Steinkjer

 

Steinkjer (Southern Sami: Stïentje) is a municipality in Trøndelag. The municipality is located in the innermost part of Trondheimsfjorden and borders in the north on Namsos and Overhalla, in the northeast and east on Snåsa, in the south on Verdal, and in the west on Indre Fosen, Åfjord and Inderøy.

The municipal center Steinkjer is the county's third largest town and is the administrative center for Trøndelag county municipality.

 

Name and etymology

The name Steinkjer comes from the Norse steiner, which means dam or bridge of stone, but which was also used for damming to catch fish, such as salmon. Ogna, Byaelva and Figga, which flow out here, have always been good salmon rivers. Until 1925, the name was written "Stenkjær".

 

History

Steinkjer with the small places Mære and Egge has been a historical center of power in Norse times and the early Middle Ages. Several significant archaeological finds have been made in the area. The Bardal field in Sør-Beitstad is one of Nord-Trøndelag's largest collections of petroglyphs. Skeifeltet south of Steinkjer is Nord-Trøndelag's largest burial ground with 113 burial mounds. There are also cooking pits, monumental stones and a ring-shaped house complex with eight house foundations.

Snorre Sturlason tells in Heimskringla that the charging earls Svein Håkonsson and Eirik Håkonsson had their headquarters in Steinkjer and celebrated Christmas there before they fled the country in 1016.

The chief seat Egge on the moraine ridge north of Steinkjer is mentioned several times in the sagas. Trond Haka, Olve at Egge and Kalv Arnesson lived there. Calf participated in the peasant army that killed Saint Olav in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. At Egge, rich grave finds have been made from a period that stretches from about the year 200 to 1100.

Steinkjersannan was a training ground and military camp for about 300 years, from the 17th century to 2002.

The place received charging station rights on May 7, 1857 and became a city. The term "Bygdenes by" reflects the rich and active settlements around that made it possible to develop the place when the yachting speed picked up in the late 1800s. There was significant trading activity based on lumber and agricultural products.

Steinkjer became its own municipality on 23 January 1858. The municipality was then separated from Stod and Sparbu municipalities and at the time of its establishment had 1150 inhabitants. In 1964, the municipality expanded when the villages Beitstad, Sparbu, Ogndal, Egge, Stod, Kvam and Steinkjer became the new Steinkjer municipality with a total of 19,582 inhabitants.

The settlements also today form the economic basis for the city and make Steinkjer one of the country's largest agricultural and forestry municipalities with many large farms and especially large production of grain and milk.

In October 1998, Steinkjer received formal restructuring status from the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development on the basis of a report which showed that the municipality would lose over 600 jobs by 2010 without special measures. This led to a few years of investing in Steinkjer as the "IT city".

On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipality of Verran was merged with Steinkjer. At the same time, a boundary adjustment was made so that the hamlet of Verrabotn was added to Indre Fosen municipality.

 

Geography

The terrain around Steinkjer is characterized by large masses of ice grinding to the bedrock tens of thousands of years ago. The rock structure itself, on the other hand, was shaped when America and Europe collided several hundred million years ago.

The town of Steinkjer is the administrative center of Nord-Trøndelag and is located as the crow flies a little over 80 km north and along the E6 120 km from the regional center Trondheim.

The municipality consists of the municipal center as well as the villages Beitstad, Egge, Kvam, Ogndal, Sparbu, Henning, Stod and Verran. In Verran are the towns of Malm and Follafoss.

The highest point in Steinkjer is Brannheiklumpen, 818 meters above sea level. In the immediate vicinity just outside the municipality is the highest mountain that is visible from Steinkjer, Skjækerhatten, 1139 meters above sea level, which is located at the end of the long east-going valley Ogndalen. To the north there are several lakes: Reinsvatnet, Fossemvatnet and Snåsavatnet. To the west is the Beitstadfjord. The mountains on the Fosen Peninsula, especially Follaheia, are clearly visible from Steinkjer.

Norway's geographical center is located in Ogndal, about 40 km east of Steinkjer center.

Climate
Despite its northern location, Steinkjer has a stable climate that allows agriculture. The distance to the coast means that Steinkjer has a typical inland climate with hot summers and cold winters. Meteorological data suggest a winter from late October to early April. Steinkjer experienced –25.4 ºC on 6 January 2010 (Yr.no). It can also be hot in Steinkjer compared to the rest of the country. Due to its northern location, Steinkjer has a lot of sun in the summer and is at the same time far enough south to have reached the national temperature peak several times. In the summer of 2008, only Saltdal in Nordland had the warmest average temperature for the summer season. Steinkjer was the city in Norway with the highest average temperature, somewhat surprising due to its northern location. In addition, the temperature is affected by the local geography and the location of Steinkjer in the innermost part of the Trondheim Fjord.

Climatic data are presented below. Note that the maximum and minimum average temperatures are the same as the average temperature in this overview, and the average temperature together with precipitation is actual data. Normal annual precipitation based on the figures for the period 1960–1990 is 960 mm of precipitation. There is most precipitation during the autumn and early winter.