Ibestad

Ibestad kommune

Image:NO 1743 Ibestad.svg
County	Troms
District	Hålogaland
Municipality	NO-1743
Administrative centre	Hamnvik
Mayor (2007)	Marit Johansen (AP)
Official language form	Bokmål
Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage	Ranked 310 241 km² 234 km² 0.07 %
Population  - Total (2004)  - Percentage  - Change (10 years)  - Density	Ranked 357 1,696 0.04 % -19.5 % 7/km²
Demonym	{{{demonym}}}[1]
Coordinates	68°49′N 17°14′E / 68.817, 17.233Coordinates: 68°49′N 17°14′E / 68.817, 17.233
www.ibestad.kommune.no Data from Statistics Norway

Ibestad is a municipality in the county of Troms, Norway. Ibestad was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Six other municipalities were later separated from it: Bardu (1854), Salangen (1871), Lavangen (1907), Andørja (1926), Astafjord (1926) and Gratangen (1926). (Andørja was, however, again merged with Ibestad January 1, 1964.)

The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Ibestad (Norse Ívarsstaðir), since the first church was built there. The first element is the genitive case of the male name Ívarr, the last element is staðir 'homestead, farm'. Until 1918 the name was written Ibbestad.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1986) - but the cross is taken from a Middle Age tombstone from the old Ibestad church.