Odda

Odda is a town in Ullensvang Municipality, Vestland county, in western Norway, and is the administrative centre of the municipality and the largest urban area in the Hardanger district. It sits at the southern end of the Sorfjorden in a narrow valley between steep mountains, with Lake Sandvinvatnet to the south and the Folgefonna glacier nearby to the west. The town covers about 3 square kilometers and had a 2025 population of about 4,750. Originally a tourist destination in the 1800s, Odda grew into an industrial center after a hydroelectric plant at nearby Tyssedal powered carbide and cyanamide smelters built in the mid twentieth century, at one point the largest such facility in the world, which closed in 2003. Workers who migrated to the industrial town from across Norway gave rise to a distinctive mixed dialect that linguists describe as a koine. Odda was granted town status in 2004.