Voss
Voss (ⓘ) is a municipality and a traditional district in Vestland county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages include Bolstadøyri, Borstrondi, Evanger, Kvitheim, Mjølfjell, Oppheim, Stalheim, and Vinje.
For other uses, see Voss (disambiguation).
The 2,042-square-kilometre (788 sq mi) municipality is the 35th largest by area of Norway's 356 municipalities. Voss is Norway's 76th most populous municipality, with a population of 16,144. Its population density is 8.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (21/sq mi) and its population has increased by 7.9% over the last 10 years.[4][5]
A girl of Voss, c. 1900
Fire in Voss after April 1940 bombing (Voss church is at far left)
After the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, Voss was the main point of mobilisation for the Norwegian Army in the west, since the city of Bergen had already fallen on 9 April. From Bergen and the Hardangerfjord, the Nazis met stiff Norwegian resistance. In Hardanger, some of the Germans climbed up the mountains from Ålvik; the rest went through Granvin. To break down this resistance, the Luftwaffe bombed Vossevangen on 23 and 24 April, and the surrounding countryside on 25 April. Nine people died in the bombing, which completely destroyed the old wood-built town centre. German forces entered the municipality of Voss on 25 April and on 26 April, German forces entered Vossevangen, which remained occupied until 8 May 1945.
In 1964, Voss was enlarged with the incorporation of the neighbouring municipalities Vossestrand and Evanger, which had until then been separate municipalities within the traditional district also known as Voss.