Bruvik (municipality)

Bruvik is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1870 until its dissolution in 1964. At the time of its dissolution, the municipality covered on both sides of the Veafjorden, the innermost part of the Sørfjorden, including the southeastern part of the island of Osterøy. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Bruvik where Bruvik Church is located. The parish of Haus was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1870, the northeastern district of Haus (population: 2,062) was separated from Haus to form the new municipality of Bruvik. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Bruvik was dissolved and its lands were split up as follows: the area around the village of Bruvik on the island of Osterøy (population: 409) was merged with parts of the municipalities of Haus (population: 2,237), Hamre (population: 1,166), and Hosanger (population: 1,616) to create the new Osterøy Municipality. the rest of Bruvik (population: 5,264), was merged with a parts of the municipalities of Evanger (population: 251) and Modalen (population: 151) to create the new Vaksdal Municipality. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Bruvik farm (Brúnvíkr) since the first Bruvik Church was built there. The first element is brún which means "mountain ridge" or "rim". The last element is the genitive case of the word vík which means "bay", "cove" or "inlet". Thus it means the bay by the mountain ridge. The coat of arms was granted on 14 December 1960. The blazon was "Azure, a chevron over a cogwheel argent". This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a cogwheel with a chevron ordinary above it. The charge has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The design was chosen to symbolize the importance of industry in the municipality.