Froland

Historie

Froland is a municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Sørlandet. The administrative center is the village of Blakstad, which along with Osedalen form the main population center of the municipality.General informationThe municipality of Froland was established when it was separated from the municipality of Øyestad in 1850. The new municipality had an initial population of 1,976. On 1 January 1967, the neighboring municipality of Mykland (population: 604) was merged into the municipality of Froland. The newly enlarged municipality had a population of 3,372. On 1 January 1968, the Flateland area of neighboring Åmli municipality (population: 6) was transferred to Froland.On 1 January 1970, the two uninhabited areas of Neset and Råbudal were separated from Froland and transferred to neighboring Birkenes. Then on 1 January 1979, the uninhabited Landheia area was transferred from Froland to Birkenes municipality. On 1 January 1991, the Dalen area in Birkenes municipality (population: 60) was transferred from Birkenes to Froland municipality.NameThe municipality is named after the old Froland farm, since the first church was built there. The first element is the genitive case of the male name Fróði and the last element is land which means "land" or "farm".