Hjelmelandsvågen is the administrative centre of Hjelmeland municipality and the ferry terminal for crossings to Nesvik on the other side of the Jøsenfjord. The village sits at the mouth of the fjord and has around 800 inhabitants.
The most obvious landmark is the world's largest Jærstol, a traditional Norwegian wooden chair standing about 4.5 metres tall by the river near the town hall. It was built in 1998 to mark 100 years of chair production in Hjelmeland. This type of chair is a classic of Norwegian furniture, and Hjelmeland was once the main production centre in the country. Today only one maker remains: Aksel Hansson AS.
Next to the giant chair is Spinneriet, an old industrial building with a remarkable history. Built in 1873-74 as a wool spinning mill, it later became a cannery, then a chair factory. During the Second World War, a blacksmith named Georg Fjellberg worked here. He was arrested and executed by the Germans for hiding weapons. After the war the building housed a clog factory and fruit warehouse before being restored for cultural use in the 1990s.
The village also has a small collection of white wooden houses and Hjelmeland Church from 1858. In 1769, six silver neck rings from the Viking Age were found at a nearby farm and sent to the king in Copenhagen.