Stad or Stadlandet is a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...

in Stad Municipality in the northwestern part of the

Nordfjord Nordfjord ( en, Northern fjord—in contrast to Sunnfjord) is a traditional district of Norway. Geography The region is located in the northern part of Vestland county in Western Norway. It centers on the Nordfjorden and it comprises the muni ...

district in

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, 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 cit ...

county in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

. The peninsula is considered the dividing point between the Norwegian Sea to the north and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

to the south. The name is sometimes also written as ''Stadt'', ''Statt'', or ''Statlandet'' (not to be confused with the similar

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

word '' Stadt''), because the Norwegian pronunciation of the ''d'' in this case is as a ''t''. The name could be translated as "''the land of places''" or ''"the land of towns''". Some of the larger villages on the peninsula include Ervik (northwestern tip), Borgundvåg and Leikanger (northeastern side), and the village of Selje (southwestern side).

Geography

The peninsula is a mountain

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

topped by the Tarvaldsegga peak. There are several lower valleys on the peninsula, but at the western end, the plateau plunges into the sea in a cliff at ''Kjerringa''. Stad Peninsula has a very harsh, windy

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

. The highest wind speed in the country is often recorded at this promontory. Located between the cities of

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

(to the south) and

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrativ ...

(in

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is t ...

county to the north), this is the only peninsula of mainland between

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

and Honningsvåg that goes out into open sea without any archipelago that breaks waves. Most of the rest of the ship route from Bergen to Ålesund is protected by islands. The Svinøy Lighthouse (''Svinøy fyr'') is located north of the peninsula on a small island in the Norwegian Sea. Because of the harsh climate, the peninsula can be an obstacle for ship transport along the coast of Norway. It is one of the main obstacles preventing a fast-boat passenger route from

, a distance of . Current transportation from Bergen-Ålesund is by air via

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, by car (7–8 hours), by bus (9 hours) or by the Hurtigruten coastal ferry (13 hours). As far back as the 1870s there were plans for the construction of a ship

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

. A pilot project was developed in 1985, and the development company founded the same year. Plans are currently well underway to build the

Stad Ship Tunnel The Stad Ship Tunnel ( no, Stad skipstunnel) is a planned canal and tunnel to bypass the Stad peninsula in Stad Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The peninsula is one of the most exposed areas on the coast, without any outlying islands to ...

at the narrowest point connecting the Moldefjorden to the Kjødspollen (the innermost part of the

Vanylvsfjorden Vanylvsfjorden is a fjord in western Norway, on the border of Vestland and Møre og Romsdal counties. The long fjord runs between the mainland of Vanylven Municipality and the Stad peninsula of Stad Municipality, with the islands of Sande M ...

) with capacity to take large ships such as the Hurtigruten vessels.

Media gallery

File:Indre Fure, Stadtlandet.jpg, The sea at Indre Fure, in the Stad peninsula File:Stad.jpg, View of the cliffs at the end of Stad File:Mot Fure på Stadlandet.jpg, View of Fure in the distance File:Stadt Årvik.jpg, Årvik File:Stadt Indre Fure.jpg, Indre Fure File:Stadt Honningsvåg.jpg, Honningsvåg File:Stadt Hoddevik.jpg, Hoddevik

References

External links

Selje Municipality

Official travel guide for the Nordfjord region
{{Authority control Peninsulas of Vestland Stad, Norway

Geography

Media gallery

See also

References

External links