The municipality is named after the old Ullensvang farm, since Ullensvang Church was built there. The first element is the genitive case of the name of the Norse godUllin. The last element is vangr which means "field" or "meadow". Prior to the 2020 municipal merger, this municipality was called Ullensvang herad, but after the merger it was called Ullensvang kommune.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 8 November 1979. The arms are red with a horizontal gold stripe across the middle, with three gold fleur-de-lis designs. The municipal arms are derived from the arms of nobleman from the area, Sigurd Brynjulvsson Galte, and they can be seen on his gravestone dating back to 1302 at the local church. As it is the oldest gravestone in the church, the arms were well known in the village, hence the choice for the arms of this knight as municipal arms. On 1 January 2020, the arms were modified by changing the colors from red and gold to blue and white after a large municipal merger.
On 1 January 1838, the large parish of Kinsarvik was established as a municipality. The large parish was made up of the main parish and the annex of Ullensvang. On 1 January 1869, Ullensvang became the main parish and Kinsarvik became an annex to Ullensvang. At this time the municipality changed its name to Ullensvang. On 1 January 1882, a small area of Ullensvang was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Vikør. On 1 July 1913, the municipality of Ullensvang was divided into three parts: the northwestern part became Kinsarvik Municipality, the southern part became Odda Municipality, and the rest remained as Ullensvang Municipality, albeit much smaller. This left Ullensvang with 1,941 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the following areas were merged into one large municipality: all of Ullensvang Municipality, all of Eidfjord Municipality, and most of Kinsarvik Municipality. The newly enlarged municipality was named Ullensvang. On 1 January 1965, the Åsgrenda area of Kvam Municipality was transferred to Ullensvang. This new, large municipality of Ullensvang that was created in 1964-1965 was not long-lived. On 1 January 1977, the area that once was Eidfjord Municipality became its own municipality once again. This left Ullensvang with 3,937 residents. On 1 January 2020, the three neighboring municipalities of Jondal, Odda, and Ullensvang were merged into a new, larger Ullensvang Municipality. At that time, the administrative centre was moved from the village of Kinsarvik to the larger town of Odda.
Geography
The municipality of Ullensvang is located on the shores of the Hardangerfjorden and the Sørfjorden and it stretches all the way up to the Folgefonna glacier inside Folgefonna National Park on the Folgefonna peninsula in the western part of the municipality. It continues up to the vast Hardangervidda plateau in the east, including part of the Hardangervidda National Park. The lakes Kvensjøen and Veivatnet as well as the mountain Hårteigen are all located in Ullensvang on the plateau.
The municipal council of Ullensvang is made up of 33 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:
Ullensvang is Norway's biggest supplier of fruit, especially sweet cherries and apples. Every summer a cherry festival is held at Lofthus, where the Norwegian championship of cherry stone spitting is held. The record is by S. Kleivkaas. Each May, a musical festival is held at Ullensvang Hotel, when musicians from all of Norway come to the village. The famous composer Edvard Grieg spent many summers at Lofthus, and the festival is held in his honor. During the summer, the population is doubled due to tourism. Attractions in addition to the previous mentioned, are the medieval Ullensvang Church at Lofthus and Kinsarvik Church, several waterfalls such as the Skrikjofossen, the flowering season in May, and museums at Aga, Utne, and Skredhaugen.
