Klepp

Klepp Municipality Klepp kommune
Municipality
Klep herred  (historic name)
View of the Orrestranda beach along the Klepp coast
Flag Coat of arms
Rogaland within Norway
Klepp within Rogaland
Coordinates: 58°46′38″N 05°35′48″E / 58.77722°N 5.59667°E / 58.77722; 5.59667
Country	Norway
County	Rogaland
District	Jæren
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Kleppe
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Kjetil Maudal (FrP)
Area
• Total	113.49 km2 (43.82 sq mi)
• Land	102.36 km2 (39.52 sq mi)
• Water	11.13 km2 (4.30 sq mi)  9.8%
• Rank	#324 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	20,615
• Rank	#62 in Norway
• Density	201.4/km2 (522/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+13.1%
Demonym	Kleppsbu[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1120[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Klepp is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kleppe. Other villages in Klepp include Klepp stasjon, Orre, Orstad, Pollestad, Verdalen, and Voll.^[4] Klepp is a flat and open agricultural landscape. The highest point, Tinghaug, is at 102 metres (335 ft) above sea level. There are long stretches of sand beaches along the North Sea coastline in the west.^[4]

The 113-square-kilometre (44 sq mi) municipality is the 324th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Klepp is the 63rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 20,615. The municipality's population density is 201.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (522/sq mi) and its population has increased by 13.1% over the previous 10-year period.^[5][6] The population around Kleppe is growing rapidly, mostly in the form of suburban single-family homes, but also in the form of some apartment blocks. There is a shopping mall in Kleppe called Jærhagen.

The old parish of Klep was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The boundaries of the municipality have not changed since that time.^[7]

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Klepp farm (Old Norse: Kleppi) since the first Klepp Church was built there. The name is the dative case of the word kleppr which means "rocky hill". The inscription on the Klepp I Runestone indicates that the name has been in use since the late 10th or early 11th century. Before 1912, the name was written "Klep".^[8]

The coat of arms was granted on 18 February 1972. The official blazon is "Azure, a Cossack cross Or" (Norwegian: På blå botn ein svevande, utskrådd gul kross). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a Cossack cross. The charge 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 cross on the arms symbolizes the large stone cross at Krosshaug in Klepp. Krosshaug is a grave hill located near the site where the local thing met for centuries. The Old Norse word haugr means "mound", hence the name "kross-haug" is the cross-mound. The cross was considered a representative historic symbol for the municipality. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[9][10][11]

The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Klepp. It is part of the Jæren prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger.

The earliest traces of population in the municipality have been dated to around 6000 BC. At that time, the land was covered by large oak woods. The large stone cross standing on the grave hill Krosshaug dates from around 1000 AD and is possibly the oldest in Norway. It is adjacent to Tinghaug, the site for a local Thing for many centuries during the Iron Age. Tinghaug probably acted as a site for the local court and assembly for many centuries.

The municipality is located 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the city of Stavanger. Neighbouring municipalities are Hå to the south, Time to the south and east, Sola and Sandnes to the north. The coastline is agricultural and consists of, from south to north, the areas Orre, Reve, Bore and Sele.

The long Orrestranda beach, one of the longest sandy beaches in Norway, is in Klepp. The river Figgjoelva empties into the North Sea in Klepp. The small island of Feistein lies off shore and is the site of the Feistein Lighthouse. There are two large lakes in Klepp: Orrevatnet and Frøylandsvatnet.

The Sørlandet railway line, historically called the Jæren Line, runs through Klepp along lake Frøylandsvatnet. The village of Klepp stasjon, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) east of Kleppe, is built around the train station Klepp Station. The nearby Oksnevadporten Station is the other railway station in Klepp.

Klepp is the second largest agricultural municipality in Rogaland, with a total of around 600 farms. Kverneland Group, located in Kvernaland, is the largest manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the world.

The local sports club Klepp IL most notably has a women's football team in the Norwegian top league. Famous players include Dagny Mellgren and the national team captain Ane Stangeland Horpestad. Gymnast Åge Storhaug also represented the club.

Klepp Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[15] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sør-Rogaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Klepp is made up of 31 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2023)

The mayors (Norwegian: ordfører) of Klepp (incomplete list):

There have been many members of the Parliament of Norway from Klepp. Thore Larsen Braut and Karl K. Kleppe were members of Parliament prior to the Second World War. After the war Lars Storhaug, Oddbjørg Ausdal Starrfelt, and Knut Haus have been members of Parliament.

• Theodor Dahl (1886–1946), a journalist, short story writer, novelist, and poet
• Asgaut Steinnes (1892–1973), a historian who was the National archivist of Norway from 1933 to 1960
• Torvald Tu (1893–1955), a poet, playwright, novelist, and writer of humoresques
• Sigve Tjøtta (born 1930), a mathematician and long-distance runner
• Åse-Marie Nesse (1934–2001), a philologist, academic, and poet
• Arne Sølvberg (born 1940), a computer scientist, academic, and expert in information modelling

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Klepp.

Look up Klepp in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Rogaland travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Klepp travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Pictures from Klepp