Вага коммунасы: тарихы мен географиясы

Municipality in Innlandet, Norway

Vågå is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågåmo. Other village areas in Vågå include Lalm and Bessheim. The municipality is the 73rd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Vågå is the 214th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,532. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 5% over the previous 10 year period.

The prestegjeld of Vaage was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1908, the municipality was divided into three parts. The northeastern part of Vågå (population: 2,287) became Sel Municipality, the southeastern part (population: 1,241) became Hedalen Municipality, and the remaining areas in the west (population: 2,953) remained as Vågå municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal changes across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the Tolstadåsen area of Vågå (population: 35) was transferred to the neighboring Sel Municipality.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named Vågå, using a very old name for the area ( or Vága) since the first Vågå Church was built there. Two origins have been suggested for the name Vågå (historic spelling: Vaage):
The name Vågå may come from the Old Norse word vega meaning "travel". The area lies on an ancient east–west route mentioned in the Heimskringla. The Old Norse form of the name may come from vaga (accusative and dative cases) from the word vagi (nominative case). It was probably originally the name of the lake Vågåvatn, but the meaning is unknown. (Maybe derived from vage which means "sleigh runner" since the shape of the lake has some similarity of form with a sleigh runner.) Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Vaage. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Vaagaa. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Vaagaa with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Vågå, using the letter å instead. The letter å has a long vowel similar to "oh" or "aw", like in the American pronunciation of "cold" or "oar."

The coat of arms was granted on 23 August 1985. The official blazon is "Gules, a reindeer springing Or" (På raud grunn eit springande gull reinsdyr på skrå oppover). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a springing reindeer. The reindeer 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 design symbolizes the importance of reindeer herding and hunting. It is also based on a character in Henrik Ibsen's book Peer Gynt, who rides on a reindeer bull over the Besseggen mountains. Ibsen got the idea for this book from a local story. The arms were designed by Hans H. Holm and redrawn by Ola T. Rybakken. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Vågå is bordered on the north by the municipality of Lesja, in the east by Dovre and Sel, in the southeast by Nord Fron, in the south by Vang and Øystre Slidre, and in the west by Lom. Vågå municipality lies in a mountainous region just to the east of Norway's Jotunheimen National Park, west of Rondane National Park, and south of the Dovrefjell mountains. The highest peak is the Surtningssue with a height of Vågå includes a mountain road to the top of the tall Jetta mountain which provides an unobstructed view of both the Gudbrandsdal valley and the surrounding national parks. The river Otta begins in Skjåk municipality and flows into Vågåvatn lake. Exiting Vågåvatn at Vågåmo, the river continues its journey through the Ottadalen valley leaving Vågå municipality to meet the Gudbrandsdalslågen river at the town of Otta in the municipality of Sel. Lakes in the region include Flatningen.

Vågå lies in the rain shadow from the Jotunheimen mountains which separate Eastern and Western Norway. The climate is hence characterized by a continental climate. Warm summers and cold winters dominate, and the precipitation is very low. In fact, during some years it receives less than of precipitation. This dry continental climate makes Vågå the obvious place for the national hang glider and para glider centre of Norway.

Although being affected by the ice sheet history spanning the Quaternary period of the last 2.5 million years, much of the landscape are moderately imprinted by ice sheet erosion except from in the main valleys. Even these valleys including Sjodalen and Ottadalen are of pre Quaternary origin, and were originally sculptured by fluvial rather than glacial erosion. The numerous lakes does remind us of the glacial history, although being much more limited than in the more dramatic [fiord]s of western Norway. This limited glacial erosion also means that Vågå had limited glacier erosion during the last glacial period. Many findings of Mammoth pre dating the last glacial maximum (LGM) have been found, being evidence of the conservative nature of the LGM in the region.

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Vågå is made up of 17 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

In the September 2011 election, Rune Øygard was reelected as mayor, after having served in that role since 1995. His reelection by the municipal council was controversial as he was already under police investigation for alleged child sexual abuse, the so called Øygard case, sometimes also referred to as the Vågå case. Øygard was granted temporary leave following his indictment in the case, and was succeeded as acting mayor by Iselin Jonassen (Labour) on 8 May 2012. After being found guilty and sentenced to four years imprisonment, Rune Øygard resigned as mayor. His resignation was granted by the municipal council on 18 December 2012, effective immediately.