The municipality is situated at the junction of the Sognefjord and
Esefjorden, the major industries are tourism and farming. Balestrand
became popular early due to the interest of artists, such as Hans Gude,
Alfred Heaton Cooper, Hans Dahl and Johannes Flintoe. Their paintings of
the scenery around Balestrand inspired visitors, and Balestrand
maintains its connection with art.
Besides tourism, farming is one of
the traditional sources of income. Other industries include
made-to-order kitchen interiors, local apple juice, and Nesseplast which
produces industrial plastic.
Balestrand was established as a
municipality in 1849. It was created by separating three sub-parishes
(sokn) from neighboring Leikanger municipality. The three sub-parishes
were Vangsnes, Tjugum, and Mundal. The population upon the creation of
the municipality was 2,122. In 1861, the Mundal sub-parish was renamed
Fj�rland.
On 1 January 1964 the municipalities of Vik, Leikanger, and
Balestrand changed their boundaries in a land trade. The sub-parish of
Vangsnes (population: 189) was transferred from Balestrand to Vik,
Balestrand gained the sub-parish of Kvams�y (population: 389) from Vik,
and Leikanger gained the Hella-Eitorn area (population: 31) from
Balestrand. Balestrand had a population of 1,606 after the changes were
completed. On 1 January 2000, the sub-parish of Fj�rland was transferred
from Balestrand to Sogndal.
The compounded name Balestrand was
created in 1832 by the Norwegian writer Henrik Wergeland. The first
element is the name of the old farm Bale (Old Norse: Bali) and the last
element is (Old Norse: str�nd) or "strand" which means "beach". The name
of the farm is identical with the word bali which means "hillside along
a beach".The coat-of-arms is from modern times. The arms were granted
on 23 October 1989. It shows the hilt of a Viking sword
