Sund, Norway

Sund is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county. It was located in the traditional district of Midhordland. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Skogsvåg. Other larger villages in Sund included Klokkarvik, Tælavåg, Kausland, and Hammarsland.
Sund covered the southern third of the island of Store Sotra, west of the city of Bergen. It also included many smaller, surrounding islands. Sund was a predominantly rural municipality, with no major settlements, the largest being Hammarsland with approximately 900 inhabitants (in 2013). Due to the proximity to the city of Bergen, a large proportion of the population commuted to the city to work.
Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the municipality is the 381st largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Sund is the 149th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 7,058. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 24.5% over the last decade.
General information.
The parish of Sund was established as a formannskapsdistrikt (municipality) on 1 January 1838. It originally included many islands to the southwest of the Bergen Peninsula. On 1 January 1886, the southern archipelago in Sund (population: 2,396) was separated to form the new Austevoll Municipality. This left Sund with 2,112 residents.
On 1 January 2020, the three neighboring municipalities of Fjell, Sund, and Øygarden were merged into one large island municipality called "Øygarden".
Name.
The municipality was named after the old "Sund" farm, where the first Sund Church was built. The name is identical with the Norwegian word "sund", which translates into English as "strait".
Coat of arms.
The coat of arms was granted on 23 March 1988. They show a blue lighthouse on a white or silver background. This symbolized the importance of the se and the alertness of the local population. The previous arms were in use from 1966 until 1988 and the new 1988 arms were a simplified version of the old arms. The previous arms were blue with a black and white lighthouse on an island surrounded by waves.
Churches.
The Church of Norway had one parish () within the municipality of Sund. It is part of the Vesthordland prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.
Transport.
The Sotra Bridge, opened in 1971, drastically improved travel to and from Sund and it spurred rapid population growth after ages of stagnancy. Due to the rapidly increasing traffic across the bridge and on the highways of Sotra, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration developed plans in the 2000s for a new bridge and highway between Bergen and Sotra. The plans include a new dual carriageway bridge to replace the Sotra Bridge, and new highways that lead northwards to Øygarden and southwards to Sund.
History.
On 26 April 1942, after having discovered that two men from the Linge company were being hidden in Telavåg, the Gestapo arrived to arrest the Norwegian officers. Shots were exchanged, and two prominent German Gestapo officers, Johannes Behrens and Henry Bertram, and the Norwegian Arne Værum, were shot dead. Reichskommissar Josef Terboven ordered the Gestapo to retaliate, burning all buildings in the village, executing or sending the men to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and imprisoning the women and children for two years. In addition, 18 Norwegian prisoners at a Norwegian internment camp were killed as a reprisal. The event has since become known as the "Telavåg tragedy", and is sometimes compared to similar World War II atrocities, such as the Lidice massacre, with higher death tolls.
Geography.
Sund covered the southern third of the island of Store Sotra, as well as the many islands that surround it. The largest of the smaller islands are Toftøya, Lerøyna, Bjelkarøyna, Tyssøyna, Risøy, Vardøy, Golten, and Viksøy. In total, the municipality encompasses 466 islands and skerries, which gives it a total coastline of about .
The highest peak in Sund is the tall Førdesveten.
The fjord separating Store Sotra from the mainland, Korsfjorden, is historically the most used sea route into the city of Bergen, and is as much as deep in some places. The treacherous waters in the area mean there has been a continuous need for piloting services, and this tradition is kept alive by the "Viksøy Losstasjon".
Climate.
On an average, Sotra experiences of rainfall annually, less than the that the nearby city of Bergen receives. The year-round average temperature is , with the coldest month being February, when the average temperature reaches . The warmest month is August, with an average temperature of .
Settlements.
There were six urban settlements, as defined by Statistics Norway, within the border of the municipality. The largest is Hammarsland in northern Sund, with 875 inhabitants as of 2013. The others are Tælavåg, Skogsvåg, Klokkarvik, Forland, and Glesnes.
Government.
The municipal council of Sund was made up of 21 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: