Spangereid is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1889 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality was located in the southwestern part of the present-day municipality of Lindesnes. The municipality included the whole Lindesnes peninsula, plus part of the mainland adjacent to the narrow isthmus which connects the peninsula to the mainland. The administrative centre was the village of Høllen where the Spangereid Church is located.
The area is one of Norway’s richest archaeological sites. The abundant remnants from the Bronze Age and Viking age show the Spangereid was a very important place at that time. Spangereid is strategically connected at the Lindesnes peninsula, Norway’s southernmost point, where the east coast meets the west coast.
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) was named after the old Spangereid farm (Old Norse: Spangarheiði). This is where the local Spangereid Church was located. The first element comes from the Old Norse word spǫng which means a „small piece of land“ and the last element is eið which is identical with the word for „isthmus“, since the church is located on an isthmus which connects the Lindesnes peninsula to the mainland.
History
The municipality of Spangereid was established on 1 January 1899 when it was separated from the municipality of Sør-Undal. The initial population of the new municipality was 1,734. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, the Gitlevåg area (population: 103) of Spangereid was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Lyngdal. On 1 January 1964, Spangereid (population: 899) was merged with Sør-Audnedal and Vigmostad to form the new municipality of Lindesnes.
Spangereidkanalen
Spangereid in Lindesnes was home to a number of Viking chieftains. Archaeological finds and excavations have revealed that in the Viking era, there was a canal between Lehnefjorden and Njervefjorden, which went right through what is now the centre of Spangereid. Probably the Vikings built the canal so that they could avoid having to round the rough seas off Lindesnes, and no doubt the canal also provided income and some control over seafarers travelling between the east and west. In 2007 a replica of the Viking canal was “reopened”, making it possible once more to take a boat from east to west without having to round Lindesnes.
Source: Wikipedia / Turistkontoret for Lindesnesregionen