Sogndal is a municipality and a town, in Sogn in Vestland county.
The municipality is located deep in the Sognefjord and borders in
the northwest to Sunnfjord, in the northeast to Luster, in the south
to Lærdal and Vik (south of the fjord) and in the west to Høyanger.
The three largest settlements are Sogndal with 4,117,
Hermansverk / Leikanger with 2,164 and Kaupanger with 1,034
inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. From 1 January 2020, the
municipalities of Balestrand, Leikanger and Sogndal became one
municipality. The new municipality is called Sogndal.
In
addition to being a football village (Sogndal Football), Sogndal is
called the "juice village", much because of Lerum AS, which has a
branch in Kaupanger.
Høgskulen på Vestlandet is the
municipality's largest workplace.
On March 30, 2007, the
Stedjeberg tunnel (2.1 km) was opened by Minister of Transport Liv
Signe Navarsete, who grew up in Sogndal. Kaupanger Stave Church is
one of Norway's oldest stave churches.
Sogndal is a
municipality of friendship with the municipality of Eshowe in South
Africa.
Kaupanger stave church, located in the village of Kaupanger in
Sogndal municipality, is the largest stave church in Sogn og Fjordane
county. The church is a long church with a raised central room and was
built around 1140. Kaupanger stave church is a parish church in
Kaupanger parish in Indre Sogn parish and is owned by the parish.
It stands on the remains of what may have been two former stave
churches on the site.
The history of the present church has been
linked to the battle between King Magnus and King Sverre. Under the
leadership of the farmer Arntor from Kvåle, farmers from the district
had taken the lives of the governor Ivar Dape and several other of
Sverre's men during a feast on Christmas Eve 1183. As revenge, Sverre
burned "Lusakaupang" in 1184.
It has previously been assumed that
the top part of the fire code under the present-day church originates
from this fire, and the construction of the stave church has therefore
probably been dated to around 1190. Coin finds under the fire code
confirm that it was built after 1130, but the exact year has been
somewhat uncertain.
The Historical Remembrance Association, which
has operational responsibility for the church, discovered in 2005 that
material for parts of the church was cut in 1137. It is therefore most
likely that the church is around 50 years older than previously thought.
The year of construction for the present church - apart from the
extension which happened somewhat later - is most likely around 1140.
Several reconstructions have taken place since the church was built.
In the Middle Ages it was built longer, and today it is the longest of
the stave churches in the country. Apart from the truss, the majority of
the supporting structure comes from this conversion. Altogether, this
includes 22 staves: eight staves on the long sides, three on the short
sides and four in the chancel.
In the 17th century, several
reconstructions were made. The church got windows, armory and church
tower, and a corridor around the church was demolished. Around the same
time, the walls were decorated with a frieze of a hymn, drawn in the
then notar - neumar. The pulpit and the altar that stand in today's
church were given to the church by the futon Gjøde Pedersen at the
beginning of the 17th century. The baptismal font is also from this
time.
The church was modernized in 1862. Then it was painted
white on the outside and cream yellow on the inside, and new windows
were put in. In the 1960s (1959–1965), it was restored to an appearance
that largely corresponds to the 17th century church.
The Norwegian Glacier Museum is located in the village of Fjærland in
Sogndal municipality. The distinctive museum building was designed by
the architect Sverre Fehn.
The glacier museum has a comprehensive
explanation of how the glaciers work and how they arose. In addition,
there are many exhibitions and models of glaciers and their properties.
The museum also contains a cinema where you can watch films about the
Jostedals glacier.
The Norwegian Glacier Museum - The Glacier
Center in Fjærland is a private foundation established by the Norwegian
Tourist Association, the International Glaciological Society, the
Norwegian Directorate of Water Resources and Energy, the Norwegian Polar
Institute, the University of Sogn og Fjordane, the University of Bergen
and the University of Oslo.
Architecture
The Norwegian Glacier
Museum by architect Sverre Fehn received the architecture prize
Betongtavlen for 1992 and the Houens Foundation's diploma for 1994.
See also
Jostedalsbreen national park - the glacier museum is the
national park centre, with information about the national park