Until January 1, 2007 Ørbæk Municipality was a municipality (Danish: kommune) in the former Funen County, on the east coast of the island of Funen, in central Denmark. The municipality covered an area of 138.34 km2, and had a total population of 6,916 (2006). Its last mayor was Kaf Refslund, a member of the Venstre party.
From 1842, where parish municipalities were created, and until 1966 the area of Ørbæk Municipality consisted of seven parish municipalities. They were merged in 1966 to form Ørbæk Parish Municipality, which then became Ørbæk Municipality in the 1970 Municipal Reform.
It was in 2005 suggested that Ørbæk should not only be merged with Nyborg and Ullerslev, but also with the municipalities of Munkebo, Langeskov and Kerteminde to create one large Eastern Funen municipality. The reason was that the new Kerteminde Municipality would have too small of a population to function properly. In the end, Nyborg and Kerteminde weren't merged and became two separate municipalities.[3]
Historical divisions
Historical municipal divisions of Ørbæk Municipality
Nearly half of the population of the municipality lived in small villages or rural areas. Approximately a fifth of the municipality's population lived in Ørbæk, which was the largest town in the municipality. The remaining population lived in the other five larger settlements in the municipality, these being Refsvindinge, Måre (including Herrested), Frørup, Tårup and Svindinge. Smaller villages in the municipality included Kullerup, Øksendrup, Tårup Strand and Langå.[4]
Ørbæk was located centrally in the municipality, with Refsvindinge, Måre and Frørup spread out around Ørbæk. The town of Ørbæk is well known for its brewery. The brewery originate from 1906, and also acts as the headquarter for the Naturfrisk Group.[5]
Below are the populations from 2006 of the six larger settlements of the municipality.[6]
Below are the municipal council elected since the municipality's creation in 1970 and until 2001, which was the last election before the municipality was dissolved.
Ørbæk Municipality's coat of arm was ten yellow church bells, placed in a reverse pyramid. The bells represented the churches of the municipality. The background was blue. The coat of arms was designed by Palle Aagaard and Henning Terndrup.
References
^Statistikbanken.dk "BEF1A: Folketal 1. januar efter kommune, køn, alder og civilstand (AFSLUTTET)" Retrieved 1 October 2020