Vestvågøy

Vestvågøy kommune
—  Municipality  —
Coat of arms Nordland within Norway
Vestvågøy within Nordland
Coordinates: 68°13′17″N 13°47′4″E
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Lofoten
Administrative centre	Leknes
Government
• Mayor (2003)	Guri Ingebrigtsen (Ap)
Area
• Total	423 km2 (163.3 sq mi)
• Land	405 km2 (156.4 sq mi)
Area rank	233 in Norway
Population (2004)
• Total	10,813
• Rank	338 in Norway
• Density	27/km2 (69.9/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	1.4 %
Demonym	Vestvågøyværing
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1860
Official language form	Neutral
Website	www.vestvagoy.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Vestvågøy (Island of Vestvåg) is an island and a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Lofoten traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Leknes.

Vestvågøy was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1963 after the merger of the old municipalities of Borge, Buksnes, Hol, and Valberg. With its 10,813 inhabitants, it is the most populous in the regions of Lofoten and Vesterålen.

The Lofotr museum in Borg, Vestvågøy shows a reconstructed Iron Age chieftain's residence, with a house measuring 80 metres (262 ft), built of stone and turf.

General information

Name

The municipality is named after the island Vestvågøy. The Norse name of the island was Lófót (see Lofoten) - but when Lofoten became the name of the whole archipelago the old name was replaced by Vestvågøya ("The western Vágøy", see Austvågøy).

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 7 September 1984. The arms show two dried codfish, since the municipality is one of the main Norwegian exporters of (dried) cod or stockfish and has been since the Middle Ages.

Geography

Utakleiv beach.

Main street of Leknes by night

This island and municipality is among the most scenic in Norway, with rugged cliffs and peaks facing the southeastern coast. Towards the northwest, however, the land is flat, with extensive farmlands. Most people are to be found in the municipal centre of Leknes and in its "twin town" Gravdal, where the central hospital for the Lofoten islands is located. Along the southeastern coast, one finds picturesque fishing villages like Ballstad and Stamsund, where the Hurtigruten (coastal ferry) stops.

Skottinden in winter sunshine, Vestvågøya

The coastline is dominated by high mountains and on the west coast also sandy white beaches. Utakleiv the most romantic beach in Europe, according to the British newspaper The Times, and the neighbouring Hauklandsstranden is ranked by the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet as the best beach in Norway.

In Leknes, the sun (midnight sun) is above the horizon from May 26 until July 17, and in winter the sun does not rise from December 9 until January 4. The midnight sun is best viewed from the western beaches, such as Utakleiv and Eggum.

Transportation

Leknes is the municipal and administrational centre and is situated in the geographical middle of Lofoten, approximately 68 kilometres (42 mi) west of Svolvær and 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Å. Leknes is the trading and shopping centre of Lofoten, only rivalled by Svolvær. Leknes has an airport for smaller aircraft, with 7 daily scheduled flights to Bodø and some daily flights to Svolvær and Røst with the airline Widerøe. There is a small bus terminal which serves as a hub with bus links to the rest of Lofoten. The Leknes Havn (harbor) is one of Norway's most important and visited harbors for cruise ships.

Photographs

• 

  Unstad; Vestvågøy has the largest areas of lowland in Lofoten

• 

  View south-west from the summit of Bulitinden

• 

  Sundklakkstraumen Bridge

See also

• Bøstad, a village in Vestvågøy
• Ballstad, a fisherman's village in Vestvågøy

External links

• Media related to Vestvågøy at Wikimedia Commons