Vik is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the southern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of Vik Municipality is the village of Vikøyri. Other villages in the municipality include Feios, Fresvik, Arnafjord, and Vangsnes.

The municipality is the 137th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Vik Municipality is the 250th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of . The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 5.1% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

thumb|left|View of Vikøyri

thumb|left|Stone church in Hove

The parish of Vik was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The original municipality was identical to the Church of Norway's Vik prestegjeld with the parishes () of Hopperstad, Hove, and Arnafjord (on the south side of the fjord) and Kvamsøy (on the north side of the fjord).

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964 there was a land trade between three neighoring municipalities: the parish of Kvamsøy (population: 363) was transferred from Vik Municipality to Balestrand Municipality, the parish of Vangsnes (population: 189) was transferred from Balestrand Municipality to Vik Municipality, and the Nybø and Nygjerdet farms were transferred from Vik Municipality to Høyanger Municipality. After all these changes, Vik Municipality had a new total population of 2,623.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old village of Vik () since the first Vik Church was built there. The name is identical with the word which means "small bay", "cove", or "inlet", possibly referring to the small bay off the main Sognefjorden at the present-day village of Vikøyri.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 15 March 1991. The official blazon is "Vert, three leaf-knives Or bendwise in pale" (). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a set of three knives for the cutting of leaves that are laying diagonally in a vertical column. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. These types of blunt point knives were commonly used in the area to cut fodder for animals. The arms were designed by Rune Tangstad. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway has five parishes () within Vik Municipality. It is part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ style="font-size:medium"|Churches in Vik Municipality

!Parish ()!!Name!!Location!!Year built

|-

|Arnafjord||Arnafjord Church||Nese||1880

|-

|Feios||Feios Church||Feios||1866

|-

|Fresvik||Fresvik Church||Fresvik||1881

|-

|Vangsnes||Vangsnes Church||Vangsnes||1877

|-

|rowspan=3|Vik||Vik Church||rowspan="3"|Vikøyri||1877

|-

|Hove Church||

|-

|Hopperstad Stave Church||

|}

Government

Vik 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 Sogn og Fjordane District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council of Vik Municipality is made up of 17 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 mayor () of Vik Municipality 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:

  • 1838–1847: Christian Fredrik Fasting
  • 1848–1849: Rev. Christian Severin Flinthoug Houge
  • 1850–1854: Christian Fredrik Fasting
  • 1855–1856: Rev. Christian Severin Flinthoug Houge
  • 1857–1857: Peder A. Undi
  • 1858–1861: Christian Christensen
  • 1862–1863: Arnt Uchermann
  • 1864–1864: Erik Brekke
  • 1865–1865: Peder A. Undi
  • 1866–1873: Christian Christensen
  • 1874–1885: H.M. Meyer
  • 1886–1897: Anfin Refsdal
  • 1898–1898: Olav G. Tryti
  • 1899–1901: Svein Aase
  • 1902–1907: Anfin Refsdal
  • 1908–1919: Nikolai Erdal
  • 1920–1922: Ola R. Hoperstad
  • 1923–1928: Anfin Refsdal
  • 1929–1931: Jon Risløw
  • 1932–1937: Arne Målsnes
  • 1938–1940: Jon Risløw
  • 1940–1945: Otto Svendsen
  • 1946–1957: Lars O. Brekke
  • 1958–1961: Olav Turvoll (Sp)
  • 1961–1963: Ola A. Målsnes (Sp)
  • 1965–1967: Lars Skeie (V)
  • 1968–1973: Olav Turvoll (Sp)
  • 1974–1987: Sjur Hopperstad (Sp)
  • 1988–1991: Olav Turvoll (Sp)
  • 1992–2003: Erling Stadheim (Ap)
  • 2003–2007: Erik Lidal (Sp)
  • 2007–2015: Marta Finden Halset (Ap)
  • 2015–2019: Olav Turvoll (Sp)
  • 2019–present: Roy Egil Stadheim (Ap)

History

thumb|right|View of the Vikøyri valley

The wide and fertile village of Vikøyri was established in ancient times. The area must have stood out early as a good place to settle. Distinct parts of Norway stand out with many large burial mounds. These are areas that have been powerful and rich and must have been political centers in prehistoric times. Vik is such an area.

Vik was a center in Sogn through a great deal of the Bronze and Iron Ages (1800 BC-1050 AD). This is due to the importance of agriculture in Vik.

Viking Age

The farms in Vik lie on old marine terraces, and many of the burial mounds lie on the edges of these. Several of the mounds carried rich finds that show how the people of Vik traded and travelled both domestically and abroad. Especially the burial fields at Stadheim and Hove have given rich finds. The Hove mounds were built about 400-500 AD. At Hopperstad, finds have been made that prove Viking raids from Vik. These finds are bronze bowls and bronze dishes, things that probably found their way to Norway with the Viking raids.

  • Anders Nummedal (1867–1944), an archaeologist and academic who discovered the Fosna culture
  • Sverre Riisnæs (1897-1988), a jurist, public prosecutor, and member of the Nasjonal Samling government
  • Kåre Norvald Lerum (born 1939), a wealthy businessperson, politician, and mayor of Sogndal from 1978 to 1982
  • Solveig Kloppen (born 1971), a journalist, actress, and TV hostess who grew up in Vik
  • Gustav Valsvik (born 1993), a footballer with 250 club caps and 6 for Norway

References

  • Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
  • Official Website of Vik
  • Vikjavev.no