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Vestland

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Vestland

Vestland is a county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County Governor is based in Hermansverk. Vestland is one of two counties in Norway that have Nynorsk as their official written language form.

Vestland was created on 1 January 2020, when the former counties of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane were merged.

Vestland county is a newly created county, but it has been inhabited for millennia. The area was made up of many petty kingdoms under the Gulating during the Middle Ages. The northern part was then known as Firdafylke (now the Fjordane region; Nordfjord-Sunnfjord), the central area was known as Sygnafylke (now the Sogn region), and the southern part was known as Hordafylke.

In the early 16th century, Norway was divided into four len. The Bergenhus len was headquartered in Bergen and encompassed much of western and northern Norway including Firdafylke, Sygnafylke, Hordafylke, and Sunnmørafylke (in the present day Møre og Romsdal county). The new Bergenhus len was administered from the Bergenhus Fortress in the city of Bergen.

In 1662, the lens were replaced by amts. On 19 February 1662, a royal decree changed the name to Bergenhus amt. The new Bergenhus amt originally consisted of the present-day areas of Vestland and the Sunnmøre region of Møre og Romsdal, plus the far northern Nordlandene amt was subordinate to Bergenhus amt. The Sunnmøre region was transferred to Romsdalen amt in 1689 and the Nordlandene amt was separated around that time as well.

In 1763, the amt was divided into northern and southern parts: Nordre Bergenhus amt and Søndre Bergenhus amt. When the amt was split, the present day Gulen Municipality was split with the southern part ending up in Søndre Bergenhus amt. In 1773, the border was re-drawn so that all of Gulen was located in the northern part.

On 1 January 1919, Nordre Bergenhus amt was renamed Sogn og Fjordane fylke and Søndre Bergenhus amt was renamed Hordaland fylke during a period of time when many location names in Norway were changed.

The city of Bergen was removed from the Bergenhus amt in 1831 and it was classified as a city-county (byamt) from 1831 to 1972. During that time in 1915, Årstad Municipality was annexed into Bergen. In 1972, the neighbouring Arna Municipality, Fana Municipality, Laksevåg Municipality and Åsane Municipality were annexed into the city of Bergen to create a large Bergen Municipality. Also at that same time, the city of Bergen lost its county status, and became a part of Hordaland county once again.

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