Gems in Vanylven

About

When in Vanylven you are surrounded by incredible tales and accounts of events.

St. Edmund's stone
According to the legend of St. Edmund's stone, the English King Edmund (Jetmund) lay down to sleep here. The place where he slept is called Jetmundleitet. The legend has it that, after he woke, he indicated where the church should be placed, sitting on this stone.

Tingstova Courthouse at Tunheim
Approximately 70 metres from Lundgarden lies Ytre Tunheim, and the courthouse where witches were sentenced in the 1600s. The punisment for witchery was to be burnt at the stake, either on the Rovdeskjæret rock at Rovde, or on Torvholmen islet at Åheim. The three last witches to be executed in Norway were burnt here in 1680.

Solsikka (The Sunflower)
In 2004, the Mayor of Vanylven Municipality, Jan Helgøy, won a competition arranged by the Ministry of Trade and Industry along with Innovation Norway, and the price was a million Norwegian kroner as a trade fund. This started a transformation process in the community, and since then, the Sunflower statue has been a monument for Vanylven.

From Eidså - views towards the Breiteig Mountains, Norway's westernmost alps.

Kostarikjet
Syvde is still popularly called Kostarikjet (Kingdom of the Broom), and people in Syvde are proud to call themselves "Brooms". The expression stems from the 1800s, when the inhabitants made brooms ("solvar") which they sold to people on the surrounding islands. The brooms were very useful for cleaning both houses and byres.

Rovdeskjæret rock
This rock, which is shaped somewhat like a submarine, was the place where witches sentenced at the Tunheim Courthouse were burned.