Editing Vestvågøy Municipality (section)

==General information==
The municipality of Vestvågøy was created on 1 January 1963 when the four municipalities on the island of [[Vestvågøya]] were merged into one municipality for the whole island. The old municipalities on the island were [[Borge Municipality (Nordland)|Borge Municipality]] (population: 4,056), [[Buksnes Municipality]] (population: 4,416), [[Hol Municipality (Nordland)|Hol Municipality]] (population: 3,154), and [[Valberg Municipality]] (population: 662). Initially, Vestvågøy had 12,288 residents. The borders have not changed since.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |year=1999 |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |language=no}}</ref>

===Name===
The municipality is named after the island of [[Vestvågøya]]. The [[Old Norse]] name of the island was {{lang|non|Lófót}} (see [[Lofoten]]), but when ''Lofoten'' became the name of the whole [[archipelago]], the island became known as ''Vestvågøy''. The first element of the name is the prefix {{wikt-lang|no|vest}} which means "west". The middle element derives from the word {{wikt-lang|non|vágr}} which means "[[bay]]" or "[[inlet]]". The last element is the definite form of the word {{wikt-lang|no|øy}} which means "the [[island]]". Thus it means "the west bay island".<ref name="snl">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Vestvågøy |encyclopedia=[[Store norske leksikon]] |publisher=[[Kunnskapsforlaget]] |url=https://snl.no/Vestv%C3%A5g%C3%B8y#-Navn_og_kommunev%C3%A5pen |date=2023-06-01 |editor-last=Thorsnæs |editor-first=Geir |language=no |accessdate=2023-11-19}}</ref> {{See also|Austvågøya}}

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 7 September 1984. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Azure (heraldry)|Azure]], two stockfish [[addorsed]]"'' ({{langx|no|I blått to opprette og motstilte sølv tørrfisker}}). This means the arms have a blue [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is two dried [[cod]]fish (also known as [[stockfish]]. The fish have a [[tincture (heraldry)|tincture]] of [[argent]] which means they are commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. This was chosen since the municipality is one of the main Norwegian exporters of (dried) cod or [[stockfish]] and has been since the [[Middle Ages]]. The arms were designed by Kjell Kvivesen.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civic heraldry of Norway - Norske Kommunevåpen |url=https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Vestvågøy |access-date=2023-02-05 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Vestvågøy, Nordland (Norway) |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-18-60.html |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1984-11-23 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1984-09-07-1692 |access-date=2023-02-05 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref>

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has five parishes ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within Vestvågøy Municipality. It is part of the [[Lofoten prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Vestvågøy'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="2"|Borge||[[Borge Church]]||[[Bøstad]]||1986
|-
|[[Knutstad Chapel]]||[[Knutstad]]||1915
|-
|Buksnes||[[Buksnes Church]]||[[Gravdal, Nordland|Gravdal]]||1905
|-
|Hol||[[Hol Church (Nordland)|Hol Church]]||[[Leknes]]||1806
|-
|Stamsund||[[Stamsund Church]]||[[Stamsund]]||1937
|-
|Valberg||[[Valberg Church]]||[[Valberg, Nordland|Valberg]]||1889
|}