Valestrand

Valestrand kommune
Former Municipality
Valestrand Church
Valestrand kommune Location in Hordaland county
Coordinates: 59°41′58″N 05°28′20″E / 59.69944°N 5.47222°E / 59.69944; 5.47222Coordinates: 59°41′58″N 05°28′20″E / 59.69944°N 5.47222°E / 59.69944; 5.47222
Country	Norway
Region	Western Norway
County	Hordaland
District	Sunnhordland
Municipality ID	NO-1217
Adm. Center	Valevåg
Area[1]
• Total	59 km2 (23 sq mi)
Population (1963)
• Total	1,227
Time zone	CET (UTC+01:00)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+02:00)
Created from	Stord in 1868 and Finnås in 1870
Merged into	Sveio in 1964

Valestrand is a former municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. The 59-square-kilometre (23 sq mi) municipality was located on a peninsula on the southern shore of the Bømlafjorden inside the present-day municipality of Sveio. The administrative centre of Valestrand was the village of Valevåg. The two churches in Valestrand were Valen Chapel and Valestrand Church.^[1]

History

The municipality of Valestrand was established on 15 May 1868 when the southern district of the large municipality of Stord (south of the Bømlafjorden) was separated from the rest of Stord to become its own municipality. Initially, Valestrand had a population of 900. On 1 April 1870, the Øklandsgrend area (population: 247) of the neighboring municipality of Finnås was transferred to Valestrand. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place as a result of the Schei Committee. The municipalities of Sveio (population: 1,697) and Valestrand (population: 1,216) were merged together with the western part of the municipality of Vikebygd (population: 471) and a small portion of the northern part of the municipality of Skjold (population: 24), both located north and west of the Ålfjorden. The new municipality was called Sveio. The small portion from Skjold municipality was in Rogaland county, and after the merger it switched to Hordaland county.^[2]

References