Vestland is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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 county is located in

Western Norway Western Norway (; ) is the Regions of Norway, region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the Counties of Norway, counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative fu ...

, and its

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 ...

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County Governor is based in Hermansverk. Vestland is one of two counties in Norway that have

Nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

as their official written language form. Vestland was created on 1 January 2020, when the former counties of

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Munici ...

and Sogn og Fjordane were merged.

History

Vestland county is a newly created county, but it has been inhabited for millennia. The area was made up of many

petty kingdom A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into t ...

s under the Gulating during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The northern part was then known as ''Firdafylke'' (now the Fjordane region; Nordfjord-Sunnfjord), the central area was known as ''Sygnafylke'' (now the Sogn region), and the southern part was known as ''Hordafylke''. In the early 16th century, Norway was divided into four ''len''. The Bergenhus len was headquartered in

and encompassed much of western and northern Norway including ''Firdafylke'', ''Sygnafylke'', ''Hordafylke'', and ''Sunnmørafylke'' (in the present day

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in the northernmost part of Western Norway, Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the Molde (town), town of M ...

county). The new Bergenhus len was administered from the Bergenhus Fortress in the city of

. In 1662, the ''lens'' were replaced by amts. On 19 February 1662, a royal decree changed the name to ''Bergenhus amt''. The new ''Bergenhus amt'' originally consisted of the present-day areas of Vestland and the

Sunnmøre Sunnmøre (, ) is the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. Its main city is Ålesund. The region comprises the municipalities () of Fjord, Giske, Hareid, Herøy, Sande, Haram, Stranda Mu ...

region of

, plus the far northern Nordlandene amt was subordinate to Bergenhus amt. The

region was transferred to Romsdalen amt in 1689 and the Nordlandene amt was separated around that time as well. In 1763, the ''amt'' was divided into northern and southern parts: ''Nordre Bergenhus amt'' and ''Søndre Bergenhus amt''. When the amt was split, the present day Gulen Municipality was split with the southern part ending up in Søndre Bergenhus amt. In 1773, the border was re-drawn so that all of Gulen was located in the northern part. On 1 January 1919, ''Nordre Bergenhus amt'' was renamed ''Sogn og Fjordane fylke'' and ''Søndre Bergenhus amt'' was renamed ''Hordaland fylke'' during a period of time when many location names in Norway were changed. The city of

was removed from the ''Bergenhus amt'' in 1831 and it was classified as a city-county ''(byamt)'' from 1831 to 1972. During that time in 1915, Årstad Municipality was annexed into Bergen. In 1972, the neighbouring Arna Municipality, Fana Municipality, Laksevåg Municipality and Åsane Municipality were annexed into the city of Bergen to create a large Bergen Municipality. Also at that same time, the city of Bergen lost its county status, and became a part of Hordaland county once again. On 1 January 2020, Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane counties were merged back together once again, forming Vestland county.

Geography

Vestland is located on the western coast of Norway. It is split up by several long, deep

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 ...

s including the Nordfjorden, Sognefjorden, and Hardangerfjorden, some of

's most notable

s and great tourist attractions. About half of the Hardangervidda National Park is in the county. It also includes the Jostedal, Folgefonna, and Hardangerjøkulen

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s. The county also includes many well-known

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s, such as Vøringsfossen, Brudesløret and Stykkjedalsfossen. Ramnefjellsfossen (previously called Utigardfossen) is the tallest in Norway and third tallest in the world and Vettisfossen is one of Norway's highest waterfalls with a vertical drop of . Both are located in the Jotunheimen mountains. Outside of the

metropolitan area, the county is mostly a rural area with a scattered population. Cruise ships visit Vestland all summer because of the unique vistas of high mountains and deep blue fjords. The famous Nærøyfjord is located in the central part of the county. This is a UNESCO listed fjord area. There are several archipelagos, including

Øygarden Øygarden is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is an island municipality located in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Midhordland, stretching along the west coast of the coun ...

Austevoll Austevoll is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality and an archipelago in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Midthordland in Western Norway. The administrative centre ...

, Bulandet, Bremangerlandet, and

Kinn Kinn is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It was established on 1 January 2020. It is in the traditional districts of Nordfjord and Sunnfjord. The municipality is the only non-contiguous municipality in Norway since the municipality ...

. The westernmost point in Norway proper is Holmebåen in Solund municipality. The island of Unst, part of

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

is around west of Holmebåen. The terrain changes quite rapidly with mostly smaller mountains on the coastline, gradually increasing to mountains reaching more than . Because of the steep rise in elevation and

s cutting through the terrain, the amount of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is very high. Low pressure systems come in from the west and meet the mountains (a phenomenon known as orographic lifting) and cause rain and snowfall.

Government

The Vestland County Municipality is the elected administration of the county. It is led by the

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Australia In the Australian state of New South Wales, county councils are special purpose ...

() of 65 members. Heading the county council is the county mayor (). Since 2020, the county mayor of Vestland County Municipality has been Jon Askeland. The county also has a county governor () who is the representative of the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and

Government of Norway The Council of State () is a formal body composed of the most senior government minister (government), ministers chosen by the Prime Minister of Norway, Prime Minister, and functions as the collective decision-making organ constituting the Go ...

. Lars Sponheim is the current County Governor of Vestland and this office is based in Hermansverk. The municipalities in Vestland are divided among several district courts (): Nordhordland District Court, Sunnhordland District Court, Bergen District Court, Hardanger District Court, and Sogn og Fjordane District Court. All of these courts are subordinate to the Gulating Court of Appeal district based in Bergen. Vestland is not an electoral district for elections to the

Storting The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

, as

and Sogn og Fjordane remain as separate districts.

Media gallery

File:Myklebustdalen-sanddal-fjordane.jpg, Myklebustdalen valley east of Byrkjelo File:Stadt Hoddevik.jpg, The village of Hoddevik on the Stad peninsula in Stad Municipality File:Laerdalsoyri03.jpg, Some old houses in Lærdalsøyri, Lærdal Municipality File:Norway Aurland Laerdal.jpg, View from Aurland Municipality FinseInWinter.jpg, Finse is the highest point of the Norwegian Railway System, located at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

Municipalities

Vestland County has a total of 43 municipalities: List of Norwegian municipality numbers

Explanatory notes

References

{{use dmy dates, date=June 2020 Counties of Norway 2020 establishments in Norway States and territories established in 2020