Høyanger

Høyanger (ˈhœ̂ʏɑŋər) is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Høyanger. Other villages in Høyanger municipality include Austreim, Bjordal, Kyrkjebø, Lavik, Ortnevik, and Vadheim. Høyanger is known for having one of the first industrial towns in Norway to use its steep mountains surrounding the town giving excellent conditions for producing hydroelectricity needed for electrolysis. The main product being produced in the village of Høyanger was aluminium. The municipality is the 115th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Høyanger is the 203rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 3,965. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 6% over the previous 10-year period. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. The municipality of Høyanger was created on 1 January 1964 when the old municipalities of Kyrkjebø and Lavik were merged to form a single municipality. On 1 January 2020, the Nessane area of neighboring Balestrand Municipality was merged into Høyanger (and the rest of Balestrand was merged into a new, larger Sogndal Municipality). Also on that date, the municipality became part of the newly created Vestland county after Sogn og Fjordane and Hordaland counties were merged. The municipality is named Høyanger (Høyjangr) after the old name of an arm of the Sognefjorden that is now called the Høyangsfjorden. The first element is derived from the word hey which means "hay". The last element is angr which means "bay" or "inlet". Thus the name is probably referring to the green hillsides along the fjord. The coat of arms was granted on 15 May 1987. The official blazon is "Azure, three flames in bend argent" (På blå grunn tre sølv flammer i skrå rekkje). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a set of three flames lined up diagonally.