Fåvang


Fåvang is a village and parish in the municipality of Ringebu municipality, in Innlandet county, Norway.

History

Fåvang is located in the south of the valley and traditional district of the Gudbrand Valley, 51 kilometres north of Lillehammer. On the west side of the Gudbrandsdalslågen river, about three kilometres away from the centre of Fåvang is Kvitfjell, the downhill skiing arena used in the Lillehammer Winter Olympics held in 1994. The population of the village was 687 in 2009.
Particularly heavy fighting took place in Fåvang, as well as neighboring Tretten, Vinstra, Kvam, Sjoa and Otta during the Norwegian Campaign which let up to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. The Norwegian movie Jonny Vang was principally filmed in the town of Fåvang during 2003.
Fåvang Stave Church was built after the Reformation, for the most part of using materials from earlier stave churches in the valley which had been demolished. The church was probably built between 1627 and 1630. The oldest parts can be dated back to around 1150–1250.

The name

The parish is named after the old farm Fåvang, since the first church was built there. The first element is the rivername Få, the last element is vangr m 'meadow'.

Notable residents