Sør-Fron 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 Hundorp. Other villages in the municipality include Gålå, Harpefoss, and Lia.

The 742-square-kilometre (286 sq mi) municipality is the 153rd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Sør-Fron is the 222nd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,240. The municipality's population density is 4.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (12/sq mi) and its population has increased by 1.5% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

The prestegjeld of Fron was established as a civil municipality on 1 January 1838 when the new formannskapsdistrikt law went into effect. On 1 January 1851, the municipality was divided in two. The northwest portion became Nord-Fron Municipality (population: 4,685) and the southeast portion became Sør-Fron Municipality (population: 3,421). On 27 July 1956, a small area of Sør-Fron municipality (population: 7) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Vestre Gausdal.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1966, the municipalities of Nord-Fron (population: 5,758) and Sør-Fron (population: 3,648) were merged to form a new Fron Municipality (with similar borders to the old Fron municipality that existed from 1838-1851 minus the Sjoa area had switched from Nord-Fron to Sel).

This merger was not well-liked among the residents of the new municipality. On 1 January 1977, the merger was reversed and Nord-Fron (population: 6,131) and Sør-Fron (population: 3,509) were recreated using their old borders from 1965.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Fron farm (Old Norse: Frón) since the first Fron Church was built there. The first element is sør which means "southern". The last element is uncertain, but it may come from the word frón which means "earth" or "land". Thus the name of the municipality is "(the) southern (part of) Fron" (since the parish of Fron was divided in 1851 into a "north" and a "south" part). Historically, it was called Søndre Fron, using another word which also means "south". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Søndre Fron. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Sør-Fron, using an alternate word for "south".

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 4 March 1988. The official blazon is "Vert, a club argent in bend" (Norwegian: På grøn grunn ei skråstilt sølv klubbe). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a club. The club has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The club is reminiscent of the club that Kolbein Sterke used in the year 1021 when King Olav Haraldsson met the people of Fron and Dale-Gudbrand at Hundorp. This meeting is recorded in a book by Snorre Sturlusson. "Look, our god is coming with a lot of light," said King Olav. Dale-Gudbrand and the farmers looked at the sun that was just rising. Kolbein then took the club and smashed to pieces the statue of the god Thor standing at Hundorp. After this, the people of the area were Christians, according to Snorre. The arms were designed by Amund Rudi. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Sør-Fron. It is part of the Sør-Gudbrandsdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

Churches in Sør-Fron

Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Sør-Frøn	Sør-Fron Church	Hundorp	1792
	Espedalen Chapel	Espedalen	1974

Government

Sør-Fron 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. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Vestre Innlandet District Court and the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Sør-Fron is made up of 19 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayors (Norwegian: ordfører) of Sør-Fron (incomplete list):

Geography

Number of minorities (1st and 2nd generation) in Sør-Fron by country of origin in 2017

Ancestry	Number
Lithuania	85
Poland	37
Bosnia-Herzegovina	32
Denmark	18
Netherlands	16

Sør-Fron municipality is bordered to the west by Nord-Fron municipality, to the southwest by Øystre Slidre municipality, to the south by Gausdal municipality, to the east by Ringebu and Stor-Elvdal municipalities, and to the north by Folldal municipality. The river Gudbrandsdalslågen runs through the central part of the municipality.

The lakes Atnsjøen, Olstappen, and Sandvatnet/Kaldfjorden/Øyvatnet are located in the municipality. The municipality includes parts of the Gudbrandsdalen and Espedalen valleys.

Rondane National Park

Rondane National Park, which lies partially in Sør-Fron, was the first Norwegian National Park, established in 1962. In 2003, Rondane National Park was enlarged and smaller areas of nature protection were opened or enlarged adjacent to the park.

Culture

The famous play Peer Gynt is staged annually at Lake Gålå in a mountainous region of Sør-Fron as part of a festival. The play itself is supposed to have been set in a Norwegian location such as Gålå.

Notable people

• Dale-Gudbrand (1100s), a historical Norwegian Hersir who lived at a farm in Hundorp
• Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (1684–1754), a writer, philosopher, historian, and playwright who was brought up in Sør-Fron
• Andreas Brandrud (1868 in Sør-Fron – 1957), a Norwegian professor, theologian, and church historian
• Oddvar Nygaard (1919 in Hundorp – 1985), a Norwegian accordionist and composer