Finnås Municipality

Finnås is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1916. The area is now part of the present-day Bømlo Municipality in the traditional district of Sunnhordland in Vestland county. The administrative centre was the village of Mosterhamn.
The Kulleseid Canal is a canal that was built in the 1800s on a small isthmus on the island of Bømlo. It enabled boats to journey between the east and west sides of Bømlo island. Today the channel is surrounded by a small trading center and tourist center, and it is a popular guest harbor.

General information

The parish of Finnaas was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. In 1865, Finnaas Municipality was divided into two parts as follows:

the southern mainland district of Finnaas plus the Vikebygd area of the neighboring Fjelberg Municipality became the new Sveen Municipality
the northern island district remained as a smaller Finnaas Municipality

On 1 January 1868, a small part of Finnaas Municipality was transferred to the neighboring Fitje Municipality. On 1 April 1870, the Øklandsgrend area was transferred from Finnaas Municipality to the neighboring Valestrand Municipality.
On 1 July 1916, Finnaas Municipality was dissolved and its lands were divided to create three new municipalities as follows:

Bremnes Municipality, the northern/western half of the island of Bømlo and smaller surrounding islands
Moster Municipality, the southeastern peninsula on the island of Bømlo, the island of Moster, and the smaller surrounding islands
Bømmel Municipality, the southwestern peninsula on the island of Bømlo and smaller surrounding islands.

On 1 January 1963, the three municipalities were merged back together again to for a new, larger Bømlo Municipality.

Name

The municipality is named after the Finnaas farm since the Old Moster Church was built there. The name is relative new name with very little historical record. The first element is finn which is the local name for a type of grass known as Nardus stricta. The last element is which means "hill". Thus it means a hill with "finn" grass.
During its time as a municipality, it was always spelled as Findaas or Finnaas. On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Finnaas with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Finnås, using the letter å instead. Since then, when referring to the old municipality, the new spelling is usually used, but the letter "å" was never used while the municipality existed.

Churches

The Church of Norway had three parishes within Finnaas Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Finnaas prestegjeld and the Søndre Sunnhordland prosti in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

Parish	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Bremnes	Bremnes Church	Bremnes	1869
Bremnes	Lykling Chapel	Lykling	1912
Bømlo	Bømlo Church	Langevåg	1621
Moster	Moster Church	Mosterhamn	1874
Moster	Old Moster Church	Mosterhamn

Geography

Originally, the municipality encompassed all of the island of Bømlo, the island of Moster, the small surrounding islands, and the mainland located south of the Bømlafjorden. In 1865, the mainland parts of Finnaas Municipality were removed, leaving a municipality of islands. The highest point in the municipality was the tall mountain Siggjo on the island of Bømlo.
Fitjar Municipality was located to the north, Stord Municipality was located to the east, Valestrand Municipality was located to the southeast, Sveio Municipality was located to the south, and the North Sea was located to the west.

Government

While it existed, Finnaas Municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Mayors

The mayor of Finnaas Municipality was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. The following people have held this position:

1838–1840: Rev. Niels Nielsen Vogt
1849–1849: Gudmund Eriksen Habbestad
1850–1851: Rev. Kolstad
1852–1855: E. Jacobsen Øklandsvaag
1858–1860: Halvor J. Vornæs
1861–1866: Ole Ingemarsen Gaaseland
1878–1887: Ole M. Søndre-Sille
1888–1901: J. Thorsheim
1902–1904: B.O. Meling
1905–1907: J. Thorsheim
1908–1913: E. Olsen
1914–1916: B.O. Meling
Notable people
Haldor Andreas Haldorsen, a politician elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hordaland
Ola Olsen, a politician elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hordaland
Gerhard Meidell Gerhardsen, a bailiff and politician for the Conservative Party and Centre Party
Gerhard Meidell Gerhardsen, an economist