Kvinnherad

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.

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 1091 km2 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 PD/km2 and its population has decreased by 1.9% over the previous 10-year period.

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.

General information
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:
 * 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 km2 of land area from the municipality.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old name for the area (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 which means "district" or "countryside". 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 (which was used similarly to the word "municipality"), so it was formally named Kvinnherred herred, which looked a little repetitive. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Kvinnherad.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 18 June 1982. The official blazon is "Argent, a pall wavy azure" (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.

Churches
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.

Economy
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.

Government
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. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Haugaland og Sunnhordland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
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.

Mayors
The mayors (ordførar) of Kvinnherad:


 * 1838–1845: Elias Børge Unger
 * 1846–1849: Christian Lerche Dahl
 * 1850–1851: Gabriel Andreas Heiberg
 * 1852–1855: Samson Torsen Stueland
 * 1856–1857: Christian Lerche Dahl
 * 1858–1861: Hans H. Helland
 * 1862–1862: O. Matthiesen
 * 1862–1865: Ole L. Berget
 * 1866–1867: Lars Olsen Skeie
 * 1868–1869: Hans H. Helland
 * 1870–1873: Clemmet Gerhardsen Roalstveit
 * 1874–1875: Michael L. Langballe
 * 1876–1881: Ole Andreas Olsen (V)
 * 1882–1885: Godskalk Knudsen Aarsand (V)
 * 1886–1893: Andreas Lavik (MV)
 * 1894–1898: Ivar Arnesen (V)
 * 1899–1916: Axel Lea (V)
 * 1917–1941: Ingemar Traavik (Bp)
 * 1942–1945: Einar Tvedt (NS)
 * 1945–1949: Ingemar Traavik (Bp)
 * 1949–1955: Lars Eikeland (V)
 * 1956–1959: Magnus Aksnes (V)
 * 1960–1963: Knut Skaaluren (Sp)
 * 1964–1971: Berge Sæberg (Sp)
 * 1972–1975: Jens Arnesen (H)
 * 1976–1979: Berge Sæberg (Sp)
 * 1980–1985: Jens Arnesen (H)
 * 1986–1993: Thorleif J. Hellesøy (Sp)
 * 1994–1995: Eirik Meyer Eide (KrF)
 * 1995–2003: Aksel Kloster (Ap)
 * 2003–2007: Bjarne Berge (LL)
 * 2007–2015: Synnøve Solbakken (Ap)
 * 2015–2019: Peder Sjo Slettebø (H)
 * 2019–2021: Hans Inge Myrvold (Sp)
 * 2021–2023: Hilde Enstad (Ap)
 * 2023-present: Vegard Bjørnevik (H)

Geography
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.

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.

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

Tourism and places of interest
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. 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.

Notable people

 * 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
 * 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