Høyanger, Vestland County, Norway

🇳🇴 Høyanger is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative centre is the village of Høyanger. Other villages in Høyanger municipality include Austreim, Bjordal, Kyrkjebø, Lavik, Ortnevik, and Vadheim.

Høyanger is known for having one of the first industrial towns in Norway to use its steep mountains surrounding the town giving excellent conditions for producing hydroelectricity needed for electrolysis. The main product being produced in the village of Høyanger was aluminium.

The 1,001-square-kilometre (386 sq mi) municipality is the 115th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Høyanger is the 203rd most populous municipality in Norway. The municipality's population density is 4.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (11/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 6% over the previous 10-year period.

General information During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. The municipality of Høyanger was created on 1 January 1964 when the old municipalities of Kyrkjebø and Lavik were merged to form a single municipality.

On 1 January 2020, the Nessane area of neighboring Balestrand Municipality was merged into Høyanger (and the rest of Balestrand was merged into a new, larger Sogndal Municipality). Also on that date, the municipality became part of the newly created Vestland county after Sogn og Fjordane and Hordaland counties were merged.

Name The municipality is named Høyanger (Høyjangr) after the old name of an arm of the Sognefjorden that is now called the Høyangsfjorden. The first element is derived from the word hey which means "hay". The last element is angr which means "bay" or "inlet". Thus the name is probably referring to the green hillsides along the fjord.

Churches The Church of Norway has four parishes(sokn) within the municipality of Høyanger. It is part of the Sunnfjord prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Government All municipalities in Norway are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality falls under the Sogn og Fjordane District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Geography The Sognefjorden (the largest fjord in Norway) runs through the centre of the municipality. Høyanger is bordered to the north by the municipalities of Fjaler and Sunnfjord, to the east by Sogndal and Vik, to the south by Modalen and Masfjorden, and to the west by Gulen and Hyllestad.

Høyanger municipality covers an area of about 910 square km (350 sq mi). Stølsheimen Nature Reserve was created in 1990 in Høyanger. Its 367 square km (142 sq mi) area stretches from high mountaintops through fertile valleys and sweeps over steep meadows down to the fjord. Høyanger is perhaps best known for its mountain farms and lakes. From the village of Ortnevik there are marked footpaths up to Stølsheimen Park and from the village of Bjordal you may drive up the Stordal road to the summit at 730 metres (2,400 ft) above sea level.

Economy Høyanger is a modern industrial community which has grown in pace with the principal employers being Hydro Aluminium and Høyanger Metallverk. Hydroelectricity has played a major role in the development of the area. In addition to manufacturing aluminium, Høyanger supports a varied range of light industry that is backed by retail and service trades. In the rural areas bordering the fjord, farming is the main source of livelihood. There are currently 115 traditional farms gårds in the municipality. Each traditional farms originally had one owner, but most of them have been divided up and sold off over the years, and so there are more than 115 farms in use today.

Transport There are good connections with Oslo and Bergen by bus, as well as air and fast boat services. The nearest airport is in Førde, about 50 km (31 mi) away. The village of Lavik is an important junction for traffic to and from Bergen as it is a ferry port that is part of the European route E39 highway. Høyanger is reached from the neighboring municipality of Balestrand to the east by the Høyangertunnelen which is 7.5 km (4.7 mi) in length. It is part of the Norwegian County Road 55. It is one of the longest tunnels in Europe. Good ferry services across the Sognefjorden link the northern and southern sides of the municipality.

Attractions In 1986, in Høyanger, Norsk Hydro Aluminium/Høyanger Metallverk opened a museum designed to show what water power has meant both locally and to Norway as a whole. Visitors will get to learn about how the aluminium industry has grown and prospered in the area thanks to the vast energy produced by water.

Near Vadheim is an 18th-century stone bridge called the Ytredal Bridge. It is a popular tourist attraction.

There is also a 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) narrow gauge funicular railway in the area, first opened in 1953.