Frosta Municipality

Frosta is the smallest municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Alstad (also known as Frosta). Other villages in Frosta include Logtun, Nordfjæra, Småland, Sørgrenda, and Tautra. The municipality is located along the Trondheimsfjord, on the Frosta peninsula, northeast of the city of Trondheim. It also includes the island of Tautra which is connected to the mainland by a 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) causeway bridge.

The 76-square-kilometre (29 sq mi) municipality is the 338th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Frosta Municipality is the 247th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,645. The municipality's population density is 34.7 inhabitants per square kilometre (90/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 0.3% over the previous 10-year period.

The parish of Frosta was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). It is one of very few municipalities in Norway with unchanged borders since that date. In 2018, the municipality, which was part of the old Nord-Trøndelag county, became part of the new Trøndelag county.

The municipality (originally the parish) is named Frosta (Old Norse: Frosta). The meaning of the name is unknown. Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Frosten. On 31 December 1908, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Frosta.

The coat of arms was granted on 26 June 1987. The official blazon is "Vert, a sceptre fleury Or" (Norwegian: I grønt et gull liljesepter). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a sceptre or mace with a Fleur-de-lis design at the top. 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 coat of arms was inspired by the old seal of the medieval Frostating assembly, where King Magnus VI the law-mender is sitting with a lily sceptre in his hand. Frosta was one of the historic places of justice, so this was chosen to commemorate that fact. The arms were designed by Einar H. Skjervold.

The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within Frosta Municipality. It is part of the Sør-Innherad prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.

Several rock engraving sites can be found in the municipality, together with burial mounds from Viking times. Archaeologists have for the first time found the remnants of a Viking harbour in Frosta [no] in Norway at Frosta. A number of logs sticking up along the shoreline at Frosta have been dated back to around year 1000.

Norway's oldest court, Frostating, had its seat at Tinghaugen on the Frosta peninsula, near the medieval Logtun Church. The remains of Tautra Abbey are located on Tautra island. The abbey was a Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) convent established in 1207.