Aurland

The town of Aurland is the main town in the municipality, and it is here that most permanent residents live. Of the 1700 inhabitants in the municipality, around 1100 of them live next to the fjord and in the town centre, in the area called Aurlandsvangen The large valley road to the East, which is called Aurlandsdalen, stretches around 35 kilometres up the mountain towards Hallingdal. Today, there are thousands of people who hike the Aurlandsdalen, most of them walk from Østerbø down to Vassbygdi, a 6–7-hour hike through beautiful and wild nature. In connection with the development of hydropower in the mountains between Aurland and Hol, the road over the mountain to Hallingdal opened in 1974. This was an important event for Aurland and the mountain pass is open all year round. In the centre of Aurland is the Vangen church which was built around 1280. The church is built in stone and history tells us that it took a whole 80 years to build the church. Vangen church has seating for 270 people and is still in active use.