Granvin

Former municipality in Hordaland, Norway

This article is about the municipality in Hardanger, Norway. For the village in this municipality, see Granvin (village).

Granvin is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1891 until its dissolution in 2020 when it merged with Voss Municipality. The municipality was located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre of Granvin was the village of Eide, which is also called "Granvin". About half of the residents of the municipality lived in the municipal centre. The rest lived in the rural valley areas surrounding the Granvin Fjord or the lake Granvinsvatnet in the central part of the municipality.

Quick Facts Country, County ...

Granvin Municipality Granvin herad
Former municipality
View of the village of Granvin
Flag Coat of arms
Hordaland within Norway
Granvin within Hordaland
Coordinates: 60°31′37″N 06°43′10″E
Country	Norway
County	Hordaland
District	Hardanger
Established	1 May 1891
• Preceded by	Ulvik Municipality
Disestablished	1 Jan 2020
• Succeeded by	Voss Municipality
Administrative centre	Eide
Government
• Mayor (2011-2019)	Ingebjørg Winjum (V)
Area (upon dissolution)
• Total	211.28 km² (81.58 sq mi)
• Land	203.86 km² (78.71 sq mi)
• Water	7.42 km² (2.86 sq mi) 3.5%
• Rank	#326 in Norway
Population (2019)
• Total	933
• Rank	#403 in Norway
• Density	4.6/km² (12/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−4.5%
Demonym	Gravensar^[1]
Official language ^[2]
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1234^[3]
Data from Statistics Norway

Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the 211-square-kilometre (81 sq mi) municipality is the 326th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Granvin is the 403rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 933. The municipality's population density is 4.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (12/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 4.5% over the last decade.^[4]

General information

The parish of Graven was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). This new municipality was very large and it included two annexes to the parish: Ulvik and Eidfjord. On 1 January 1859, "Ulvik" became the main parish, so that Granvin and Eidfjord became annexes to Ulvik, and the name of municipality was changed accordingly.^[5]

On 1 May 1891, the municipality of Ulvik was divided into three parts by creating two new municipalities. The western annex (population: 1,331) became the new municipality of Granvin and the southeastern annex (population: 1,018) became the new municipality of Eidfjord. On 1 January 1964, the Lussand-Kvanndal area of Kinsarvik municipality (population: 72) was transferred to Granvin.^[5]

On 1 January 2020, the neighboring municipalities of Granvin and Voss were merged into a new large municipality called Voss.^[6]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Granvin farm (Old Norse: Grǫnvin) since the first Granvin Church was built there. The first element is grǫn which means "spruce". The last element is vin which means "meadow" or "pasture". The area is one of the few places in Western Norway that has spruce forests. The name of the parish was spelled as "Graven" before 1858. It was then spelled as "Granvin" from 1858 until 1891. When it became a separate municipality in 1891, the old spelling of "Graven" was used again briefly until 1898. Since 1898 the spelling of "Granvin" has been used.^[7]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 13 May 1988 and it was in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality was dissolved. The official blazon is "Vert, a fiddle Or in bend sinister" (Norwegian: På grøn grunn ei gul fele, skråstilt venstre-høgre). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a diagonal hardanger fiddle (Hardingfele), a type of Norwegian folk instrument. The fiddle has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The design was chosen to symbolize the rich folk-music traditions in the Hardanger region and it also symbolizes an active and creative community. The fiddle is a simplified representation of the richly decorated Hardanger fiddles. This fiddle, used to play folk dance music, has two sets or layers of four strings and has a very characteristic sound. The lower set of sympathetic strings is not directly touched by the fiddler, but they vibrate when the other strings are played. The arms were designed by Øyvind Kvamme. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[8]^[9]^[10]

See also: the coat of arms of Bø, Telemark

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Granvin. It is part of the Hardanger og Voss prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

More information Parish (sokn), Church name ...

**Churches in Granvin**
Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Granvin	Granvin Church	Granvin	1726

Geography

View of the Skjervefossen

The municipality was situated along both sides of the Granvin Fjord (a small arm off of the main Hardangerfjorden) and the valley extending inland from the end of the fjord, in the region of Hardanger. The large lake Granvinsvatnet lies right in the center of the valley, just north of the village of Eide. On both sides of the fjord and valley, there are high mountains. Espeland Falls is located in the Espelandsdalen valley near the border with Ulvik. The Skjervefossen waterfall is also located in Granvin.

Transportation

Norwegian National Road 13 entered Granvin via the Tunsberg Tunnel which runs through the high mountains to the northwest. The highway then ran through Granvin before entering the Vallavik Tunnel which runs through the high mountains to the southeast. The Vallavik Tunnel connects up with the Hardanger Bridge in Ulvik which crosses the Hardangerfjorden. A car ferry service connects Kvanndal (in southwest Granvin) with the villages of Utne and Kinsarvik (in Ullensvang municipality) on the south side of the Hardangerfjord. From 1935 to 1988, Hardanger railway line ran between Granvin and Vossevangen. The line was closed in 1988 and the rails were later removed.

History

In April 1940, during the German invasion of Norway during World War II, there was some fighting between German and Norwegian forces in Granvin. German forces landed in the village of Granvin on 25 April as part of their pincer movement towards the Norwegian military camps at Vossevangen. There was fighting at Skjervefossen for most of that day, until the Norwegian forces retreated late at night to avoid encirclement. Four Norwegian soldiers and at least 30 German soldiers fell in the fighting.^[11]

Population

More information Year, Pop. ...

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1891	1,331	—
1900	1,276	−0.47%
1910	1,213	−0.51%
1920	1,070	−1.25%
1930	1,159	+0.80%

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1946	1,190	+0.17%
1951	1,158	−0.54%
1960	1,102	−0.55%
1970	1,039	−0.59%
1980	996	−0.42%

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1990	1,036	+0.39%
2000	1,044	+0.08%
2010	947	−0.97%
2019	937	−0.12%

Source: Statistics Norway^[12]^[13] and Norwegian Historical Data Centre^[14]

Upon the dissolution of the municipality, the population of Granvin had been dropping since World War II. In 1951, the population was 1,158. Since then, it has dropped by 21.3% to 911 in 2014. This situation is common in many smaller, rural municipalities in Norway.^[15]

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[16]

Municipal council

The municipal council (Heradsstyre) of Granvin was made up of 13 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows: