Älvdalen Municipality: Map

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Älvdalen Municipality (Älvdalens kommun) is a municipality in Dalarna County

in central Sweden

. Its seat is located in the town of Älvdalen

.

The two parishes Särna and Idre were ceded to Sweden from Norway

under the treaty of Brömsebro on 13 August 1645. In 1971 the three municipalities Särna, Idre (which itself had been split off from Särna in 1916) and Älvdalen were amalgamated to form the present municipality.

Älvdalen literally means River Valley, a name stemming from the area around the town Älvdalen, situated along the Österdal River

, in the municipality's southern part.

The middle part of the coat of arms is meant to depict the landscape: streams and hills.

Geography

Geographically, it is considered divided into three parts. From north to south: the mountainous (fjäll

) part, the forest part, and the valley (Älv) part.

North

The northern part is located within the Scandinavian mountain range

. It has cultural influences from the native sami people.

Idre, with about 800 inhabitants is a notable skiing resort.

This part has some high mountains including Storvätteshågna at 1,204 meters and Städjan at 1,131 m. The Töfsingdalen National Park

is also located in the northernmost parts.

Central

The forest part has forests, with the national park Fulufjället

also belonging to this part. Its influences come from it bordering to Norway

, and its history has many examples and remains from its border conflicts. To symbolize this, the lower part of the coat of arms depict a crossbow. The point furthest away from any seas in Scandinavia is located here.

The town Särna

is located along the Österdal River, with 930 inhabitants. Like Idre, its main industry is tourism. The town once belonged to Norway, but in 1644 it was occupied by 200 Swedish peasants, which in effect made it a Swedish town, although it was official granted first with new borders of 1751.

South

The southern area is populated by 5,000 persons, of whom most speak or understand the Elfdalian (or Övdalsk, Älvdalsmål) dialect/language. It is an ancient tongue that may be closest related to the Old Norse language.

This area may be said to have the most interesting culture, with the town Älvdalen and several notable villages such as Evertsberg