Saudasjøen is a village in

Sauda Sauda ''()'' is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sauda, where most of the population lives. Other villages in the municipality include Saudasjøen and Amdal. Despite being ...

municipality in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The village is located along the northern coast of the

Saudafjorden Saudafjord or Saudafjorden is a fjord in Rogaland county, Norway. The fjord stretches from the town of Sauda in the municipality of Sauda in the north to the village of Sand in the municipality of Suldal where the Saudafjorden and Hylsfjorden j ...

about southwest of the town of

. For statistical purposes it is considered a part of the urban area of the town of Sauda. The village is mostly a bedroom community for the nearby town of Sauda. There are some small industries in Saudasjøen as well as the Saudasjøen Chapel. County Road 520 runs through the village along the shore of the fjord.

History

Historically, Saudasjøen arose as a

seaside resort A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

near the small farm of Sauda and it became industrialized in the 1800s. The municipality was incorporated in 1838 and the village of Saudasjøen became its

administrative centre An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

(a position it held until the early 1900s when it was moved to

. The small village is an important industrial location, especially in the field of

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

. Merchants settled around the quay at the old seaside resort and there were also a number of hotels and cafes in the area including the ''Sauda Fjordhotel'' and the Sauda Skisenter. The municipal high school was located here until 1989. During World War II there was built a large aluminum plant at Nesøyra but production was moved to

Årdal Årdal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Årdalsfjorden in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is ...

in 1947. The glass production factory Si-Glass was also located at Nesøyra. Saudasjøen is the site of the cemetery with Russian graves from World War II.

References

Villages in Rogaland Sauda {{Rogaland-geo-stub