Kvam is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The municipality is located along the Hardangerfjorden in the traditional district of Hardanger. The

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

of the municipality is the village of Norheimsund. Other larger settlements in the municipality include Øystese, Bru, Ålvik, Tørvikbygd, Omastranda, and Mundheim. Historically, the municipality was named ''Vikør''. The municipality is the 188th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Kvam is the 126th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 8,531. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

is and its population has decreased by 0.6% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

Name

The municipality (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

) was first named ''Vikør'' after the old ''Vikøy'' farm () since the first Vikøy Church was built there. The first element is which means "small bay", "

cove A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...

", or "

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In ...

". The last element is the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

of which means "

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

". This is likely referring to the small island in the little cove just east of the farm. On 1 December 1911, a royal resolution changed the name of the municipality to ''Kvam'', bringing back an old name for the area (). The name is identical to the word which means "small

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

" or "grassy hollow", possibly referring the Steinsdalen valley west of Norheimsund.

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

was granted on 27 November 1981. The official

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

is ''" Azure, a pale pattee argent"'' (). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the ordinary is a pale that curves inwards on each side. The ordinary has a

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The arms were designed to look like the Fyksesund, a narrow

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

in the municipality. The shape of the fjord is that it is narrower in the middle and this is symbolized in the design. The arms were designed by Magnus Hardeland. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway has four parishes () within the municipality of Kvam. It is part of the Hardanger og Voss prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Geography

Kvam municipality borders the municipality of

Voss Voss () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages inclu ...

to the north and east; Vaksdal, Samnanger, and Bjørnafjorden to the west; and the Hardangerfjorden to the south. The Fyksesund fjord branches off the main fjord and heads north into the municipality. The Fyksesund Landscape Park surrounds the inner part of the Fyksesund, north of the Fyksesund Bridge. The largest lakes are Bjølsegrøvvatnet and Holmavatnet. In addition a portion of Hamlagrøvatnet is located in Kvam. The Kvamskogen plateau lies west of Norheimsund and is home to hundreds of holiday cabins. The Steinsdalsfossen waterfall, located in Steine is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Norway.

History

The old

of ''Vikør'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

law). According to the 1835 census, the parish had a population of 2,321. On 1 January 1882, a small area of Ullensvang municipality (population: 22) was transferred to Vikør. In 1912, the municipality changed its name from "Vikør" to "Kvam". During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1965, the Åsgrenda area on the Folgefonna peninsula (population: 61) was moved from Kvam to the neighboring Ullensvang Municipality. On the same date, Kvam also gained a considerable amount of territory, making it a much larger municipality. The following places were merged, giving the new Kvam municipality a population of 9,119. * Most of Kvam municipality (population: 6,759) except for Åsegrenda which was moved to Ullensvang * The part of Jondal municipality that was located on the northwest side of the Hardangerfjord, around the village of Tørvikbygd (population: 515) * Most of Strandebarm municipality (population: 1,545), except for the Kysnesstranda area which went to Jondal * The Mundheim area of Varaldsøy (population: 300).

Population

Government

Kvam Municipality is responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

senior citizen Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

services, welfare and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s and utilities. The municipality is governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Hordaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal. In 2007, Kvam participated in a trial where the mayor was directly elected. The sitting mayor, Astrid Selsvold, won the election with 26.7% of the votes.

Municipal council

The

() of Kvam is made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Mayors

The mayors () of Kvam: *1838–1839: Fredrich Christian Bruun *1840–1843: Torgeir P. Aarhus *1844–1857: Gjermund N. Skaar *1858–1859: Ola S. Aksnes *1860–1865: Johannes S. Neteland *1866–1885: Nils N. Skaar, Sr. *1886–1887: Lars Lofthus *1888–1919: Nils N. Skaar, Jr. *1919–1922: Hans Jakobson Vik *1923–1931: Jakob N. Vik *1932–1937: Jakob H. Vik *1938–1940: Lars Matre *1940–1945: Jakob H. Vik ( NS) *1945–1945: Lars Matre *1946–1960: Olav L. Skeie *1960–1975: Olav M. Laupsa ( KrF) *1976–1983: Guttorm Skeie ( Sp) *1984–1987: Johannes Waage ( KrF) *1988–1989: Sigvard Berge ( Ap) *1990–1991: Guttorm Skeie ( Sp) *1992–1993: Sigvard Berge ( Ap) *1994–2003: Martin Vik ( Sp) *2003–2011: Astrid Farestveit Selsvold ( Ap) *2011–2015: Asbjørn Tolo ( H) *2015–2019: Jostein Ljones ( Sp) *2019–present: Torgeir Næss ( Ap)

Notable people

* Johannes Skaar (1828 in Øystese – 1904), the Bishop of the Diocese of Nidaros * Jon Flatabø (1846 in Kvam – 1930), a Norwegian writer of popular literature * Nils Nilsson Skaar (1852 in Kvam – 1948), a Norwegian teacher, farmer, editor, and politician * Ingebrigt Vik (1867 in Øystese – 1927), a distinguished Norwegian sculptor * Jakob Nilsson Vik (1882 in Kvam – 1960), a Norwegian farmer, dairy manager, and politician * Svein Rosseland (1894 in Kvam – 1985), an astrophysicist who pioneered theoretical astrophysics * Geirr Tveitt (1908–1981), a Norwegian composer and pianist who has family in Kvam * Gunnar Aksnes (1926 in Kvam — 2010), a Norwegian chemist and poet * Magnus Midtbø (1942 in Ålvik – 2010), a Norwegian trade unionist and politician * Kaj Skagen (born 1949 in Strandebarm), a Norwegian writer * Nils Gunnar Lie (born 1950 in Øystese) a Norwegian television personality * Torill Selsvold Nyborg (born 1952 in Kvam) a nurse, missionary, and politician * Valgerd Svarstad Haugland (born 1956 in Kvam), a teacher, politician, and civil servant * Geir Botnen (born 1959 in Kvam), a Norwegian pianist * Gisle Torvik (born 1975 in Tørvikbygd), a Norwegian jazz musician who plays guitar * Torstein Lofthus (born 1977 in Øystese), a Norwegian drummer and composer * Frank Kjosås (born 1981 in Øystese), a Norwegian actor of theatre and film. Retrieved 9 December 2020.

Sport

* Knut Hjeltnes (1951—2024), a college coach, shot-putter and discus thrower * Kirsten Melkevik Otterbu (born 1970 in Øystese), a Norwegian marathon runner * Torgeir Børven (born 1991 in Øystese), a Norwegian footballer with over 240 club caps

References

External links

Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All rele ...

{{use dmy dates, date=October 2022 Municipalities of Vestland 1838 establishments in Norway