Kvinnherad

Kvinnherad Municipality Kvinnherad kommune
Municipality
Kvinnherred herred[1]  (historic name) Quindherred herred  (historic name)
View of the Husnes area
Flag Coat of arms
Vestland within Norway
Kvinnherad within Vestland
Coordinates: 59°55′41″N 06°02′13″E / 59.92806°N 6.03694°E / 59.92806; 6.03694
Country	Norway
County	Vestland
District	Sunnhordland
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Rosendal
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Vegard Bjørnevik (H)
Area
• Total	1,090.75 km2 (421.14 sq mi)
• Land	1,042.67 km2 (402.58 sq mi)
• Water	48.08 km2 (18.56 sq mi)  4.4%
• Rank	#104 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	13,058
• Rank	#93 in Norway
• Density	12.5/km2 (32/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−1.9%
Demonym	Kvinnhering[2]
Official language [3]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4617[4]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Kvinnherad is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland, along the Hardangerfjorden. The municipality was the 5th in size in former Hordaland county.^[5]

The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rosendal. The largest village is Husnes, with about 6,000 people living in or near the village. Other villages include Ænes, Åkra, Dimmelsvik, Eidsvik, Hatlestrand, Herøysund, Høylandsbygd, Ølve, Sæbøvik, Sundal, Sunde, Uskedal, and Valen.

The 1,091-square-kilometre (421 sq mi) municipality is the 104th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Kvinnherad is the 93rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 13,058. The municipality's population density is 12.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (32/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 1.9% over the previous 10-year period.^[6][7]

In the southern part of Kvinnherad you will find the typical fjord landscape of western Norway. The areas of Mauranger and Rosendal are said to have about the most beautiful fjord landscape of Hardanger as a whole: narrow fjords, wild water-falls, and the nearby Folgefonna, the third biggest glacier in Norway.^[5]

The parish of Qvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1907, a small area northwest of the villages of Ølve and Husa (population: 67) was transferred from neighboring Tysnes municipality to Kvinnherad. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the following areas were merged into one large municipality of Kvinnherad:^[8]

• All of Skånevik municipality located north of the Skånevikfjorden-Åkrafjorden and west of the Åkra area (population: 1,189)
• All of Fjelberg municipality (population: 2,308)
• All of the old Kvinnherad municipality (population: 5,831)
• All of Varaldsøy municipality, except for the Mundheim area, (population: 511)

On 1 January 2013, the southwestern part of the Folgefonna peninsula (south of Kysnesstranda) was transferred from Kvinnherad to the neighboring Jondal municipality. This removed forty residents and 37.1 square kilometres (14.3 sq mi) of land area from the municipality.^[9]

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old name for the area (Old Norse: Kvinnaherað). The first element may be derived from the word tvinnr which means "double", likely referring to the two rivers running through Rosendal, the administrative centre of the municipality. The last element is herað which means "district" or "countryside".^[10] The municipal name has been spelled several ways throughout history. Before 1889, the name was written Quindherred, then in 1889 the spelling was "modernized" to Kvinnherred. At that time, all municipalities in Norway were titled herred (which was used similarly to the word "municipality"), so it was formally named Kvinnherred herred, which looked a little repetitive.^[1] On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Kvinnherad.^[11]

The coat of arms was granted on 18 June 1982. The official blazon is "Argent, a pall wavy azure" (Norwegian: På kvit grunn ein blå gaffelkross laga med bølgjesnitt). This means the arms have a field (background) has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The ordinary is a pall with wavy edges. The design of the arms show the confluence of two blue rivers into one on a white or silver background. The rivers symbolize the many streams and rivers in the municipality, especially the Hattebergselvi and the Melselvi, that come together just before they run into the sea at Rosendal. The arms were designed by Truls Nygaard, after a proposal by Magnus Hardeland. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[12][13][14]

The Church of Norway has nine parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Kvinnherad. It is part of the Sunnhordland prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Churches in Kvinnherad

Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Fjelberg og Eid	Eid Church	Eidsvik	1824
	Fjelberg Church	Fjelbergøya	1722
Hatlestrand	Hatlestrand Church	Hatlestrand	1885
Husnes og Holmedal	Holmedal Church	Utåker	1815
	Husnes Church	Husnes	1874
	Valen Church	Valen	1978
Kvinnherad	Kvinnherad Church	Rosendal	c. 1250
Uskedalen	Uskedalen Church	Uskedal	1914
Varaldsøy	Varaldsøy Church	Varaldsøy	1885
Ænes	Ænes Church	Ænes	c. 1200
Ølve	Ølve Church	Ølve	1861
Åkra	Åkra Church	Åkra	1735

The economy of Kvinnherad is based on the rich water resources within its boundaries. This includes power production, aluminium production (Sør-Norge Aluminium), fish farming, shipbuilding (Eidsvik Skipsbyggeri, Hellesøy Verft, Bergen Group Halsnøy), and lifeboat production (Umoe Schat-Harding, Norsafe, Eide Marine Tech, Noreq). These industries are spread throughout the municipality.

Kvinnherad has two local newspapers, Kvinnheringen and Grenda, as well as a local TV channel, TV Sydvest.

Kvinnherad Municipality is 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.^[15] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Haugaland og Sunnhordland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Kvinnherad is made up of 35 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

The mayors (Nynorsk: ordførar) of Kvinnherad:^[35]

The municipality is located along the large Hardangerfjorden, mostly on the southeast side of the fjord on the Folgefonna peninsula, but also a small part on the other side. It includes several notable islands in the fjord including Varaldsøy, Fjelbergøya, Borgundøya, and Halsnøya.^[5]

The large Folgefonna National Park, which surrounds the Folgefonna glacier, is partially located in Kvinnherad. The northern part of the municipality is often referred to as Mauranger. It is the area surrounding the Maurangsfjorden. The notable Bondhusbreen glacier is located just south of that fjord, near the village of Sundal. The Jondal Tunnel and Folgefonna Tunnel both connect Mauranger with neighboring Odda and Jondal by cutting through the large mountains surrounding Mauranger.^[5]

The municipality has many large lakes including Blådalsvatnet, Juklavatnet, and Onarheimsvatnet. Many of these lakes are utilized for hydroelectric power generation.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1845 4,044 —     1855 4,532 +1.15% 1865 4,547 +0.03% 1875 4,627 +0.17% 1891 4,760 +0.18% 1900 5,045 +0.65% 1910 5,108 +0.12%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1920 5,272 +0.32% 1930 5,293 +0.04% 1946 5,701 +0.47% 1951 5,638 −0.22% 1960 5,514 −0.25% 1970 11,811 +7.92% 1980 12,821 +0.82%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1990 13,121 +0.23% 2000 13,196 +0.06% 2010 13,187 −0.01% 2020 13,071 −0.09% 2023 13,058 −0.03%
Note: The municipal borders were changed in 1965, causing a significant change in the population. Source: Statistics Norway[6][37] and Norwegian Historical Data Centre[38]

Kvinnherad is a popular tourist location because of its natural landscape as well as several places of interest. The most notable of which include Kvinnherad Church, the Bondhusbreen glacier, the shipping mural in Høylandsbygd, and Radiohola. Rosendal, the administrative centre of the municipality, is the site of the greatest tourist attraction in Kvinnherad: the Barony Rosendal. The Barony is the only one of its kind in Norway. It is a museum, which offers valuable information about the Union with Denmark, an important period of Norwegian history.^[5] It was one of the locations of the 1958 film "The Vikings" starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine. Many of the citizens of Kvinnherad/Hardanger, Norway were used as extras.^[39]

• 
  Kvinnherad Church in Rosendal
• 
  The Barony Rosendal
• 
  Husnes and the Hardangerfjord
• 
  Bondhusbreen glacier
• 
  View from Gjermundshamn across the Hardangerfjord, with Varaldsøy island and Folgefonna glacier

• Axel Gyntersberg (ca.1525 – 1588 in Kvinnherad), a Norwegian nobleman and feudal overlord
• Johannes Lauritsson (ca.1540 – ca.1620), a wealthy Norwegian landowner who lived Valen 1563-1578
• Axel Rosenkrantz (1670 in Kvinnherad – 1723), a landowner and baron who owned the Barony Rosendal
• Andreas Lavik (1854–1918), a revivalist, temperance advocate, magazine editor, farmer, headmaster, and politician who lived in Kvinnherad from 1885 where he was Mayor for eight years
• Jens Tvedt (1857 in Kvinnherad – 1935), a Norwegian novelist and writer of short stories
• Gisle Midttun (1881 in Kvinnherad – 1940), a Norwegian cultural historian and museologist
• Olav Midttun (1883 in Mauranger – 1972), a philologist, biographer, and magazine editor
• Ragnvald Vaage (1889 in Husnes – 1966), a Norwegian poet, novelist, and children's writer
• Sigurd Valvatne DSO DSC (born 1913 in Kvinnherad), a naval officer and submariner
• Frank Meidell Falch (1920 in Kvinnherad – 2013), a Norwegian media director and politician
• Egil Myklebust (born 1942 in Kvinnherad), a businessperson, lawyer, and CEO of SAS Group
• Lars Amund Vaage (born 1952 at Sunde), a novelist
• Endre Hellestveit (born 1976 in Rosendal), a Norwegian actor^[40]
• Hans Inge Myrvold (born 1985), a Norwegian politician and mayor of Kvinnherad in 2019
• Erlend Bratland (born 1991 in Husnes), a Norwegian singer who won Norske Talenter in 2008

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• http://www.kvinnherad.kommune.no (in Norwegian)
• http://www.baroniet.uio.no (in Norwegian)
• Kvinnheradguiden.no (in Norwegian)
• Kvinnheringen.no (in Norwegian)
• Grenda.no (in Norwegian)
• Innsida.no (in Norwegian)
• Husnes Ungdomsskule (in Norwegian)