Gravdal is a village in

Vestvågøy Municipality Vestvågøy is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Leknes. Some of the villages in the municipality include Ballstad, Borg, ...

in Nordland county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. It is located on the island of

Vestvågøya Vestvågøya or Vest-Vågøy is an island in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. The island is located within Vestvågøy Municipality. The island lies between the islands of Austvågøya and Gimsøya to the northeast and Flak ...

in the central part of the

Lofoten Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolv� ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

, north of the Arctic Circle. The village is situated along the shore of the Buksnesfjorden, about southwest of the town of

Leknes is a town in Nordland county, Norway. The town is also the administrative centre of the municipality of Vestvågøy (with 10,764 inhabitants, it is the most populous municipality in Lofoten and Vesterålen). Leknes was designated a "town" ( ...

. The village also lies approximately west of the town of

Svolvær Svolvær () is the administrative centre of Vågan Municipality in Nordland County, Norway. It is located on the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago, along the Vestfjorden. The town has a population (2018) of 4,720 which gives t ...

and east of the village of Å in

Moskenes Moskenes is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality comprises the southern part of the island of Moskenesøya in the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Reine. Ot ...

. Historically, the village was the administrative centre of the old

Buksnes Buksnes is a former municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1963. It comprised the western part of the island of Vestvågøya in what is now Vestvågøy Municipality. The administr ...

municipality which existed from 1838 until 1963. The village has a population (2018) of 1,663 which gives the village a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

of . Gravdal has gone from being a small trade center on the island to becoming mostly a residential village. Today, there is a grocery store, kindergarten, primary school, and several small businesses. Nordland Hospital and the Nordland School of Fisheries are both located in Gravdal and have been major economic centers of Gravdal for a very long time, along with the Gravdal port. The more than 100-year-old

Buksnes Church Buksnes Church ( no, Buksnes kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Vestvågøy Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Gravdal on the island of Vestvågøya. It is the church for the Buksnes pari ...

, which was built in 1905 in

dragestil Dragestil ("Dragon Style") is a style of design and architecture that originated in Norway and was widely used principally between 1880 and 1910. It is a variant of the more embracing National Romantic style and an expression of Romantic nationali ...

style, is located in the village.

Media gallery

Gravdal3.jpg, Gravdal—the gateway to Lofoten for international cruise liners Gravdal1.jpg, Gravdal from the beach Gravdal4.jpg, The light house of the Buksnes bay area in Gravdal Gravdal6.jpg, Main street ''"Gravdals gata"'' (northward view) Gravdal8.jpg, View of Gravdal from the bay Gravdal9LofotenByHaakonRist.jpg, Gravdal Beach ''(Photography by Haakon S. Rist)'' Gravdal5.jpg, Gravdal sign Gravdal-Buksnes-Stabkirche-18-2019-gje.jpg, The Buksnes Church

References

{{authority control Vestvågøy Villages in Nordland Populated places of Arctic Norway