Munkedal Municipality

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Munkedals kommun

County	Västra Götaland County
Province	Bohuslän and Dalsland
Seat	Munkedal

Area • Total area • Land area	156th of 290 672.10 km² 638.43 km²
Population • Total	210th of 290 10,246 inhabitants
Density • Total	196th of 290 16.0 inhabitants/km²
Website	http://www.munkedal.se/
Area & population from SCB as of December 31, 2006

Munkedal Municipality (Munkedals kommun) is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Munkedal. The nation-wide municipal reform of 1952 saw the creation of Munkedal, Svarteborg, Sörbygden and Ödeborg as larger rural municipalities. Already in 1967 Ödeborg was dissolved and parts of it added to Munkedal. Finally, in 1974 Svarteborg and Sörbygden were meged into Munkedal forming the present unit.

1 Geography
2 Localities
3 History
4 Subdivisions
5 Notability
6 External links

Geography

Munkdal is located 110 km north of Gothenburg. The geography is a varied terrain, covered with part forests, part mountains, part plains and part lakes and streams.

Localities

Inhabitants 2005:

Munkedal 3,838 (seat)
Dingle 889
Hällevadsholm 723
Hedekas 358

History

This area in western Sweden, by the Norwegian border, has been inhabited perhaps longer than any other in Sweden. Distinctives for Munkedal are some tools that have been dated to 8000 BC, found around 1900 at a farm named Herregårda. There is also a petroglyph area called Lökeberg på Tungenäset, dated to the Nordic Bronze Age. In the medieval age, a monastery of Dragsmark was located within the current municipal borders. It subsequently led to the name Munkedal, and the names chosen for the municipality when it was established in 1974 with the reform. The coat of arms also portrait a medieval scroll and writing pen, characteristics for monks.

Subdivisions

Munkedal has 8 parishes, the sub divisioning used by the Church of Sweden. Their inhabitants January 1 2005 and changes since January 1 2004 are:

Foss 5,020 -52
Svarteborg 2,683 +12
Krokstad 1,043 +-0
Håby 468 +12
Hede 495 +10
Bärfendal 248 +8
Valbo Ryr 262 -9
Sanne 186 -10

Source: [1]

Notability

The Munkedal Railroad, a narrow gauge museum railroad, inaugurated in 1896. A railroad museum is also situated by it. The area, troubled by battles between Norwegian and Swedish armies, has several defence structures that can be visited. In addition, there are many old churches from the medieval age of interest.