Key facts about Flåm

Flåm has a population of 450 inhabitants and is situated in the municipality of Aurland. Aurland municipality consists of Flåm, Aurland, Gudvangen and Undredal, and has a total population of 1,803 inhabitants.

In 1960 most of the people in Flåm were farmers, nowadays most of the inhabitants work in the tourism industry or on the railway.

History

At the end of the 1800’s many cruise ships with English and German travellers found their way to Flåm, in order to experience Norwegian fjords, mountains and waterfalls. The ships' passengers laid the foundation for hotels.

After the Bergen Railway was opened in 1909, Flåm became a crossroad for horse coach transport of passengers, mail and freight to and from the trains between Oslo and Bergen, in connection with the boats on the fjord.

The Flåm Railway (completed in 1940) is also a great part of this history. After the opening of the Bergen Line, they wanted to make a branch line from the mountain plateau at Myrdal and down to the fjord. The reason to build the branch line was a comprehensive transport of freights, like farming products, fruit, animals and post. More than 65 years later, the Flåm Railway transports tourist and hardly any freight goods.

After the construction of a new cruise port was completed in 1999, a record number of 134 cruise ships announced their visit to Flåm in 2008.

Formed by the ice

The name Flåm means a small meadow surrounded by steep mountains. The Flåm Valley was formed by the thick ice which lay here through several ice ages and for millions of years. The thawing and erosion of the ice made the land rise, and made the deep and vending valleys which are striking when you arrive in to this area.