Vestnes

Vestnes Municipality

*Vestnes kommune*
Vestnes Municipality Vestnes kommune
Municipality
	Flag Coat of arms
	Møre og Romsdal within Norway
	Vestnes within Møre og Romsdal
Country	Norway
County	Møre og Romsdal
District	Romsdal
Administrative centre	Vestnes
Government
• Mayor (2011)	Geir Inge Lien (Sp)
Area
• Total	352.15 km2 (135.97 sq mi)
• Land	347.62 km2 (134.22 sq mi)
• Water	4.53 km2 (1.75 sq mi)
• Rank	#256 in Norway
Population (2013)
• Total	6,626
• Rank	#156 in Norway
• Density	19.1/km2 (49/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+2.9%
Demonym	Vestnesing
Official language
• Norwegian form	Nynorsk
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1535
Website	Official website
	Data from Statistics Norway

longm longd lats latd longs latm

Vestnes is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Vestnes is part of the traditional district of Romsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vestnes. Other villages in the municipality include Vikebukt, Vik, Øverås, Fiksdal, Tomrefjord, and Tresfjord.

The area is known for nature and outdoor pursuits, and has a long history in ship building and maritime crafts. The village of Vestnes (Helland) dates back to early medieval times, and has 24-hour ferry and water taxi service with the town of Molde to the northeast. The ferry takes about 35-minutes each way.

General information

File:Vestnes map.jpg

Map of Vestnes

The municipality of Vestnes was established in the fall of 1838 when the western district of the large Veøy Municipality was separated to form its own municipality (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1899, the southern district of Tresfjord (population: 1,408) was separated from Vestnes to form its own municipality, but it was merged back into Vestnes on 1 January 1964.^[4]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Vestnes farm (Old Norse: Vestnes), since the first Vestnes Church was built there. The first element is vestr which means "west" and the last element is nes which means "headland". Before 1889, the name was written Vestnæs.^[5]

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 11 April 1980. The arms have a red background with two triangular gold spikes pointing right. The arms represent the geography of the municipality: a headland between two fjords—the Tresfjorden and the Tomrefjorden.^[6]

Churches

The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Vestnes . It is part of the Indre Romsdal deanery in the Diocese of Møre.

**Churches in Vestnes**
Parish (Sokn)	Church Name	Location of the Church	Year Built
Vestnes	Vestnes Church	Vestnes	1872
Fiksdal	Fiksdal Church	Fiksdal	1866
Tresfjord	Tresfjord Church	Tresfjord	1828
Vike	Vike Church	Vikebukt	1970

Geography

Vestnes is located in an area of great natural splendour on the southern shores of the Romsdalsfjorden. The Tresfjorden and Tomrefjorden branch off the Romsdalsfjord to the south. Vestnes borders Rauma Municipality to the east, as well as Stordal Municipality and Ørskog Municipality to the south. Across the Moldefjorden to the north is Midsund Municipality and Molde Municipality.

Economy

Vestnes is a relatively good agricultural community with emphasis on livestock and milk production. Vestnes, however, is primarily a manufacturing district. The main industry is the ship-building industry with a number of different companies located in Vestnes. A total of 63% of industry employment (2004) in Vestnes is part of the ship-building industry. Other that shipbuilding, there are several companies in the food, textile and clothing, wood products, furniture, and metal products industries in Vestnes.^[6]

Transportation

The European route E39 highway goes through Vestnes on its way from Sjøholt to Molde. The European route E136 highway goes through Vestnes on its way from Ålesund to Dombås. The two highways intersect and share part of the route through Vestnes. The new Tresfjord Bridge is under construction and will be opened to traffic on 24th October 2015. It will carry the E136 highway over the Tresfjorden rather than the current roadway that follows the shoreline all the way around the fjord.

Notable residents

Mali Furunes (1888–1968)
Bjørn Rune Gjelsten (born 1956), a Norwegian businessman
Bernt Hulsker (born 1977), a Norwegian retired footballer
Sigrun Misund (born 1955), poet and writer
Kjetil Rekdal (born 1968), a Norwegian football manager and a former footballer
Terje Rypdal (born 1947), a Norwegian guitarist and composer

References

^ "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet.
^ "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.
^ Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (2023-01-26). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.
^ Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.
^ Rygh, Oluf (1908). Norske gaardnavne: Romsdals amt (in Norwegian) (13 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 217.
^ ^a ^b Store norske leksikon. "Vestnes" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2010-10-25.

External links

Vestnes official web site
Møre og Romsdal travel guide from Wikivoyage

[1] "Navn på steder og personer: Innbyggjarnamn" (in Norwegian). Språkrådet.

[2] "Forskrift om målvedtak i kommunar og fylkeskommunar" (in Norwegian). Lovdata.no.

[3] Bolstad, Erik; Thorsnæs, Geir, eds. (2023-01-26). "Kommunenummer". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget.

[4] Jukvam, Dag (1999). "Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen" (PDF) (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå.

[5] Rygh, Oluf (1908). Norske gaardnavne: Romsdals amt (in Norwegian) (13 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. p. 217.

[snl-6] Store norske leksikon. "Vestnes" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2010-10-25.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]