Kvinnherad Municipality

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 Municipality.^[9]

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 Kvinnherad Municipality:^[9]

• All of Skånevik Municipality that was 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)
• Most of Varaldsøy Municipality (population: 511), except for the Mundheim area which became part of Kvam Municipality

On 1 January 2013, the southwestern part of the Folgefonna peninsula (south of Kysnesstranda) was transferred from Kvinnherad Municipality to the neighboring Jondal Municipality. This removed forty residents and 37.1 square kilometres (14.3 sq mi) of land area from Kvinnherad Municipality.^[10]

Historically, this municipality was part of the old Hordaland county. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became a part of the newly-formed Vestland county (after Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane counties were merged).^[11]

The economy of Kvinnherad Municipality 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.

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.^[17] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Haugaland og Sunnhordland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

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.^[6]

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 Bondhusbrea glacier is located just south of that fjord, near the village of Sunndal. The Jondal Tunnel and Folgefonna Tunnel both connect Mauranger with neighboring Ullensvang Municipality by cutting through the large mountains surrounding Mauranger.^[6]

The municipality has many large lakes including Blådalsvatnet, Juklavatnet, and Opsangervatnet. Many of these lakes are utilized for hydroelectric power generation. The highest point in the municipality is the 1,648.03-metre (5,406.9 ft) tall point on the Søndre Folgefonna glacier.^[2]

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 Bondhusbrea glacier, the shipping mural in Høylandsbygda, 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.^[6] 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.^[42]

• 
  Kvinnherad Church in Rosendal
• 
  The Barony Rosendal
• 
  Husnes and the Hardangerfjord
• 
  Bondhusbreen glacier
• 
  View from Gjermundshamn across the Hardangerfjord, with Varaldsøy island and Folgefonna glacier

• Axel Gyntersberg (ca.1525 – 1588 in Kvinnherad), a Norwegian nobleman and feudal overlord
• Johannes Lauritsson (ca.1540 – ca.1620), a wealthy 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 novelist and writer of short stories
• Gisle Midttun (1881 in Kvinnherad – 1940), a cultural historian and museologist
• Olav Midttun (1883 in Mauranger – 1972), a philologist, biographer, and magazine editor
• Ragnvald Vaage (1889 in Husnes – 1966), a 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 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), an actor^[43]
• Hans Inge Myrvold (born 1985), a Norwegian politician and mayor of Kvinnherad in 2019
• Erlend Bratland (born 1991 in Husnes), a singer who won Norske Talenter in 2008