Vestvågøy Municipality

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Vestvågøy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Leknes. Some of the villages in the municipality include Ballstad, Borg, Bøstad, Gravdal, Knutstad, Stamsund, Tangstad, and Valberg. With over 11,600 inhabitants, Vestvågøy is the most populous municipality in all of the Lofoten and Vesterålen regions in Nordland county.

The Lofotr museum in Borg shows a reconstructed Iron Age Viking chieftain's residence, with a house measuring Template:Convert, built of stone and turf.

The Template:Convert municipality is the 231st largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Vestvågøy is the 99th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 11,619. The municipality's population density is Template:Convert and its population has increased by 5.7% over the previous 10-year period.<ref name="ssb pop">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ssb area">Template:Cite web</ref>

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 (population: 4,056), Buksnes Municipality (population: 4,416), Hol Municipality (population: 3,154), and Valberg Municipality (population: 662). Initially, Vestvågøy had 12,288 residents. The borders have not changed since.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Name

The municipality is named after the island of Vestvågøya. The Old Norse name of the island was Template:Lang (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 Template:Wikt-lang which means "west". The middle element derives from the word Template:Wikt-lang which means "bay" or "inlet". The last element is the definite form of the word Template:Wikt-lang which means "the island". Thus it means "the west bay island".<ref name="snl">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Template:See also

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 7 September 1984. The official blazon is "Azure, two stockfish addorsed" (Template:Langx). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is two dried codfish (also known as stockfish. The fish have a 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>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Churches

The Church of Norway has five parishes (Template:Lang) within Vestvågøy Municipality. It is part of the Lofoten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.

**Churches in Vestvågøy**
Parish (Template:Lang)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Borge	Borge Church	Bøstad	1986
Borge	Knutstad Chapel	Knutstad	1915
Buksnes	Buksnes Church	Gravdal	1905
Hol	Hol Church	Leknes	1806
Stamsund	Stamsund Church	Stamsund	1937
Valberg	Valberg Church	Valberg	1889

Geography

File:Utakleiv beach.jpg

Uttakleiv beach.

Vestvågøy Municipality is among the most scenic in Norway. It encompassed the whole island of Vestvågøya with the Norwegian Sea to the north and the Vestfjorden to the south. The island has rugged cliffs and peaks facing the southeastern coast. Towards the northwest, however, the land is flat, with extensive farmlands. Most people are found in the town of Leknes and its suburb Gravdal, where Nordland Hospital Lofoten is located. Along the southeastern coast, one finds picturesque fishing villages like Ballstad and Stamsund, where the Hurtigruten (coastal ferry) stops.

The coastline is dominated by high mountains, such as the Template:Convert tall Skottinden, and on the west coast also sandy white beaches. Uttakleiv the most romantic beach in Europe, according to the British newspaper The Times, and the neighbouring Hauklandsstranden is ranked by the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet as the best beach in Norway. The highest point in the municipality is the Template:Convert tall mountain Himmeltindan.<ref name="elev" />

In Leknes, the sun (midnight sun) is above the horizon from May 26 until July 17, and in winter the sun does not rise from December 9 until January 4. The midnight sun is best viewed from the western beaches, such as Uttakleiv and Eggum.

Climate

There is an official weather station at Leknes Airport. Vestvågøy has the rare cold-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen Csc). Autumn and winter is much wetter than spring and summer. The driest month (July) get less than one fifth of the precipitation in the wettest month (December), fitting the mediterranean category with only 38 mm of rain, under the 40 mm required for such a classification. Template:Weather box

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File:2010-08-03 - Lofoten Vestvågøy - Borg.jpg

Borg in Vestvågøy

Government

Vestvågøy 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.<ref name="ks">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Salten og Lofoten District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

Mayors

The mayor (Template:Langx) of Vestvågøy is the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who have held this position:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Div col

1963-1963: Alsing Wik (H)
1964–1967: Walter Tjønndal (Ap)
1968–1969: Boy Rist (H)
1970–1971: Karl Leirfall (Sp)
1972–1973: Eivind Bolle (Ap)
1974–1975: Johannes Sundrønning (Ap)
1976–1977: Petter Limstrand (Sp)
1978–1981: Johannes Sundrønning (Ap)
1982–1983: Petter Limstrand (Sp)
1984–1987: Søren Fredrik Voie (H)
1988–1991: Karl Sverre Klevstad (KrF)
1992–1999: Frank Rist (Sp)
1999–2007: Guri Ingebrigtsen (Ap)
2007–2015: Jonny Finstad (H)
2015–2023: Remi Solberg (Ap)
2023–present: Jonny Finstad (H)

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Transportation

File:Leknes, main street (Storgata), Vestvågøy municipality, Lofoten, Nordland, Norway.JPG

Main street of Leknes by night

Leknes is the municipal and administrative centre and is situated in the geographical middle of Lofoten, approximately Template:Convert west of the town of Svolvær and Template:Convert east of the village of Å. Leknes is the trading and shopping centre of Lofoten, only rivaled by Svolvær. Leknes Airport is for smaller aircraft, with 7 daily scheduled flights to Bodø Airport and some daily flights to Svolvær and Røst Airport with Widerøe airlines. There is a small bus terminal which serves as a hub with bus links to the rest of Lofoten. The Leknes Havn (harbor) is one of Norway's most important and visited harbors for cruise ships. The Hurtigruten boats have been an important means of communication and transportation for a century. It docks in Stamsund twice every night, one heading south towards Bodø the other heading north towards Svolvær.

The European route E10 highway crosses the municipality (and island) with the Sundklakkstraumen Bridge connecting to Vågan Municipality in the north and the Nappstraumen Tunnel connecting to Flakstad Municipality in the south.

International relations

Template:See also

Twin towns – Sister cities

Vestvågøy has sister city agreements with the following places:

Template:Flagicon Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur, Iceland<ref name="Iceland">Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable people

File:Edvarda Lie.jpg

Edvarda Lie, 1935

Hartvig Jentoft (1693 in Borge – 1739), a tradesman and sailor
Karl Uchermann (1855 in Borge – 1940), a painter of dogs and altarpieces
Mikael Heggelund Foslie (1855 in Borge – 1909), a botanist and algaeologist
Jens R. Nilssen (1880 in Valberg – 1964), an illustrator, comics creator, and cartoonist
Edvarda Lie (1910–1963), a painter, drawer, and illustrator who was brought up in Vestvågøy
Boy Rist (1912 in Gravdal – 1972), a naval officer and member of the Norwegian resistance in WWII
Harald Sverdrup (1923 in Gravdal – 1992), a poet and children's writer
Kari Wærness (born 1939 in Leknes), a sociologist
Søren Fredrik Voie (born 1949 in Vestvågøy), a politician who was Mayor of Vestvågøy from 1983-1987
Guri Ingebrigtsen (1952–2020), a politician who was Mayor of Vestvågøy from 1999 to 2007
Aga Khan V (born 1971), who bought a house in Unstad in 2019 (before succeeding to the Imamate)