Granvin

Granvin is a municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality is located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre of Granvin is the village of Eide, which is also called "Granvin". About half of the residents of the municipality live in the municipal centre. The rest live in the rural valley areas surrounding the Granvinsfjorden or the lake Granvinsvatnet in the central part of the municipality.

General information

The parish of Graven (later spelled "Granvin") was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). This new municipality was very large and it included two annexes to the parish: Ulvik and Eidfjord. On 1 January 1859, "Ulvik" became the main parish, so that Granvin and Eidfjord became annexes to Ulvik, and the name of municipality was changed accordingly.

On 1 May 1891, the western annex of Granvin (population: 1,331) and the southeastern annex of Eidfjord (population: 1,018) were both separated from Ulvik to become separate municipalities. On 1 January 1964, the Lussand-Kvanndal area of Kinsarvik municipality (population: 72) were transferred to Granvin.

Granvin (village)

Granvin, also known as Eide, is the administrative centre of Granvin municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. The village is located at the head of the Granvinsfjorden in the central part of the municipality. The large village of Vossevangen lies about 25 kilometres (16 mi) to the northwest and the village of Ulvik lies about 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the northeast. The 0.71-square-kilometre (180-acre) village has a population (2013) of 426, giving the village a population density of 600 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,600/sq mi).

Name

The village is known as Eide because it sits along a river on an isthmus of land between the fjord and the lake Granvinsvatnet. ("Eide" in Norwegian means isthmus.) The village is also known as Granvin since it is the municipal centre and largest settlement in the municipality of Granvin. Both names can be used interchangeably. There is also a small farm area called "Granvin" located about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of the village, and that is where Granvin Church is located. This village and that farm area share the same name, but are two distinct locations in the municipality.