Kyrkjebø (historically: ''Kirkebø'') is a village in

Høyanger Municipality Høyanger () is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Høyanger. Other villages in Høyanger municipality include Austreim, Bjordal, Kyrkjebø, ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

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 t ...

. The village is located on the northern shore of the

Sognefjorden The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, en, Sogn Fjord), nicknamed the King of the Fjords ( no, Fjordenes konge), is the largest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the smal ...

, about halfway between the small Vadheimsfjorden and Høyangsfjorden arms which branch off the main fjord. The village sits about to the west of the village of

Austreim Austreim is a village in the municipality of Høyanger in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the north shore of the Sognefjorden, about southwest of the municipal center of Høyanger, about east of the village of Kyrkjebø, and ...

, about to the southwest of the village of

Høyanger Høyanger () is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Høyanger. Other villages in Høyanger municipality include Austreim, Bjordal, Kyrkjebø, ...

(the municipal centre), and southeast of the village of

Vadheim Vadheim is a village in the municipality of Høyanger in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the north shore of the Sognefjorden, along the small Vadheimsfjorden branch. The European route E39 highway runs through the village. It is locat ...

, where the

European route E39 European route E39 is the designation of a north–south road in Norway and Denmark from Klett, just south of Trondheim, to Aalborg via Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand. In total, there are nine ferries, more than any other single road in Eu ...

highway passes through the municipality. Kyrkjebø kirke

The village has a population (2019) of 269 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of . The village was the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of the old municipality of

Kyrkjebø Kyrkjebø is a former municipality in the old Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1858 until 1964 when it became part of the new municipality of Høyanger which still exists and is part of the new Vestland county. Pr ...

which existed from 1858 until its dissolution in 1964.

Name

The village is named after the old ''Kirkebø'' farm, since

Kyrkjebø Church Kyrkjebø Church ( no, Kyrkjebø kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Høyanger Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Kyrkjebø. It is the church for the Kyrkjebø parish which is part of the Su ...

was located there. The first element of the name is identical with the name for "

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

", and the second element of the name is identical with the word for "

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

". It was named this because it was the farm where the church was located. From 1890 until 1917 the name was spelled ''Kirkebø'' (using the

Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...

spelling) and then in 1917 it was changed to ''Kyrkjebø'' (using the

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

spelling).

References

Villages in Vestland Høyanger {{Vestland-geo-stub