Editing Sauda (section)

==History==
[[File:Sauda-Åbøbyen.png|left|thumb|The Workers township, Åbøbyen 2005.]]
[[File:Sauda1917.png|left|thumb|Before The Workers township was built, Åbøbyen 1917.]]
Archaeological excavation in [[Saudasjøen]] shows that people have been living in Sauda since the latest [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]]. In 1349, the Plague/[[Black Death]] wiped out about two-thirds of the population in Sauda, causing a decline in both population and economy. Despite this, the population was increasing during the [[medieval]] period, and a new type of industry started to grow. Along the fjord, the power from several waterfalls was used to build and run sawmills, and large-scale lumber production was started. People from all over the world, especially from the [[Netherlands]], started to trade with the people of Sauda. This resulted in major ship traffic, giving impetus to further development of the villages and farms in Sauda.

By the end of the 19th century, a new type of adventure would change the lives of the inhabitants forever. The mining industry started in the mountains of [[Hellandsbygd]], making Sauda a small industrial area and trading center for the surrounding region. In 1910, the American company [[Electric Furnace Company]] (EFP) began the construction of [[Europe]]'s largest smelting plant in Sauda. This could only be done because of the large number of waterfalls and rivers that made it possible to build [[power plant]]s situated a short distance from the smelter, which uses large amounts of electricity.

Sauda's time as a farming village was now over, and the people of today still live on the foundation of the new city that emerged. By the end of [[World War II]], the [[Germans]] had finished building a large [[Aluminum]] Melting Plant in Saudasjøen, but the production was moved to [[Årdal]] in 1946. The remaining buildings were demolished by the municipality in the 1950s, leaving the industrial area in Saudasjøen empty for decades. In the 1980s, a glass production factory was established together with a couple of mechanic production factories. The population of Sauda reached its peak in the mid-1960s, approximately 6,700 inhabitants. In 1998, the urban area of Sauda was declared to be a city (mostly a symbolic name, with no new municipal authority).