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Loen and its valley are at the heart of beautiful and dramatic region between the inner end of Nordfjord and teh great expanse of snow and ice of the Jostedalsbreen glacier. The village comprises a cluster of farms and dwellings around the white wooden church and some scattered houses between fjord and church. Further along the valley small groups of farms have their own names; Tjugen, Haugen, Sæten etc.
Ancient burial mounds found in the district indicate that the lower valley was inhabited in the Bronze Age. Before the first church was built worshippers met by the fjord around the stone cross which now stands in the churchyard. The present church, the third on the site, was erected in 1837.
The green glacial waters of Loelva (Loen river) rush through the middle of the fertile valley, the banks bordered with cultivated fields and orchards. Thick birch woods shade the lower slopes of the mountains. Skåla (1848 m) and its horseshoe ridge rise to the east of the valley and dominate the views of Loen from the west and the south. On top of the mountain is a circular stone tower, built by local farmers in 1891, which offers shelters for those who reach the summit.
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