Bygland Municipality Bygland kommune
Municipality
View of Bygland
Flag Coat of arms
Agder within Norway
Bygland within Agder
Coordinates: 58°55′27″N 07°45′53″E / 58.92417°N 7.76472°E / 58.92417; 7.76472
Country	Norway
County	Agder
District	Setesdal
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Bygland
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Runar Flåt Granheim (Ap)
Area
• Total	1,311.75 km2 (506.47 sq mi)
• Land	1,150.35 km2 (444.15 sq mi)
• Water	161.40 km2 (62.32 sq mi)  12.3%
• Rank	#76 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	1,136
• Rank	#323 in Norway
• Density	1.0/km2 (3/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−5.9%
Demonym	Byglending[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4220[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Bygland is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Setesdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bygland. Other villages in the municipality include Åraksbø, Austad, Byglandsfjord, Grendi, Langeid, Lauvdal, Litveit, Longerak, Moi, Ose, Sandnes, Skåmedal, and Tveit. The Norwegian National Road 9 runs through the municipality, following the river Otra where most of the population of Bygland lives.

The 1,312-square-kilometre (507 sq mi) municipality is the 76th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Bygland is the 323rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,136. The municipality's population density is 1 inhabitant per square kilometre (2.6/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 5.9% over the previous 10-year period.^[4][5]

The parish of Bygland was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). Since that time, the municipal boundaries have not changed.^[6]

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Bygland farm (Old Norse: Byggland) since the first Bygland Church was built there. The first element is bygg which means "barley". The last element is land which means "land" or "farm".^[7]

The coat of arms was granted on 15 November 1991. The official blazon is "Vert, a lynx rampant Or langued gules and the tips of ears and tail sable" (Norwegian: På grøn grunn ei oppspringande gull gaupe). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a European lynx (Lynx lynx) with a red tongue and with the tips of ears and tail being black. The lynx 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 green color in the field symbolizes the importance of the agriculture and forests in the municipality. The lynx was chosen to symbolize the wild and rich nature in the rural highlands of the municipality. The arms were designed by Daniel Rike. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Bygland. It is part of the Otredal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.

Bygland lies in the middle of the Setesdal valley which is also a traditional district in Aust-Agder county. The valley includes the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows from the glacially scoured Hardangervidda plateau in the north, through the Setesdal valley (and through Bygland), and into the sea near the city of Kristiansand. The municipality is bordered on the north by Valle, in the east by Fyresdal (Telemark county) and Åmli (Agder county), in the south by Froland and Evje og Hornnes, and in the west by Åseral, Kvinesdal, and Sirdal (all in Agder county).

Bygland is Agder's third largest municipality in area. The majority of the area of the municipality lies in the Setesdalsheiene mountains, at an elevation of over 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level. The municipality stretches from the small town Byglandsfjord in the south to the farms at Langeid in the north. Lake Byglandsfjorden is 40 kilometres (25 mi) long and lies on the river Otra. Other lakes include the Åraksfjorden, Gyvatn, Hovatn, Kvifjorden, Longerakvatnet, Straumsfjorden, and Topsæ. The rivers Otra and Topdalsfjorden both run through Bygland on their way south. The Reiårsfossen waterfall is one of many waterfalls in the municipality.

Byglandsfjord is situated inland in the southernmost of Norway's main valleys and has a humid continental climate (Dfb) or temperate oceanic climate (Cfb), depending on winter threshold used (0 °C (32 °F) as in USA or −3 °C (27 °F) as in Europe). The precipitation pattern, with autumn and winter as wettest seasons, is in line with an oceanic climate. The all-time high 33.7 °C (92.7 °F) was recorded in July 1986. The all-time low −31 °C (−24 °F) is from January 1941. The coldest low after 1980 is −23.6 °C (−10.5 °F) recorded February 1986. The average date for the last overnight freeze (low below 0 °C (32.0 °F)) in spring is 3 May^[13] and average date for first freeze in autumn is 14 October^[14] giving a frost-free season of 163 days (1981-2010 average).

The Setesdal Line was a narrow gauge steam railway which went between Vennesla and Byglandsfjord in Bygland. It was built in 1896. The Setesdal Line's operation was terminated in 1962 and the track was removed between Byglandsfjord and Beihølen.

Other transport up the Setesdal valley was provided by the steamships SS Bjoren and Dølen. First placed in operation in 1866, the SS Bjoren is still in operation as a tourist attraction on lake Byglandsfjorden during the summers.

Bygland 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.^[17] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Agder District Court and the Agder Court of Appeal.

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Bygland is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

The mayors (Norwegian: ordfører) of Bygland:^[39]

• Byglandsfjord Station, a former railway station constructed in 1896
• SS Bjoren, a wood-fuelled heritage steamboat that travels the route between Byglandsfjord-Bygland and Bygland-Ose on the lake Byglandsfjorden in the summer.
• Bygland tower, a folk museum.

• Even Torkildsen Lande (1758 in Bygland – 1833), a Norwegian farmer and blacksmith who served on the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly
• Oscar Castberg (1846 in Bygland – 1917), a Norwegian painter and sculptor
• Hallvard Sandnes (1893 in Sandnes - 1968), a Norwegian schoolteacher and writer
• Olav Bø (1918 in Bygland – 1998), a Norwegian folklorist
• Kjell Kristian Rike (1944 in Byglandsfjord – 2008), a Norwegian sports commentator

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Aust-Agder travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Culture in Bygland on the map (in Norwegian)
• The Steamboat Bjoren (in Norwegian)