Sund Municipality

The parish of Sund was established as a formannskapsdistrikt (municipality) on 1 January 1838. It originally included many islands to the southwest of the Bergen Peninsula. On 1 January 1886, Sund Municipality was divided: the southern archipelago (population: 2,396) became the new Austevoll Municipality and the rest of the municipality (population: 2,112) remained as a smaller Sund Municipality.^[7]

On 1 January 2020, there was a large municipal merger including three neighboring municipalities. Fjell Municipality, Sund Municipality, and Øygarden Municipality were merged into a new, much larger Øygarden Municipality.^[8] Historically, this municipality was part of the old Hordaland county. On 1 January 2020, Hordaland county became a part of the newly-formed Vestland county (after Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane counties were merged).^[9]

The Sotra Bridge, opened in 1971, drastically improved travel to and from Sund and it spurred rapid population growth after ages of stagnancy. Due to the rapidly increasing traffic across the bridge and on the highways of Sotra, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration developed plans in the 2000s for a new bridge and highway between Bergen and Sotra. The plans include a new dual carriageway bridge to replace the Sotra Bridge, and new highways that lead northwards to Øygarden Municipality and southwards to Sund.^[14]

On 26 April 1942, after having discovered that two men from the Linge company were being hidden in Telavåg, the Gestapo arrived to arrest the Norwegian officers. Shots were exchanged, and two prominent German Gestapo officers, Johannes Behrens and Henry Bertram, and the Norwegian Arne Værum, were shot dead. Reichskommissar Josef Terboven ordered the Gestapo to retaliate, burning all buildings in the village, executing or sending the men to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and imprisoning the women and children for two years. In addition, 18 Norwegian prisoners at a Norwegian internment camp were killed as a reprisal.^[15] The event has since become known as the "Telavåg tragedy", and is sometimes compared to similar World War II atrocities, such as the Lidice massacre, with higher death tolls.^[16]

Sund Municipality included the southern third of the island of Sotra, as well as the many islands that surround it. The largest of the smaller islands are Toftarøyna, Lerøyna, Bjelkarøyna, Tyssøyna, Stora Risøyna, Stora Vardøyna, Golta, and Vikso. In total, the municipality encompassed 466 islands and skerries, which gave it a total coastline of about 110 kilometres (68 mi).^[20]

The highest peak in Sund was the 284.6-metre (934 ft) tall Førdesveten (or simply Veten).^[20][1]

The fjord separating the island of Sotra from the mainland, Krossfjorden, was historically the most used sea route into the city of Bergen, and is as much as 600 metres (2,000 ft) deep in some places. The treacherous waters in the area mean there has been a continuous need for piloting services, and this tradition is kept alive by the "Viksøy Losstasjon".

While it existed, Sund Municipality was 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 was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[22] The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Bergen District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

• List of former municipalities of Norway