Lavik

Lavik is a former municipality in the old county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It was located in the western part of the present-day municipality of Høyanger which is in Vestland county. The municipality was mostly on the northern side of the Sognefjorden. A small part of Lavik was located on the southern side of the Sognefjorden, a narrow strip of land running south around the Ikjefjorden, past the village of Øystrebø, all the way south to the border with Hordaland county. The municipality of Lavik existed from 1838 until 1861 and then again from 1905 until 1964. Upon its dissolution, the municipality was . The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Lavik where Lavik Church is located. Ladevig (later spelled Lavik) was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1858, the district of Klævold was separated from Lavik to constitute a municipality of its own. The split left Lavik with 2,042 inhabitants. Klævold was later renamed Kyrkjebø. In 1861, Lavik (population: 926) was merged with the municipality of Brekke (population: 898), located on the south side of the Sognefjord, to form the new municipality of Lavik og Brekke. On 1 January 1875, a part of Klævold with 90 inhabitants was moved to Lavik og Brekke. On 1 January 1905, the municipality was divided into two separate municipalities once again: Lavik (population: 1,182) and Brekke (population: 892). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, Lavik (population: 894) was merged with the neighboring municipality of Kyrkjebø (population: 4,742) and the unpopulated Nybø and Nygjerdet areas of Vik Municipality to form the new municipality of Høyanger. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Lavik farm (Lámvíkum) since the first Lavik Church was built there. The first element has an uncertain meaning. One possibility is that it comes from the word hlað which means "pile" or "stack".