Flakstad

Flakstad kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Nordland within Norway
Flakstad within Nordland
Coordinates: 68°4′45″N 13°16′28″E
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Lofoten
Administrative centre	Ramberg
Government
• Mayor (2007)	Stein Iversen (Distrikstliste)
Area
• Total	178 km2 (69 sq mi)
• Land	169 km2 (65 sq mi)
Area rank	345 in Norway
Population (2004)
• Total	1,484
• Rank	370 in Norway
• Density	9/km2 (20/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	-8.8 %
Demonym	Flakstadfjerding
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1859
Official language form	Neutral
Website	www.flakstad.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Nusfjord is an idyllic, small harbor with traditional rorbus.

Flakstad church

Skagsanden beach, Flakstad

Flakstad is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Lofoten traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ramberg. The municipality is located in the Lofoten Islands and comprises the island of Flakstadøya and the eastern part of the island of Moskenesøya.

Flakstad was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Moskenes was separated from Flakstad on 1 July 1916. Later, Flakstad was briefly merged again with Moskenes from 1964-1976 before being separated again.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Flakstad farm (Norse Flakstaðir), since the first church was built there. The first element could be a Norse nickname (flak 'reckless'), the last element is staðir 'homestead, farm'.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1989). The arms show a fastening device used on boats as a symbol for the community's seafaring history.