1836), a parish priest, writer, and representative at the Norwegian Constituent Assembly
Johannes Bergh (1837 in Åsnes – 1906), a barrister and the Attorney General of Norway from 1893-1904
Jacob Sparre Schneider (1853 in Åsnes – 1918), a Norwegian zoologist and entomologist
Adolf Gundersen (1865 in Åsnes – 1938), an American physician who founded Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin
Per Aasness (1875 at Flaen – 1959), a military officer, politician, and Mayor of Asnes from 1919-1922
Ole Bjerke (1881 in Åsnes – 1959), a sport shooter who competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Arne Løfsgaard (1887 at Løfsgaard – 1974), a farmer, politician, and Mayor of Åsnes from 1925-1928
Birger Lie (1891 in Åsnes – 1970), a sport shooter who competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Jon Gudbjørn Dybendal (1904 in Åsnes – 1985), a politician and Mayor of Åsnes from 1945-1963
Rolf Jacobsen (1907–1994), an author and modernist writer who twice lived in Åsnes
Kai Grjotheim (1919 in Åsnes – 2003), a chemist and academic who solved problems within thermodynamics of salt smelters
Gunnar Gundersen (born 1956 in Åsnes), a politician who also competed in the swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Tom Stræte Lagergren (born 1991 in Åsnes), a DJ and record producer who goes by the stage name Matoma
Emilie Enger Mehl (born 1993 in Lørenskog), a politician for the Centre Party who served as minister of justice since 2021 and Member of parliament since 2017.