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Kristiansand

Kristiansand is a city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation of the municipalities of Søgne and Songdalen into the greater Kristiansand municipality. In addition to the city itself, Statistics Norway count four other densely populated areas in the municipality: Skålevik in Flekkerøy with a population of 3,526 in the Vågsbygd borough, Strai with a population of 1,636 in the Grim borough, Justvik with a population of 1,803 in the Lund borough, and Tveit with a population of 1,396 in the Oddernes borough. Kristiansand is divided into five boroughs; -Grim, which is located northwest in Kristiansand with a population of 15,000; Kvadraturen, which is the centre and downtown Kristiansand with a population of 5,200; Lund, the second largest borough; Søgne, with a population of around 12,000 and incorporated into the municipality of Kristiansand as of January 2020; Oddernes, a borough located in the west; and Vågsbygd, the largest borough with a population of 36,000, located in the southwest.

Kristiansand is connected by four main roads: European Route E18 from Oslo, Aust-Agder, covering the easternmost parts of Kristiansand; European route E39 from Stavanger, Flekkefjord and the coastal towns and villages in Vest-Agder; Norwegian National Road 9 from Evje, Setesdal and Grim; and Norwegian National Road 41 from Telemark, northern Aust-Agder, Birkeland, Tveit and the airport Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik. Varodd Bridge is a large bridge and a part of E18, which stretches over Topdalsfjorden.

Tourism is important in Kristiansand, and the summer season is the most popular for tourists. Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement park is the largest zoo in Norway. It receives over 900,000 visitors every year. Markens Street is the main pedestrian street in downtown Kristiansand. Bystranda is a city beach located in Kvadraturen; Hamresanden beach is the longest beach in Kristiansand. Hamresanden Camping is a popular family camp during the summer season. The city hosts a free weekly concert in downtown Kristiansand in the summertime. Outside the city is the industrial park Sørlandsparken, which includes Sørlandssenteret, Norway's largest mall.

Name
The city is named after the Dano-Norwegian King King Christian IV, who founded it on 5 July 1641. The second part of the city's name, sand, comes from the Old Norse word which means "sand" or "sandy ground". This refers to the sandy headland upon which the city was originally built. (See also: Lillesand)

Historically, the name was usually written Christianssand until 1877, although the map of the mapmaker Pontoppidan from 1785 spelled the name Christiansand (with a single 's'). In 1877, an official spelling reform aimed at bringing city names into line with regular Norwegian orthography changed it to Kristianssand. Kristiansund and Kristiania (Oslo), also had their spellings changed under the same reform. Despite that, a number of businesses and associations retain the "Ch" spelling. The name was again changed to its present form, Kristiansand (single "s"), in 1889.

In 2012, the city's mayor, Arvid Grundekjøn, proposed that the city be renamed Christianssand, arguing that "Kristiansand" is grammatically meaningless and that Christianssand stands for tradition. This proposal was not well received by the locals and the mayor has not pushed this further.

Prehistory and early history
The Kristiansand area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. In 1996, the well-preserved skeleton of a woman dating to approximately 6500 BC was discovered in Søgne in western Kristiansand. This demonstrates very early habitation of the archipelago. Grauthelleren (Grathelleren), located on Fidjane, is believed to be a Stone Age settlement. The first discovery in Norway of a Sarup enclosure (a Neolithic form of ritual enclosure first identified at Sarup on the Danish island of Funen) was made in 2010 at Hamresanden and dates to c. 3400 BC. Archaeological excavations to the east of Oddernes Church have uncovered rural settlements that existed during the centuries immediately before and after the start of the common era. Together with a corresponding discovery in Rogaland, these settlements are unique in the Norwegian context; isolated farms, rather than villages, were the norm in ancient Norway. Other discoveries in grave mounds around the church, in the Lund section of the city, indicate habitation beginning c. 400 AD, and 25 cooking pits that were found immediately outside the church wall in 1907 are probably even older. One of the largest pre-Christian burial grounds in South Norway was formerly located to the south and west of the church. A royal centre is thought to have existed at Oddernes before 800, and the church was built around 1040.

Before the stone church was built, one or perhaps two wooden post churches are believed to have stood on the same spot. A few years ago, excavations were carried out under and around the runestone when it was moved to the church porch; the grave finds indicated that the churchyard must already have been unusually large in the High Middle Ages. This means that the area must have had a large population before it was reduced by the Black Death.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, there was already a busy port and a small village on the Otra at the lowest point of today's Lund neighbourhood (Lahelle). Another important element in the development of Kristiansand was the harbor on the island of Flekkerøy, which was the most important on the Skagerrak beginning in the 16th century and was first fortified under King Christian III in 1555. In 1635, King Christian IV ordered his feudal seigneur, Palle Rosenkrantz, to move from Nedenes and build a royal palace on the island.

Foundation to 1900
Christian IV (renowned for having founded many towns) visited the location in 1630 and 1635, and on 5 July 1641 formally founded the town of Christianssand on the "sand" on the opposite bank of the Torridalselva (Otra). The town was laid out in Renaissance style on a grid plan (the central section now known as Kvadraturen = The Quarters), and merchants throughout Agder were commanded to move to the new town. In return, they were to receive a variety of trading privileges and a ten-year tax exemption.

In 1666, Christianssand became a garrison town and was heavily fortified. In 1682, King Christian V decided to relocate the bishopric there from Stavanger. Hence, the young city became the main city of the Christiansand Stift.

Christianssand experienced its first fire in 1734, which was devastating to the city. Later in the 18th century, after the American Revolutionary War, the town's shipbuilders experienced a boom that lasted until the Napoleonic Wars, when the continental blockade and naval warfare struck a severe blow to trade. Denmark–Norway supported France in the Wars and was therefore subjected to relentless attack by Britain, as recounted in Ibsen's Terje Vigen. Only in the 1830s did the economy begin to recover, and the growth in the Norwegian shipping industry was important for Christianssand. It was the only part of Norway where oak trees flourished, a major resource for the shipbuilding industry. Large numbers of lobsters were taken off the coast and sent to the London market by the mid 19th century. The population was about 12,000 by 1848.

On 1 January 1838, the new formannskapsdistrikt law went into effect. This new law granted municipal self-government throughout Norway. As a city, it formed its own municipal government and it was surrounded by the rural municipality of Oddernes.

The City of Kristiansand had a quarantine station for maritime traffic and hospital at Odderøy Island for cholera patients that opened in 1804. The city had far fewer deaths than the surrounding area, largely attributable to the quarantine station and the hospital. For example, during the period of 1833–1866, Drammen had 544 cholera patients, of which 336 died. During this same period, Kristiansand only experienced 15 deaths from cholera.

Another important development during the 19th century was the foundation in 1881 of E Sindssygeasyl, the second central psychiatric institution in Norway (after Gaustad). The psychiatric hospital drew highly specialized doctors to the city and also provided many jobs for women.

The most recent major fire, in 1892, left half the original section of the city in ashes. It burned buildings as far as the cathedral, which had been rebuilt in brick after a previous fire in 1880.

1900 onward
With the development of hydropower in southern Norway, the city gradually developed an industrial base, particularly with the establishment in 1910 of the nickel refinery Kristiansands Nikkelraffineringsverk AS (later Falconbridge Nikkelverk, now Glencore Nikkelverk). From an economic perspective, the First World War was a good time for Kristiansand, as a neutral shipping city. The crises that followed with the gold standard politics of the 1920s and the world economic crisis of the 1930s were also deeply felt in a trading city like Kristiansand.

On 1 July 1921, the city of Kristiansand got larger by annexing a part of the neighboring municipality of Oddernes, gaining 2,164 more residents along with more land for the growing city.

The labour movement had important pioneers in the city, and Leon Trotsky spent about a year of his exile in the archipelago offshore from Kristiansand. Arnulf Øverland took him from Randesund to Ny-Hellesund in Søgne in 1936. In the interwar period Kristiansand was a centre for intellectuals, especially after the architect Thilo Schoder settled there in 1932.

Kristiansand was attacked by German naval forces and the Luftwaffe during the Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940. The naval forces met fierce resistance from Norwegian coastal artillery at Odderøya. Bombs and grenades also hit the downtown and the 70 meter high church tower of the Kristiansand Cathedral was hit by accident. The third attack attempt on the city succeeded because a signal flag was confused with a French national flag and the misunderstanding was not discovered until it was too late. The city was occupied by a force of 800 men.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the city of Kristiansand (population: 27,100) was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Randesund (population: 1,672), Tveit (population: 2,802), and Oddernes (population: 18,668) to create a much larger Kristiansand Municipality.

Post-war construction included further development of the Lund section, and in the 1960s and 1970s Vågsbygd to the west was developed into a section with 20,000 inhabitants. In the 1980s, industry and business in the city declined, in part because of the 1986 fire at the Hotel Caledonien. But beginning in the second half of the 1990s, business increased in momentum with the development of enterprises for marine and offshore equipment, security technology and drilling.

The older municipal archives for Kristiansand (and the former municipalities) are currently held at the Inter-Municipal Archives in Vest-Agder (IKAVA). This includes documents concerning, for example, local councils, chairmanships, poor boards, school boards and archives including among other things personal documents in the form of client records, tax records, and also school records.

On 1 January 2020, the three neighbouring municipalities of Kristiansand, Songdalen, and Søgne were merged to form one large municipality called Kristiansand.

Coat-of-arms
The arms of Kristiansand were granted on 8 December 1909 and are based on the oldest seal of the city, dating from 1643. In 1643 King Christian IV granted the young town the right to use a seal with the Norwegian lion and the royal crown. The crown indicates that the city was founded by the king. The other major element in the arms is a tree. As the species of tree is not specified, there are several known versions with differently shaped trees. A second seal, from 1658, shows a tree with leaves and what look like pine cones. On the base of the crown are the letters R. F. P., standing for Regna Firma Pietas, "Piety strengthens the realm"; this was Christian IV's motto. Around the seal of the city is its motto, Cavsa Triumphat Tandem Bona, "A good cause prevails in the end".

Geography
Kristiansand is strategically located on the Skagerrak, and until the opening of the Kiel Canal between the North Sea and the Baltic was very important militarily and geopolitically. This meant that for centuries it served as a military stronghold, first as Harald Fairhair's royal residence, then as a Danish-Norwegian fortress, and later as a garrison town. Kristiansand is a gateway to and from the continent, with ferry service to Denmark and a terminus of the railway line along the southern edge of South Norway.Geologically, this part of Agder is part of the Swedo-Norwegian Base Mountain Shield, the southwestern section of the Baltic Shield, and consists of two main geological formations of Proterozoic rocks that were formed in the Gothic and later Swedo-Norwegian orogenies, with significant metamorphism during the latter. There is a substrate of 1,600–1,450 million-year-old slate, quartzite, marble and amphibolite with some hornblende gneiss, and overlaid on this acidic surface structures of both granite and granodiorite (in general 1,250–1,000 million years old, in some places 1,550–1,480 million years old). The Bamblefelt geological area starts to the east of the municipality and extends to Grenland.

The last Swedo-Norwegian formations are evident in large formations of granite. There are also incidences of gabbro and diorite, less commonly eclogite. The Caledonian orogeny did not affect this area. Faults run southwest–northeast. In ancient times there was a volcano off Flekkeroy, which left deposits of volcanic rock just north of central Kristiansand, on the site of the estate of E, now occupied by the Hospital of Southern Norway.

Near the city, there are deep woods. In Baneheia and at the former coastal artillery fortress on Odderøya, there are lighted ski trails and walking paths specially prepared for wheelchair users.

Two major rivers, the Otra and the Tovdalselva, flow into the Skagerrak at Kristiansand.

Climate
Kristiansand has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). The coastal parts of the Skagerrak coast, which includes Kristiansand, is the sunniest part of Norway. Snow generally occurs in late December and in January and February; it may be heavy (the snow record at Kjevik airport is 170 cm) but rarely stays long on the coast; see Climate of Norway. Due to warming in the more recent decades, snow often melts after a few days. In the summer most locals go to the Fiskebrygga, the archipelago opposite the city, and Hamresanden Beach, which is located about 10 minutes from the city centre near Kjevik airport. People from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the UK and other European countries also visit this beach in the summer during their travels.

The all-time high 32.6 C at Kristiansand airport was recorded August 1975. The all-time low at the airport -28.2 C was recorded January 1982. The temperature seldom reaches 30 C, but most days in July reaches 21 C or more. The warmest month ever was July 1901 with mean 21.6 C at an earlier weather station (Kristiansand S - Eg). The warmest month at the airport was July 2018 with 24-hr average 19.9 C and average daily high 25.8 C. July 2018 was also the sunniest month on record with 422 sunhours, and the year 2018 recorded 2126 sunhours - despite December recording just 1 sunhr as cloudiest month on record in Kristiansand. The cloudiest July recorded 156 sunhours (2007). Kristiansand has the national record for the sunniest February (153 sunhrs in 1986), sunniest April (323 hrs in 2021), sunniest August (343 hrs in 1995) and sunniest September (241 hrs in 1959). The wettest month on record was October 1976 with 560 mm precipitation, and the driest was April 1974 with no precipitation at all.

Popular beaches

 * Bystranda is a beach located at the city centre. It is east on Kvadraturen and at Tangen. Nearby the beach is the swimming complex Aquarama with both outdoor and indoor pools. Aquarama is next door to the "Scandic Hotel Bystranda", which is Southern Norway's largest hotel. Some of Kristiansand's most expensive apartments are located east of the beach and near to Tangen. Some of Bystranda's facilities are beach volleyball, playgrounds, skateparks, stairs to the water at deeper ground and its easy design for handicapped people and children. In the middle of the bay, there is a sculpture in the water. Palmesus is a yearly beach festival held on Bystranda, it is Scandinavia's largest beach festival.
 * Hamresanden is located between Hånes and the airport Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik. It is 3 km long which makes it the longest beach in Kristiansand. There are three camping places and an apartment hotel at the beach. The name comes from the nearby subpart Hamre.
 * Sømstranda is a nudist beach in Kristiansand located at Søm.

Parts
Kristiansand is partitioned into 18 parts and 217 subparts. Kristiansand is also divided into 5 boroughs.

Kvadraturen is the city center of Kristiansand. The area belonged to the farms E and Grim, and was a sandy plain covered with forest, and was called Sanden or Grimsmoen. Settlements were before the city was founded focused on loading and dumps at Lund, along Otra or Torridalselven and along Topdalsfjorden by Odderøya and Flekkeroy port. Christian IV's town plan outlined the city center with 56 rectangular squares with five long blocks and eight cross streets. It was the squares along the Otra and east and west harbor, which was built first. Today Kvadraturen is a part of Kvadraturen/E, which has (as of 1 January 2005) 5510 inhabitants. The area Posebyen in Kvadraturen is Northern Europe's longest continuous wooden buildings. In the parts are among others Kristiansand Cathedral, Kristiansand City Hall, Wergeland Park, and the terminal for ferries to Hirtshals and Kristiansand Station is located in the parts western corner. Vågsbygd has considerable industry, who has survived major changes. The largest employer is all the same Elkem Solar producing super clean Silicon for solar cells, which are located in premises that Elkem previous Ferrosilicon factory Fiskå Verk. On Andøya it established a significant and advanced mechanical industry which produces offshore and marine cranes and other marine equipment in Andøya Industrial Park. Amfi Vågsbygd is a major shopping center in Vågsbygd. Outside of Andøya in Vågsbygd is Bredalsholmen Shipyard and Preservation Centre, a Centre for protection of vessels at the former Bredalsholmen yard. Bredalsholmen Shipyard and Preservation Centre is a national hub for maintenance of museum ships and cherish worthy coastal culture, and a drydock with considerable capacity. Lund is the second largest borough in Kristiansand with a population of 9,000 inhabitants in 2012. 14 June 1921 was the first 2.75 km2 of Lund transferred to Kristiansand and 1 January 1965 was also the rest of Lund part of Kristiansand in the municipal amalgamation. In Lund, there are traces of humans dating back to the early Iron Age, the Viking Age until the early Middle Ages various locations. There has been a settlement here since the Stone Age. During the Viking Age there was a great man's farm here. A Runestone at Oddernes church provides a connection to this farm. A large field with burial mounds formerly existed south and west of the church, and may also be associated with this farm. In 1492 robbers from the sea came and attacked Lund. This is mentioned in two letters located in the National Archives. The letters describe the attack that took place with a lot of violence against both women and men and that on both sides suffered casualties. No one know who the robbers were, but their centurion was named Per Syvertsen. The name suggests that he and his crew came from Norway or Denmark.

Indre and Ytre Randesund is located between Kvåsefjorden in Høvåg and the Topdalsfjord in Oddernes. Several small islands are situated alongside the cost of Randesund, among them Randøya and Herøya, both popular with summer tourists. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the island, Randøen (now known as Randøya). The first part of the name is rand (Old Norse: rǫnd) which means "boundary" or "edge" and the last part of the name is sund which means "strait". The name was previously spelled Randøsund.

Tveit is a village and a former municipality in Vest-Agder county. It is located in the present-day municipality of Kristiansand. Tveit is home to Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik. Tveit is located along the lower part of the Tovdalselva river, known as Topdalselva from the border with Aust-Agder. The population of Tveit is approximately 2,900 (2014).

Subparts
Some of the most populous basic unions in the following boroughs: • Flekkerøy

• Berge

• Lindebø

• Mebø

• Skålevik

• Åshavn

• Voiebyen

• Andøya

• Bråvann

• Kroodden

• Løvika

• Møvik

• Møviklia

• Rådyr

• Skutevika

• Spinneren

• Steindalen

• Ternevig

• Voie

• Voietun

• Voielia

• Voieåsen

• Vågsbygd

• Augland

• Auglandsbukta

• Auglandskollen

• Auglandslia

• Bjørklia

• Furulia

• Granlia

• Kjerrheia

• Kjos Haveby

• Kjosneset

• Lumber

• Nordtjønnåsen

• Skyllingsheia

• Smiebrygga

• Storenes

• Vågsbygd sentrum

• Åsane

• Slettheia

• Blørstad

• Fiskåtangen

• Gislemyr

• Gislemyrkollen

• Kartheia

• Karuss

• Rugde

• Slettheitoppen

• Trane

• Trekanten

• Øvre Slettheia

• Hellemyr

• Breimyr

• Fidjemoen

• Fjellro

• Hellemyrtoppen

• Rige

• Solkollen

• Vestheiene

• Tinnheia

• Eigevannskollen

• Hannevika

• Hannevikåsen

• Kobolt

• Kolsberg

• Kolsåsen

• Tinnheia sørvest

• Tinnheia torv

• Tinnheia nord

• Grim

• Artillerivollen

• Bellevue

• Dalane

• Enrum

• Fagervoll

• Grim torv

• Grimsmyra

• Elisenhøy

• Idda

• Klappane

• Krossen

• Møllevann

• Paradis

• Suldalen

• Kvadraturen

• Baneheia

• Byskogen

• Eg

• Eik

• Gravane

• Gyldengården

• Markens

• Nybyen

• Odderøya

• Posebyen

• Strandrponomaden

• Tangen

• Lund

• Agder Allé

• Bertesbukta

• Freyasdalen

• Gimle

• Gimlemoen

• Gimlevang

• Hamreheia

• Høivold

• Kjøita

• Kuholmen

• Kongsgård Allé

• Louvisenlund

• Lund torv

• Marvika

• Narviga

• Oddemarka

• Prestevik

• Skaugo

• Steinkleiva

• Sødal

• Tobienborg

• Vallhalla

• Vige

• Gimlekollen

• Fagerholt

• Gimlekollen midtre

• Gimlekollen vest

• Gimlekollen øst

• Hestnestangen

• Prestheia

• Tretjønn

• Vollevannet

• Volleåsen

• Vige

• Øvre Kongsgård

• Strai

• Aukland

• Gangdalslia

• Haslevollen

• Kulia

• Sagebekk

• Straismoen

• Torridal

• Ytre Strai

• Øvre Strai

• Mosby

• Hauslia

• Høie

• Høielia

• Høietun

• Kiledalen

• Lillefjell

• Ravnåsen

• Rismoen

• Saga

• Ytre Mosby

• Øvre Mosby

• Justvik

• Gjustvik

• Havlimyra

• Justlia

• Justnes

• Jærnesheia

• Kvernhusheia

• Skinnerheia

• Ålefjær

• Bjåvannet

• Einerhaven

• Kostøl

• Ålefjær

• Søm

• Bliksheia

• Fuglevik

• Gudbrandslia

• Haumyrheia

• Kjellevik

• Knarrevik

• Korsvik

• Liane

• Nordlia

• Rona

• Saltbustad

• Strømme

• Sømslia

• Torsvik

• Torsvikkleiva

• Vardåsen

• Tveit

• Brattvollshei

• Boen

• Drangsholt

• Dønnestad

• Foss

• Hamre

• Hamresanden

• Kråkebumoen

• Moneheia

• Ryen

• Solsletta

• Ve

• Hånes

• Bjørndalen

• Brattbakken

• Grovikheia

• Heståsen

• Hånestangen

• Hånni

• Lauvåsen

• Nedre Hånes

• Nedre Timenes

• Ronsbukta

• Strømsdalen

• Timenes

• Randesund

• Bjørkestøl

• Butangen

• Drange

• Drangeskauen

• Dvergsnes

• Eftevåg

• Fidje

• Frikstad

• Hestehagen

• Holte

• Kirkevik

• Kongshavn

• Kvarnes

• Lykkedrag

• Odderhei

• Rabbersvik

• Skaupemyr

• Sommerro

• Stangenes

• Tømmerstø

• Tømmeråsen

• Vadvik

• Vrånes

Søgne
Søgne is a former municipality, located west of Kristiansand. The municipality was merged into a large municipality with the former municipality of Songdalen and the city of Kristiansand on 1 January 2020.

Songdalen
Songdalen is a former municipality, located northwest of Kristiansand. The municipality was merged into a large municipality with the former municipality of Søgne and the city of Kristiansand on 1 January 2020.

Notable streets

 * Dronningens gate (Queens street) is a street that has its run from Havnegata Vestre harbor to Lund Bridge and is 980 meters long. 86 properties are matrikulert to the street. The street had in the 1700s the name Sand Alley.
 * Elvegata (River street) has its run from Østre Strandgate to Tordenskjolds gate. It has a mix of newer business and residential buildings schools and nursing homes as well as a large percentage of older residential buildings in wood and masonry. On the south side of Østre Strandgate called extension of Elvegata for Tangen. 70 meters of the street, in the quarter between Dronningens gate and Tollbodgata is designated county road 26.
 * Festningsgata is a street in Kvadraturen. The name is connected with Christiansholm Fortress from 1672 located in the street race extension towards the east harbor. The street stretches from Østre Strandgate to Tordenskjoldsgate and originally had the name Northern gate. The extension of the street during north of Tordenskjolds street is named Stener Heyerdahl street. The park south of Tordenskjolds street called Stener Heyerdahl park. This street stump and Festningsgata from Tordenskjolds street to Dronningens gate is part of the county road 28. From Vestre Strandgata to Tollbodgata buildings are listed by the walled green was introduced immediately after the fire in 1892 and forward.
 * Henrik Wergelands gate is a street in Kvadraturen in Kristiansand. The street has its run from Vestre Strandgate to Elvegata. 118 properties are matrikulert to the street. It had previously named Consumer Julia Street. The street is named in honor of Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland. In 1808 he had his early childhood in the town until he at nine moved with her family to Eidsvold.
 * Tollbodgata (Tollbooth street) has its run from Senior wharf at Vestre port to Elvegata by Otra and is identical with Route 27 in Vest-Agder. 77 properties are matrikulert to the street. The street has previously had the name Sten Alley. Tolbooth.
 * Vestre Strandgate (Western Beach Street) is a street that has its run from Gravane to roundabout at Gartnerløkka where it meets E18 and continue to run in Rv9 (Setesdalsveien). It is part of the county road 471 from the roundabout at Gartnerløkka the junction with Dronnings gata. From Rådhusgata to Gravane has two parallel paths, an extension of Fv471 and a container that separates the harbor from including Tolbooth. The street has a number of key meeting places and city functions in terms of Radisson Hotel, Agder Theater, cinema, Clarion Hotel, Kristiansand Bus Terminal and Kristiansand Station. The street is characterized by restaurants, pubs and eating places, a number of shops and offices and a few apartments.

Government
Kristiansand Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. Kristiansand has no local parliamentary government, but is managed by the municipal council and an executive committee. The mayor is the spokesman for the city, head of the council and leader of the executive committee. In Kristiansand the mayor has represented the center-right parties since the late 1940s. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Agder District Court and the Agder Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Bystyre) of Kristiansand is made up of 57 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Kristiansand:

 * 1838-1838: Jacob von der Lippe
 * 1838-1839: Mathias Andreas Boye
 * 1840-1840: Jacob von der Lippe
 * 1841-1843: Isaach Willoch
 * 1844-1844: Jacob Andreas Falch
 * 1845-1845: Paul Brodahl Lassen
 * 1846-1846: Anton Carl Hartmann
 * 1847-1847: Niels Wisløw Rogstad
 * 1848-1848: Anton Carl Hartmann
 * 1849-1849: Anthon Wilhelm Manthey
 * 1850-1851: Jens Nicolai Heyerdahl
 * 1851-1853: Oluf Steen Julius Berner
 * 1854-1854: Michael Rolfsen
 * 1855-1855: Niels Wisløw Rogstad
 * 1856-1856: Anton Carl Hartmann
 * 1857-1857: Michael Rolfsen
 * 1858-1858: Niels Wisløw Rogstad
 * 1859-1860: Hans Maartmann Fleischer
 * 1861-1862: Claus Christian Olroy
 * 1863-1863: Hans Maartmann Fleischer
 * 1864-1864: Claus Christian Olroy
 * 1865-1865: Hans Maartmann Fleischer
 * 1866-1866: Michael Rolfsen
 * 1867-1868: Einar Tambeskjælver Rosenqvist
 * 1869-1873: Hans Maartmann Fleischer
 * 1874-1874: Peder Ferdinand Reinhardt
 * 1875-1875: Hans Maartmann Fleischer
 * 1876-1876: Peter Lorentz Stabel
 * 1877-1879: Hans Maartmann Fleischer
 * 1880-1892: Peter Lorentz Stabel
 * 1892-1894: Arne Vogt
 * 1895-1904: Carl Arnesen (V)
 * 1905-1907: E.A. Gundersen (V)
 * 1908-1910: Mathias Hansen (H)
 * 1911-1911: Bernt Reinhardt (H)
 * 1912-1912: Christian Reinhardt Bergsland (H)
 * 1913-1913: Henrik J. Tellefsen (AvH)
 * 1914-1919: Einar Jørgensen (V)
 * 1920-1922: Nicolay Eckhoff (H)
 * 1923-1924: Carl Christiansen (H)
 * 1925-1925: Bernt Reinhardt (H)
 * 1926-1926: Nicolay Eckhoff (H)
 * 1927-1928: William Dahl-Hansen (H)
 * 1929-1931: Johan Øydegard (Ap)
 * 1932-1937: Einar Jørgensen (V)
 * 1938-1940: Rudolf Peersen (V)
 * 1941-1945: O.A. Fosby (NS)
 * 1945-1945: Rudolf Peersen (V)
 * 1946-1947: Karl Rosenløv (Ap)
 * 1948-1952: Aage Grønningsæter (V)
 * 1953-1955: Johannes Seland (V)
 * 1956-1963: Leo Tallaksen (V)
 * 1964-1965: Alfred Netland (V)
 * 1966-1971: Leo Tallaksen (V)
 * 1972-1975: Einar Hansen (V)
 * 1976-1977: Harald Synnes (KrF)
 * 1978-1991: Paul Otto Johnsen (H)
 * 1991-2003: Bjørg Wallevik (H)
 * 2003-2007: Jan Oddvar Skisland (KrF)
 * 2007-2011: Per Sigurd Sørensen (H)
 * 2011-2015: Arvid Grundekjøn (H)
 * 2015-2019: Harald Furre (H)
 * 2019-2023: Jan Oddvar Skisland (Ap)
 * 2023-present: Mathias Bernander (H)

Demographics
Kristiansand has the third largest Vietnamese community in Norway.

Christianity
Kristiansand Cathedral is the largest church in Kristiansand. It is located in Kvadraturen with the town hall and Wergelandsparken. The church was built in 1885 and have the capacity of 1500 people. The church is the seat of the Bishop of Agder and Telemark in the Church of Norway. Grim Church was built in 1969 and has a capacity of 750 people. Vågsbygd Church is the church of Vågsbygd, it is located in the centrum of Vågsbygd and was built in 1967 and has a capacity of 650. Lund Church was built in 1987 and has a capacity of 600 people. Søm Church was built in 2004 and has a capacity of 600. The church was Kristiansand municipality 1000 year building and is the largest church in Oddernes. The windows of Søm Church was designed by Kjell Nupen.

There are also churches located at Flekkerøy, Hellemyr, Hånes, Justvik, Oddemarka (Oddernes), Randesund, Strai (Torridal), Tveit and Voie. There are chapeaus all over the city. Christianity are strongest in Flekkerøy and Søm, even though Southern Norway is called the Norwegian Bible belt, Christianity doesn't play a big part in the rest of the city.

There is a Catholic church in Kvadraturen, St. Ansgar's Church. At Slettheia, there is a Latter-day Saint church and at Tinnheia, there is an Orthodox church.

The Church of Norway has twelve parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Kristiansand. It is part of the Kristiansand arch-deanery in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.

Buddhism
There is a Buddhist centre in Vågsbygd with Ternevig. There is also a Buddhist meditation centre located in the neighbouring municipality Songdalen.

Islam
There is a mosque in Kvadraturen.

Economy

Christianssands Bryggeri is a producer of beer and soft drinks with a long history in the city. The brewery was established in 1859, and all products are made with spring water from the company's own spring, called Christian IVs kilde (Christian IV's spring).

Hennig-Olsen is an ice cream factory with headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Kristiansand. The factory opened in 1960, but the Hennig-Olsen family has produced ice cream in Kristiansand since 1924, when Sven Hennig-Olsen started doing so in the back of his tobacco kiosk.

Glencore Nikkelverk (nickel factory) was founded in 1910 as Kristiansand Nikkelraffineringsverk A/S. The company is owned by the Anglo-Swiss company Glencore and has about 500 employees.

The Korsvik industrial area on the east side of the Kristiansandsfjord is home to companies working on drilling technology, cranes, winches and other equipment for the worldwide petroleum industry, among them National Oilwell Varco and Aker MH. Elkem, owned by China National Bluestar since 2011, operated a refining plant for ferrosilicon and microsilica at Fiskå in Vågsbygd for many years and was replaced in the beginning of the 20th century by Elkem Solar which produces polycrystalline silicon for wafers used in the solar cell industry. It has about 225 employees.

Sørlandschips is a Norwegian produced potato chip brand. The potatoes often come from Denmark. Sørlandschips owned by Scandza AS and is one of Norway's most popular potato chip brands today. It has a variety of tastes and spices. Dampbageriet is a large bakery chain based in Vest-Agder, it was established in Kristiansand in 1862 and has 4 stores in Kristiansand.

Sparebanken Sør is a savings bank serving Vest-Agder, Aust-Agder and Telemark. It was established in 1824 when Christiansand Sparebank opened up, it was one of the first in Norway.

Hennig-Olsen Iskremfabrikk is a major Norwegian ice-cream company based and started up in Kristiansand. The factory is located in Hannevika.

As a relatively large shipping town, Kristiansand was a profitable location for shipbuilders Kristiansands Mekaniske Verksted and P. Høivolds Mekaniske Verksted. At one time, shipping companies were the backbone of the local economy, but not many survive. The Rasmussen Group, previously a shipping firm, is now an investment company. Kristiansand continues to have major shipbuilding and repair facilities that support Norway's North Sea oil industry. The static inverter plant of the HVDC Cross-Skagerrak is located near Kristiansand.

Kristiansand Dyrepark is the zoo that sells most giraffe in Europe.

Sørlandsparken
Sørlandsparken (The Southern Norway Park) is an industrial shopping park outside of Kristiansand city in the municipality. The park is also 17 kilometers from Lillesand. The park has an area of 670000 m² and over 5,000 workplaces.

The main part of the industrial park is in Kristiansand, including the mall Sørlandssenteret with 195 stores and Kristiansand Zoo, it is the largest mall and zoo in Norway. The racetrack of Southern Norway is also located in Kristiansand while IKEA is located technically in Lillesand municipality.

Others large chainstores is also located around the mall.

There are two hotels located in Sørlandsparken and some resorts nearby the zoo.

E18 goes past Sørlandsparken before continuing to downtown Kristiansand. Buses are available 6-8 times in the hours all day.

Culture

The Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble merged in 2003. The orchestra now performs at the Kilden Performing Arts Centre, which opened in January 2012. This is also the new home of Agder Theatre, founded in 1991.

Sørlandets Art Museum is in the centre of Kristiansand, in the former buildings of the cathedral school. It was established in 1995 building on the former collection of Christiansands billedgalleri, and is the second-largest regional art museum in Norway. It includes both fine art and crafts and runs an extensive programme of activities that includes exhibitions of the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, and touring exhibitions to schools and child-care facilities.

Christianssands Kunstforening, now renamed Kristiansand Kunsthall, is one of the oldest and largest art associations in Norway, founded in 1881, and has approximately 650 sqm of exhibition space for contemporary art in central Kristiansand. The association began assembling a permanent collection in 1902; this is now housed in Sørlandets Art Museum.

Cultiva, a local foundation, was established to ensure a portion of the profits made from selling shares in Agder Energy Ltd have lasting benefits to the community, focusing on art, culture, creativity and building competence; it supported projects in Kristiansand until the financial crisis forced cut-backs in 2011. In addition the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage endowed a cultural free port, Porto Rico, as one of the pilot projects of its "value creation project" in the 2000s.

In 2007 Kristiansand was awarded the designation Norges kulturkommune (Norway's culture municipality), a distinction awarded every other year by the Norwegian Culture Forum.

Fiskebrygga is a former fish landing on either side of the Gravane Canal, which separates the city centre from Odderøya; it was refurbished in the 1990s and now has wood-fronted buildings housing restaurants and shops including a fish market. It is very popular in summer, when the canal is also heavily used by boats.

The island of Odderøya is a former fortress and quarantine station, now used for recreation and excursion purposes. At times there are also concerts and festivals on the island.

The municipality millennium is Tresse - Retranchement, the city party space in front of Christiansholm Fortress, bottom Festningsgata the Baltic Sea. The millennium was celebrated here include a large sign. A small sign to mark the Millennium for the future are made, but per. 2011 not installed in anticipation of the festival grounds shall be given a facelift. It should also dug a channel within the fortress, so this again is left on an island. These projects are waiting for political consideration and funding. Tusenårstreet were planted on the lawn between the festival grounds and playground/ice rink in Tresse.

Sport
The city's best known football team, IK Start, moved in 2007 to a new home stadium, Sør Arena. The city is also home to other football teams, including Flekkerøy IL, FK Vigør, IK Våg, and FK Donn.

Kristiansand is also known for its handball teams (Kristiansands IF and Vipers Kristiansand), ice hockey (Kristiansand Ishockeyklubb), basketball (Kristiansand Pirates) and volleyball (Grim VBK) clubs and has a baseball team (Kristiansand Suns).

The Idda Arena (opened on 3 September 2011) is a multi-purpose hall that consists of ice hockey, curling, a sports hall, martial arts, fencing dance and a gym. Adjacent to the Arena, is a skate park and football pitch. It replaced the Idda Idrettsplassen, an outdoor sports field used for skating, football (first used in 1924) and athletics.

Kristiansand Stadion is a multi-use stadium and former ground of IK Start, the stadium hosted important athletics competitions.

Motorcycle speedway has had a long association with the city, covering three venues. The Norwegian Championship was held at Idda Idrettsplassen in 1960 and a semi final was held at the Kristiansand Stadion in 1964. Much later a new venue Sørlandsparken Speedwaybane was built by the speedway club NMK Kristiansand, out of the city, west in Sørlandsparken, off Skibåsen. This has since held the Norwegian Championships in 2012 and 2016.

Tourism
Kristiansand is a summer tourist destination, attracting many visitors in particular to its zoo, Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park, just east of the city. This is the second most visited attraction in Norway, after Holmenkollen, and had 925,000 visitors in 2012. Its animals, most of which are housed in natural habitats, include wolves, tigers, lions and the lynx. The zoo is open 365 days a year, while the amusement park is open during the summer season only.

The Quart festival was an annual music festival that took place in Kristiansand over five days in early July. There were large stages on Odderøya and smaller venues around the city. Founded in 1991 as Qvadradurmusivalen, the festival changed its name to the more catchy Quart Festival the following year. It included internationally known performers and was also known for booking acts that later became internationally known. For several years it was the largest music festival in Norway, but beginning in summer 2007 it was challenged by the Hovefestivalen on Tromøya, Arendal, and some Oslo-based festivals. In early June 2008 the organization declared bankruptcy; the festival returned in 2009 under the name Quart, but again went bankrupt.

Kristiansand is home to many other festivals as well, running throughout the year. Protestfestival, held in September, was launched in 2000 and aims to address apathy and indifference in politics, and includes debates, concerts and lectures combined with performance art and documentaries. Protestfestival claims to attract anarchists, communists, hippies as well as conservative Christians and capitalists and to encourage communication among these radically different groups. Others include Southern Discomfort, also in September, the Bragdøya Blues Festival in June, the Dark Season Festival in October, and Cultural Night and the International Children's Film Festival in April.

Crime

Kristiansand has three police stations. The one in the city center, the main one for Southern Norway, Agder Police District. While on less serious crimes only covers some these parts of Kristiansand, Kvadraturen, Grim and Lund. Vågsbygd police station covers the Vågsbygd district while Randesund police station covers Randesund, Søm, Hånes and Tveit.

Most crim-cases reported in Kristiansand takes place on Kvadraturen. In south of Markens gate with Tollbodgata and Dronningens gate which host stores that are open 24 hours as well as many nightclubs. In 2014 it was most reported cases there in the entire city.

There were over 56 cases reported in this area and 123 on Kvadraturen in 2013, a decrease from 150 cases in 2012 reported on Kvadraturen. In the Vågsbygd police district it was reported that there were over 50 cases, going down 27% since 2012. At Randesund police station it was 61 cases reported, so had gone down 9% from 2012 to 2013. Outside of Kvadraturen, Vågsbygd and Randesund there were 110 cases reported in the municipality, mostly from Grim.

, there were over 350 cases reported for all of Kristiansand. Of these, 34% were committed by minors on Kvadraturen. Most cases on Kvadraturen are narcotics, violence and nonprofit crimes; the majority being shop lifting. Six of the violent crime cases were against police and most violent acts were performed with knives.

Minors

In crime performed by people under 18, there were most reported 16-year-old boys in 2013. Although adding the numbers of boys and girls together, the largest number of crime for the age was 14. It is simultaneously more that reports a mixed sex image where girls show an equal activity as boys. Some Instead there are also girls who are leading the way. Several executives tells increased used of bullying, intimidation and violence among girls. It looks including out that girls make greater use of social media such behavior. Some also report increased cannabis use among girls. The figures from the police show that nearly one in three young people who commit crimes have minority backgrounds. Of the 163 youths who embarked offense first half is 47 immigrants or Norwegian-born to immigrant parents. This represents 29% of the total number. The decline in the number of young offenders apply primarily the oldest group from 15 to 17 years. Kristiansand has several 14-year-olds than 17-year-olds who commit offenses. Girls make up more current through increased use of threats and violence.

Contact from Voiebyen, Vågsbygd, Grim, Søm and Lund expressed concern about boys who challenge them with their behavior by breaking rules, commit vandalism, threaten classmates and try out various drugs. One of the schools have also been several incidents of violence against teachers and classmates. It is composed issues related to several of these students and they have various reasons major challenges in adapting to school requirements and expectations. Several executives from schools stated that they experience an increase in the number of pupils, both boys and girls, who are struggling mentally. They mention students with depression, social anxiety, eating disorder, self-mutilation and sleep problems. This worries them and they fear that some of these students, as a result of their poor mental health, are more vulnerable to make choices that can lead them into the environment with drugs and crime. To meet these challenges and provide these young people needed and customized follow-up, it is crucial to have a holistic focus and a good interdepartmental and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Health
Sørlandet Sykehus HF is a hospital group in Southern Norway, they have three hospitals in Flekkefjord, Arendal and the main one on Eg in Kristiansand. It is only a 6 minutes drive from the city centrum Kvadraturen. The headquarter of Sørlandet Sykehus HF is also located in Kristiansand. The hospital has departments in Vågsbygd and Oddernes.

Eg hospital is an asylum/psychiatric hospital next to Sørlandet hospital. It was opened in 1881 by dr. Axel H. Lindboe, this became Norway's third insane asylum.

St. Josef hospital was a catholic hospital located at Kvadraturen, it was opened in 1885 and driven by his sisters. The hospital closed down in 1967.

There are 11 retirement homes in Kristiansand and most of them are located on Kvadraturen. One rehabilitation center, ca 15 fitness centers, 20 dentist offices, 10 medical centers and around 25 pharmacies.

Transportation

Kristiansand is an important transport and communications node, connected to continental Europe by air and sea.

Sea
From the city centre, the ferry harbour has routes to Hirtshals (Denmark) operated by both Color Line and Fjord Line. Color Line operates their MS Superspeed 1, which entered into service in 2008 and spends approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes on the crossing. The route operates year-round with two crossings each way in one day. Fjord Line operates HSC Fjord Cat, which is a high-speed catamaran covering the route in around 2 hours and 15 minutes. The ship was built between 1997 and 1998, and has sailed under several different operators on many different routes. It only operates during the high season in the summer.

A new catamaran built by Australian shipbuilding company Austal will enter service at the start of summer 2020 and replace Fjord Cat. The new ship should double the capacity, while retaining the same travel duration of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Fjord Line also aims for the new ship to address complaints with seaworthiness and stability from its predecessor.

On 7 April 2022, a direct cruise-ferry service began with Eemshaven, Netherlands, operated by startup company Holland Norway Lines.

Road
European Road 18 is the largest highway in Kristiansand. It starts after E39 goes to Denmark before the city bridge on Kvadraturen. E18 continues out Kristiansand municipality and through Arendal, Oslo and ends in Stockholm. European Road 39 starts in Trondheim and has it course through Western Norway before following the coastal municipalities in Vest-Agder. When E39 comes to Kristiansand, it goes to the harbor and continues through Denmark. Norwegian National Road 9 is a road starting in Kristiansand, through Grim and then through Vennesla municipality before leaving Vest-Agder. The national road ends in Telemark at Haukeli, and is the most important road connection for Setesdalen and the surrounding regions.

Norwegian National Road 41 Norwegian National Road 41 starts in Hånes. It is the road out to Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik, it continues to Birkenes and ends in Kviteseid, Telemark. County road 401 is the old E18 before it got upgraded. It starts on Søm and ends in Lillesand, it goes via Høvåg. County road 452 is the old road to Vennesla city centrum. It starts on Lund, then goes through Justvik and Ålefjær before Vennesla municipality. County road 456 is the main road in Vågsbygd and afterwards ending in Søgne. County road 457 takes up from 456 in Voiebyen and ends at Flekkerøy. County road 471 is the largest road in downtown Kristiansand. It ends at Lund and goes besides the university.

Bus
Buses in the city and surrounding region are operated by Boreal Buss AS, who won the tender from Agder Kollektivtrafikk in 2018 to operate routes for seven years, with an option to extend the period by three years. Previously, Nettbuss Sør (South) operated buses in the region for eight years from 2010 to 2018. All regional bus lines goes through three stops in Kvadraturen. Some bus lines goes vice versa from the west coast to the east coast of the city.

Kristiansand Bus Terminal or Kristiansand Rutebilstasjon is the main bus terminal for the city, and also acts as a hub for express-buses connecting to Oslo, Stavanger and Haukeli. It is located by the train station Kristiansand S. The bus terminal has local, regional and long-distance bus routes. A new bus terminal was constructed in 2019, replacing the old and outdated building from 1960. The old terminal will be demolished and replaced by a small park and green-space.

The local city buses in Kristiansand has their main stop in Kvadraturen with city terminals in the streets Henrik Wergelands gate (eastbond or end for westbound) and Tollbodgata (westbound or end for eastbound), both streets crosses Markens gate. City bus lines 01, A1 starts in Kvadraturen and goes by UiA and Rona. M1, M2, M3, 12, goes by Vågsbygd centrum. 17, 18 joins M1, M2, M3 and 12 for Hannevika. 40, 42, 50 and 45, 46 goes only Hannevika. Line 40, 42, 45, 46 and 50 stops in Kristiansand Bus Terminal expect in the rush hours, while M1, M2, M3, 12, 17 and 18 continues to Henrik Wergelands gate, UiA, Rona, then their destinations. Line 13, 15, 19, 32 and 30 comes north for Kvadraturen and goes by Grim torv. Line 22, 23 only goes by UiA. Line 31 goes Line 35, 36 and 37 goes by Ve, Rona, UiA, Tollbodgata and ends in Kristiansand Bus Terminal. There are also local buses in some of the boroughs like Vågsbygd: Line 51, 52 and 55 goes from neighbourhoods in the borough to Vågsbygd centrum collaborating with M1 or M2 at selective times. Line 57 goes from east to west on the main road in Flekkerøy. Line 58 goes locally in Randesund to Rona.

Railway
Kristiansand Station opened in 1895 and is located in the city centre, close to the ferry terminal. It is owned by Norwegian National Rail Administration. The Sørlandet Line goes through small towns in Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties. Express trains go east to Oslo S. Regional lines goes to Stavanger.

Aviation
The local airport, Kjevik, is located 12 km east of the city centre and has routes to European and Norwegian cities. A new one-storey parking garage was constructed in 2019.

Travel distances
Distance from Kristiansand to other cities:
 * Mandal 36 kilometers (23 miles) (considerably shortened when new E39 opens in 2022)
 * Evje 49 kilometers (30 miles)
 * Arendal 55 kilometers (34 miles)
 * Flekkefjord 81 kilometers (50 miles)
 * Stavanger 160 kilometers (100 miles)
 * Oslo 250 kilometers (155 miles)
 * Bergen 292 kilometers (181 miles)
 * Trondheim 601 kilometers (373 miles)
 * Tromsø 1382 kilometers (859 miles)
 * Copenhagen 391 kilometers (243 miles)
 * Stockholm 768 kilometers (477 miles)

Education
The University of Agder was established in 2007, based on Agder College, which had been founded in 1994 by the amalgamation of six previous institutions: Kristiansand Teacher Training College, Agder District College, Kristiansand College of Nursing, Arendal College of Nursing, Agder Engineering and District College (Grimstad) and Agder Conservatory of Music. The university has about 10,000 students, of whom 7,500 are in Kristiansand and the remaining 2,500 in Grimstad. In Kristiansand it is housed on a campus on the former parade ground of Gimlemoen in the Lund section. The university offers a wide range of studies at all levels, organised into five faculties: Humanities and Education, Engineering and Science, Health and Sport, Economics and Social Sciences, and Fine Arts. Gimlemoen is also the site of Sørlandet kunnskapspark, a research park built with funds from sources including the Cultiva foundation that houses a number of companies with a degree of professional affiliation with the university, such as Agderforskning, a social science research institute that is part of the publishing company Cappelen Damm.

Noroff University College was established in 2012 and is a private university offering specialised degrees two in Interactive media (Games or Animation) and Applied Data Science and in Digital Forensics. The University College builds on Noroff's existing vocational school which originally opened in 1987. In addition to the Kristiansand Campus Noroff has facilities in Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger. Noroff has considerable experience in offering online courses and all of the degree courses offered at the University College are available online.

Kristiansand was a garrison and cathedral town from 1664; Kristiansand Cathedral School was founded in 1684 and a Latin school in 1734. There are currently four public senior secondary schools: Kristiansand Cathedral School Gimle, Vågsbygd High School, Kvadraturen skolesenter and Tangen High School

Private senior secondary schools include Sonans utdanning (education). The private school Sørlandets Maritime Senior Secondary School is also based in Kristiansand. This school offers two courses of study, Technology and Industrial Production and maritime subjects. It is a boarding school; students live and undergo training aboard the training ship MS Sjøkurs, a steamer that previously operated on the Hurtigruten.

Kristiansand is also host to an International School on Kongsgård Alle in Lund. The School opened in January 2008 to provide an international education through English to students from grade 1 to grade 10. This IB authorised school moved into a brand new purpose-built building in Summer 2014, to house the expanding school which now has over 100 students.

===List of schools in Kristiansand ===

Media

Fædrelandsvennen is the main news paper in Kristiansand and the Kristiansand Region. The paper has around 116 000 readers every day and was founded in 1875. From 2006, the newspaper went from broadsheet to tabloid. Fædrelandsvennen was located at Rådhusgata with Wergelandsparken (A park named after Henrik Wergeland) until 02.27.192 when someone blew up the building and it burned down to the ground. Nobody lost their lives in the incident. The newspaper relocated to Fiskåtangen in Vågsbygd where it located until 2015 when it moved back downtown to Henrik Wergelands gate. Fædrelandsvennen have ownership in many Southern Norway based newspapers, TV-Channels radio stations and other companies.

Kristiansand Avis (Kristiansand Newspaper) is a free newspaper paid by ads, and is delivered to all households in the region except Lillesand, Birkenes and Iveland. The newspaper is focused on staying closed to the local people. It comes out each Thursday and had 45 000 readers in 2014.

NRK Sørlandet has their main office in Kristiansand. It is the district office for the national broadcasting channel NRK. NRK Sørlandet covers Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder County. They produce 6 hours of radio and one and a half hour of television, in addition to their own website for news for Southern Norway.

Education

 * Haldur Grüner (1818–1858), business school founder

Public Service and public thinking

 * Syvert Omundsen Eeg (1757–1838) farmer and rep. the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly
 * Marcus Gjøe Rosenkrantz (1762–1838) a Government Minister and Member of Parliament
 * Nicolai Wergeland (1780–1848) a Norwegian priest, writer and politician
 * Jens Lauritz Arup (1793–1874) a Norwegian bishop and politician
 * Hans Christian Petersen (1793–1862) de facto Prime Minister of Norway 1858 to 1861
 * Jacob von der Lippe (1797–1878) a Norwegian politician and priest
 * Camilla Collett (1813–1895) said to be Norway's first feminist and writer
 * Herman Wedel Major (1814–1854) psychiatrist, founded the Gaustad Hospital
 * Joseph Frantz Oscar Wergeland (1815–1895) military officer, cartographer and skiing pioneer
 * Einar Rosenqvist (1817–1885) a Norwegian naval officer and politician
 * Valdemar Knudsen (1819–1898) sugarcane plantation pioneer on West Kauai, Hawaii
 * Jens Peter Broch (1819–1886) an orientalist and linguist in Semitic languages
 * Sofus Arctander (1845–1924) a politician, acting Prime Minister of Norway, 1905
 * William Brede Kristensen (1867–1953) Dutch theologian, professor and church historian
 * Theo Sørensen (1873–1959) a missionary, worked in Tibet
 * Finn Støren (1893–1962) a businessperson and civil servant for Nasjonal Samling
 * Arvid G. Hansen (1894–1966) a politician, associated first with the Labour Party, then the Communist Party
 * Gabriel Langfeldt (1895–1983) a Norwegian psychiatrist and academic
 * Bernt Balchen (1899–1973) pioneer polar aviator, navigator & aircraft mechanical engineer
 * Ole Wehus (1909–1947) a Norwegian Nasjonal Samling police official
 * Leo Tallaksen (1908–1983) a politician, twice Mayor of Kristiansand
 * Bjørn Egge CBE (1918–2007) a major general of the Norwegian Army
 * Jan Vincents Johannessen (born 1941) a physician, cancer researcher, painter and composer
 * Tor Fuglevik (born 1950) a Norwegian radio and TV executive
 * Anne Berit Andersen (born 1951) a Norwegian politician, Mayor of Søgne 1991 to 2001
 * Terje G. Simonsen (born 1963) a Norwegian historian and nonfiction author
 * Harald Furre (born 1964) an economist and Mayor of Kristiansand 2015–2019
 * Marie Benedicte Bjørnland (born 1965) head of Norwegian Police Security Service 2012/2019.
 * Nicolai Tangen (born 1966), hedge fund manager and philanthropist
 * Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway (born 1972), the crown princess of Norway, married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001.

The Arts

 * Henrik Wergeland (1808–1845) writer, poet, playwright, polemicist, historian and linguist
 * Dan Weggeland (1827–1918) an artist and teacher, the "Father of Utah Art"
 * Anton Jörgen Andersen (1845–1926) a Norwegian composer and cellist
 * Octavia Sperati (1847–1918) a Norwegian actress
 * Gerhard Schjelderup (1859–1933) a Norwegian composer of operas
 * Oskar Textorius (1864–1938) a Swedish actor, singer and theater director
 * Nils Hald (1897–1963) a Norwegian actor
 * Ellen Isefiær (1899–1985) a Norwegian actress and stage director
 * Jens Bjørneboe (1920–1976), a novelist, writer and painter
 * Else Marie Jakobsen (1927–2012), a textile artist and designer
 * Finn Benestad (1929–2012) a Norwegian musicologist, music critic and academic
 * Eva Margot (1944–2019), a painter used realism, symbolism and abstract styles
 * Terje Formoe, (born 1949) a singer, songwriter and actor
 * Rolf Løvland (born 1955) a Norwegian composer, lyricist, arranger and pianist
 * Terje Dragseth (born 1955) a Norwegian poet, author and film director
 * Kjell Nupen (1955–2014) a contemporary artist; painter, sculptor and graphic artist
 * Hilde Hefte (born 1956), a jazz singer
 * Bjørn Ole Rasch (born 1959) a keyboard performer, composer, arranger and academic
 * Sigurd Køhn (1959–2004) a Norwegian jazz saxophonist and composer
 * Arne Hjeltnes (born 1963) a Norwegian writer and TV personality
 * Per Fronth (born 1963), a visual artist, photographer and painter
 * Bjarte Tjøstheim (born 1967) a Norwegian comedian, radio host and actor
 * Lene Elise Bergum (born 1971) a Norwegian actress
 * Bjarte Breiteig (born 1974) a Norwegian short story writer
 * Anne Lilia Berge Strand (born 1977) known as "Annie", a singer-songwriter
 * Tom Hugo (born 1979) a Norwegian singer-songwriter
 * Agnes Kittelsen (born 1980), an actress
 * Frida Aasen, (born 1994) a Norwegian fashion model
 * Thea Sofie Loch Næss (born 1996) a Norwegian actress
 * Helene Abildsnes, (Norwegian Wiki) (born 1998) Miss Universe Norway 2019

Sport

 * Gunn Margit Andreassen (born 1973) a former biathlete, twice Olympic relay team medallist
 * Steinar Pedersen (born 1975) a former Norwegian footballer with 426 club caps
 * Katrine Lunde (born 1980) a handball goalkeeper, 305 caps with Norway women
 * twins Katrine Lunde & Kristine Lunde-Borgersen, (born 1980) handball players, twice Olympic champions
 * Andreas Thorkildsen (born 1982), a javelin thrower, Olympic gold medallist in 2004 and 2008
 * Kristoffer Hæstad (born 1983) a former footballer with over 300 club caps and 27 for Norway

Twin towns – sister cities
Kristiansand is twinned with:

 * 🇵🇱 Gdynia, Poland
 * 🇫🇮 Kerava, Finland
 * 🏴 Letchworth, England, United Kingdom
 * 🇩🇪 Münster, Germany
 * 🇫🇷 Orléans, France
 * 🇧🇩 Rajshahi, Bangladesh
 * 🇮🇸 Reykjanesbær, Iceland
 * 🇸🇪 Trollhättan, Sweden
 * 🇳🇦 Walvis Bay, Namibia

title: Kristiansand


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Drammen

Drammen is a city and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konnerud, Svelvik, Mjøndalen and Skoger.

Location
Drammen is located west of the Oslofjord inlet, situated approximately 44 km (27 mi) southwest of the capital city of Oslo. There are more than 100,000 inhabitants in the municipality, though the city is the regional capital of an area with around 82,000 residents. Drammen, and its adjacent communities, are experiencing more socioeconomic and population growth than ever before. The city makes good use of the Drammensfjord, a waterway utilised for recreation, fishing and other activities, as well as waterfront housing.

Name and coat of arms
The Old Norse form of the city's name was Drafn, and this was originally the name of the inner part of Drammensfjord. The fjord is, however, probably named after the river Drammenselva (Norse Drǫfn), and this again is derived from drǫfn f 'wave'. The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 17 November 1960. The arms has a silver-colored column on top a silver-colored bedrock crossed with a silver-colored key and sword against a blue background. It is based upon the old seal dating from 1723 for Bragernes, one of the central parts of Drammen. The motto for Bragernes (in Latin) was In Fide Et Justitia Fortitudo (in faith and justice is strength), and the items in the seal are referring to this: key = faith, sword = justice, column on rocks = strength.

Governance
On January 1, 2020, the municipalities of Svelvik, Nedre Eiker and Drammen merged to form «The New Drammen Municipality». The new municipality, which is now called Drammen, is Norway's seventh largest with over 100,000 residents. The main seat of the Greater Municipality is located in the city of Drammen. Drammen city had a population of 82.875 inhabitants in 2021, but serves as a regional centre for an area that had a population of 110.236 inhabitants in 2021. The city is the country's record champion in environment and urban development, 21 prices since 2003 with 16 national and 5 international.

Districts
After the merger of the municipalities Drammen, Nedre Eiker and Svelvik in 2020, the municipality was then divided into ten municipal regions: • Mjøndalen

• Krokstadelva

• Åssiden

• Gulskogen

• Konnerud

• Fjell

• Strømsø

• Bragernes

• Åskollen

• Svelvik

History
Rock carvings at Åskollen and Austad are 6000 to 7000 years old, and are the first signs of human activity in the area. The largest rock carving at Åskollen depicts a moose.

Drammen originally consisted of three small seaports: Bragernes (on the northern side of the Drammenselva river) and Strømsø and Tangen (both on the southern side of the river). For trade purposes, small seaports were placed under market towns. Despite their geographical proximity, Bragernes was placed under Christiania and Strømsø under Tønsberg. For this reason, cooperation between the adjacent seaport towns was almost impossible.

In 1662, a merger was proposed to unite Strømsø and Bragernes to form a market town with the name Frederiksstrøm. The proposal was rejected by King Frederick III. Bragernes received limited market town rights in 1715, and merged with Strømsø to gain status as a single city on 19 June 1811.

Its geographical location made the city favorable for seafaring, shipbuilding, log driving, timber trade. During the 19th century, paper and pulp industries were developed. Large parts of the city were ruined in the great fire of 12–13 July 1866, which led to the reconstruction of the city centre, including the characteristic town square and Bragernes church. The Drammen Line (Drammenbanen ) opened in 1872 providing rail service between Drammen and Oslo.

In 1909, Drammen got the first trolleybus system in Scandinavia, the Drammen trolleybus. The lines ran until 1967. For many years the centre of Drammen suffered from heavy traffic. In 1970, Drammen Bridge with two lanes on European route E18 was built (expanded to four lanes in 2006) and in 1999 the opening of the Bragernes tunnel (Bragernestunnelen) diverted additional traffic away from the centre of the city.

In recent years, the city centre has seen the introduction of new housing, shopping facilities, restaurants, cafes and bars, as well as a public pathway along the Drammenselva river.

In 2011, Drammen observed its 200th anniversary with many citywide jubilee celebrations. Drammen's district heating system was upgraded to use water-sourced heat pumps, drawing on local fjord water, to support population growth in the city.

Geography
Drammen is one of the larger cities in Norway, and lies about 40 km from the capital of Norway, Oslo. The city centre lies at the end of a valley, on both sides of the Drammenselva river, and where the river meets the Drammensfjord. The Holmen island in Drammen is also the main harbor for car and fruit import in Norway.

The Drammen region is part of the metropolitan region around Oslo and the country's fifth largest urban area, it extends far beyond the municipal boundaries; into the municipalities of Lier, Asker, Øvre Eiker and Holmestrand. The total population of the settlement is 110,236 inhabitants as of 1 January 2021.

In 2008 Drammen won the prestigious prize for the best city development in Europe.

Climate
Drammen has a humid continental climate (Dfb). Located at a sheltered location at the head of a narrow fjord branch of innermost Oslofjord, Drammen is one of the warmest cities in Scandinavia in summer. The warmest month on record was July 2018 with mean 22.3 °C, average daily high 29.3 °C and 11 days with highs at or above 30 °C. The all-time high 35 °C was recorded August 3, 1982, and is a tie with the national high for the month. The September record high is the national record. The all-time low -28 °C was recorded in January 1987, which is the coldest month on record with mean -13.8 °C and average daily low -17.1 °C. In more recent years, December 2010 was almost as cold. The average date for first overnight freeze (low below 0 °C) in autumn is 13 October (1981–2010 average). The Drammen-Berskog weather station has been operating since 2004. An earlier weather station named Drammen-Marienlyst (3 m) operated from 1966 to 2003.

Demographics
As of 2022, Immigrants and Norwegian-born with immigrant parents in Drammen is 29 per cent, of which 25 per cent are Norwegian-born with immigrant parents.

As of 2022, immigrants of non-Western origin and their children enumerated 20,507 and made up an estimated 22% of Drammen's population. Immigrants of Western origin and their children enumerated 9,333 and made up an estimated 9% of Drammen's population.

Aass Brewery
Aass Brewery is the oldest surviving brewery in Norway, and has won acclaim for both its beer and its well-conserved building. Founded in 1834, the brewery's primary products are soft drinks, beer and aquavit.

Bridges

 * Øvre Sund Bridge (Øvre Sund bru) – crosses Drammenselva in the center of Drammen
 * Drammen City Bridge (Drammensbrua bybro) – was a concrete bridge connecting the two centers of the city, built in 1936 and demolished in 2022. A new city bridge will open in the autumn of 2025 on the same site. A temporary pedestrian bridge crosses the river adjacent to the site of the new bridge under construction.
 * Drammen Bridge (Drammensbrua) – motorway box girder bridge on E18 that crosses Drammenselva, built 1971
 * Ypsilon Bridge (Ypsilon bru) – cable-stayed pedestrian bridge over Drammenselva, built 2007
 * Holmen bridges (Holmenbruene) – two railway bridges on the Drammen Line
 * Nedre Eiker Bridge – (Nedre Eiker bru) crosses Drammenselva up the river connecting the towns Krokstadelva og Mjøndalen.
 * Mjøndalsbrua – The old bridge between Mjøndalen and Krokstadelva, built for crossing of horse-drawn carriages in 1910.

Drammen Museum
The Drammen Museum of Art and Cultural History includes Marienlyst, a manor house from ca. 1770, museum building from 1930 with the museum's administration, permanent exhibitions and collections, and Lyche pavilion from 1990 with the gallery, temporary exhibitions and museum café, Halling yard, with 5 old buildings, the oldest from 1760s. The museum also includes the two largest preserved like farms in Drammen, Gulskogen Manor and Austad farm.

Drammen Spiral
The Drammen Spiral is a road tunnel that allows access to the Skansen Ridge, 180 m above the town. It opened in 1961 on the site of a former quarry.

Drammen Theater
Drammen Theater in Bragernes was built in 1869 and was designed by architect Emil Victor Langlet. The theater was the first modern theater in the country. It was designed in a complex Renaissance style with symmetrical facades and round arched windows. After Drammen Theater suffered total destruction by fire in December 1993, a new theater was rebuilt on the model of the original house. It was finished during February 1997.

Drammensbadet
Drammensbadet is a public swimming and training facility located in Marienlyst, Drammen. It was one of the largest in Norway when it opened 1 September 2008. They have five indoor and four outdoor pools.

Bragernes Torg (town square)
Bragernes Torg is the largest town square in Norway and one of the largest in the Nordics.

Sport clubs

 * Strømsgodset IF and their elite football section Strømsgodset Toppfotball. Founded 10 February 1907. Five Norwegian Cups in football (1969, 1970, 1973, 1991, 2010). Winner of the Norwegian football league in 1970 and 2013. Won six Norwegian championships in bandy.
 * Drammen golfklubb. Founded in 1988. Golf club with 18-hole course situated in the southern part of Drammen, on the border to Sande in Vestfold.
 * Drammen HK Handball club competing in Men's European Champions League (07/08)
 * IF Hellas
 * IF Sturla
 * Konnerud IL Sport club most famous for its cross-country skiing facilities.
 * SBK Drafn Founded 15 September 1910, 21 Norwegian Championships in bandy, 1 lost cup final in football (1927). One World Champion ski jumper, Hans Bjørnstad 1950. Ole Olympic Gold medallist, Thorleif Haug 1924 (three gold, one bronze).
 * SBK Skiold
 * Drammen Bandy plays in the highest division.
 * Drammen FK. Founded 23 August 2008.

Public service & business

 * Niels Treschow (1751 in Strømsø – 1833) a philosopher, educator and politician
 * Jørgen Herman Vogt (1784 in Bragernes – 1862) First Minister of Norway, 1856 to 1858
 * Christen Smith (1785 in Skoger – 1816 at Congo River) physician, economist and botanist
 * Erik Børresen (1785 in Bragernes – 1860) owned the first Norwegian ships to sail to China
 * Bent Salvesen (1787–1820) a ship's captain and privateer; sailed from Drammen
 * Bernhard Pauss (born 1839 at Tangen – 1907) theologian, educator, author and humanitarian
 * Gustav Jensen (1845 in Drammen – 1922) priest, hymnwriter, seminary instructor and liturgist
 * Anthon B. Nilsen (1855 in Svelvik – 1936) businessman, politician and author
 * Urban Jacob Rasmus Børresen (1857 in Drammen – 1943) a rear admiral and industrialist
 * Betzy Kjelsberg (1866 in Svelvik – 1950) politician, women's rights activist and suffragist
 * Johan Aschehoug Kiær (1869 in Drammen – 1931) a paleontologist and geologist
 * Johan Berger Mathiesen (born 1872 in Drammen – 1923) surgeon, worked in Eau Claire, WI
 * Arnold Maria Hansson (born 1889 in Drammen – 1981) New Zealand forestry administrator and consultant
 * Konrad Knudsen (1890 in Drammen – 1959) painter and journalist, host to Leon Trotsky 1935/6
 * Henning Bødtker (1891 in Svelvik – 1975) lawyer, Attorney General of Norway, 1945 to 1962
 * Odd Dahl (1898 in Drammen – 1994) engineer, nuclear physics researcher and explorer
 * Arnfinn Vik (1901 in Drammen – 1990) politician. Mayor of Oslo, 1945 to 1947
 * Henry Wilhelm Kristiansen (1902 in Drammen – 1942) politician, chairman of the Communist Party of Norway 1931–1934
 * Asbjørn Bryhn (1906 in Drammen – 1990) head of the Norwegian Police Security Service
 * Thorstein Treholt (1911 in Skoger – 1993) politician and father of convicted spy Arne Treholt
 * Lars Korvald (1916 in Mjøndalen – 2006) politician, Prime Minister of Norway 1972 to 1973
 * Astrid Bjellebø Bayegan (born 1943) first female dean in Norway, at Drammen since 1989
 * Svein Rennemo (born 1947 in Drammen) a businessperson and chair of Statoil
 * Thorbjørn Jagland (born 1950 in Drammen) Prime Minister of Norway, 1996 to 1997
 * Per-Erik Burud (1962 in Drammen – 2011) Norwegian billionaire, head of grocery chain Kiwi

The Arts

 * Hanna Winsnes (1789 in Bragernes – 1872) a poet, novelist and cookbook writer
 * Martinus Rørbye (1803 in Drammen – 1848) a Danish Golden Age painter, worked in Skagen
 * Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831 in Drammen – 1892) painter of history motifs and Norse mythology
 * Christian Cappelen (1845 in Drammen – 1916) a Norwegian organist and composer
 * Hans Heyerdahl (1857–1913) realist painter, portraits and landscapes; grew up in Drammen
 * Johan Halvorsen (1864 in Drammen – 1935) a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist
 * Barbra Ring (1870 in Drammen – 1955) novelist, short story writer and theatre critic
 * Herman Wildenvey (1885 at Mjøndalen – 1959) a distinguished Norwegian poet
 * Lalla Carlsen (1889 in Svelvik – 1967) a Norwegian singer and actress
 * Kai Fjell (1907 in Skoger – 1989) painter, printmaker and scenographer
 * Jens Gunderssen (1912 in Drammen – 1969) singer, songwriter, actor and theatre director
 * Eivind Lund (1914 in Drammen – 1984) a Norwegian painter
 * Solveig Christov (1918 in Drammen – 1984) writer of short stories, novels and plays
 * Sverre Holm (1931 in Drammen – 2005) a Norwegian stage and film actor
 * Triztán Vindtorn (1942 in Drammen – 2009) a poet and performance artist
 * Lars Klevstrand (born 1949 in Drammen) a singer, guitarist, composer and actor
 * Herodes Falsk (born 1954 in Drammen) comedian, actor, author, and songwriter
 * Katharina Nuttall (born 1972 in Drammen) an artist, film composer and music producer
 * Todd Terje (born 1981 in Mjøndalen) a Norwegian DJ, songwriter, and record producer

Sport

 * Thorleif Haug (1894 in Lier – 1934) three Nordic skiing gold medals at 1924 Winter Olympics
 * Charles Mathiesen (1911 in Drammen – 1994) speed skater gold medal 1936 Winter Olympics
 * Johan Haanes (1912 in Drammen – 2000) tennis player, ski jumper and track and field athlete
 * Finn Helgesen (1919 in Drammen – 2011) speed skater, gold medalist 1948 Winter Olympics
 * Arne Bergodd (born 1948 in Drammen) rower, team silver medallist at 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Arne Dokken (born 1955 in Drammen) footballer with 190 club caps and 24 for Norway
 * Svend Karlsen (born 1967 in Drammen) former strongman, powerlifter and bodybuilder
 * Johann Olav Koss (born 1968 in Drammen) speed skater with four Olympic gold medals
 * Glenn Solberg (born 1972 in Drammen) handball coach, former player, 122 caps for Norway
 * Heidi Tjugum (born 1973 in Drammen) team handballer, twice Olympic team medallist
 * Ole Einar Bjørndalen (born 1974 in Drammen) retired biathlete, 13 Winter Olympics medals
 * Adnan Haidar (born 1989 in Drammen) footballer with over 150 club caps and 36 for Lebanon
 * Martin Ødegaard (born 1998) footballer with 300+ club appearances, captain of Norway and the captain of Arsenal
 * Kristian Krogh Johannessen (born 1995) Professional golfer, qualified to represent Norway at the 2021 Olympics.
 * Hakon Lagerqvist (1970 in Drammen – Present) Local skier. First documented ski descent of the Kjøsterudjuvet and skied 10000 vertical meters in one day at Norefjell ski area.

Twin towns – sister cities
Drammen is twinned with:
 * Kolding, Denmark
 * 🇫🇮 Lappeenranta, Finland
 * 🇸🇪 Örebro, Sweden
 * 🇮🇸 Stykkishólmur, Iceland

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Drammen


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Kongsberg

Kongsberg is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production and forestry for centuries, and is the site of high technology industry including the headquarters of Norway's largest defence contractor Kongsberg Gruppen.

Kongsberg, formerly spelled Konningsberg (lit. "King's Mountain"), was developed as a mining city on the basis of the Kongsberg Silver Mines, founded by and named after King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway in 1624. The king invited German engineers and other specialists from Saxony and the Harz region to help build the mining company. As a mining city, Kongsberg had a distinct urban culture that contrasted with its surroundings, strongly influenced by the traditions of mining communities in Germany and where the German language was extensively used in mining business and for religious services. In the first years nearly half of the city's population were German immigrants, and the majority of the engineers and executives were German immigrants and their descendants well into the 19th century, becoming a distinct social class called mining families that formed the educated social elite of Kongsberg in contrast to the Norwegian farming population; the first Nobel laureate in economics Ragnar Frisch belonged to such a Kongsberg mining family. By the 18th century Kongsberg was Norway's second largest city, second only to Bergen. Kongsberg was one of Norway's two privileged mining cities and thus formed a special mining jurisdiction (Bergstad), and only became part of Buskerud county in 1760. On 1 January 1838, the new national law, creating local governments, made Kongsberg a municipality. The rural municipalities of Ytre Sandsvær and Øvre Sandsvær were merged into the municipality of Kongsberg in 1964. Kongsberg gradually lost importance to other cities in the 19th century, particularly to the rapidly growing capital of Christiania (Oslo).

The Kongsberg Silver Mines closed in 1958 after operating for 334 years and is today a museum and the city's main tourist attraction. Kongsberg remains the site of the Royal Norwegian Mint (Det Norske Myntverket), which mints Norwegian coins and also produces circulating and collectors' coins for other countries. Kongsberg is also the home of Norway's major defence contractor, Kongsberg Gruppen, founded in 1814. Two of its best-known products were the Kongsberg Colt and the Krag–Jørgensen rifle.

Both the University of South-Eastern Norway Kongsberg campus, and Tinius Olsen's school, a combined technical vocational college and secondary school, are located in Kongsberg.

History

Kongsberg was founded by Danish-Norwegian King Christian IV as a mining community in 1624 after the discovery of silver. In its second year, the town of Kongsberg and the Kongsberg Silver Mines began. According to official records, silver was first discovered by the shepherds children Helga Verp and Jacob Grosvold in the summer of 1623. However, the existence of deposits of precious metals was known previously, as evidenced by indications of earlier silver mining. With the rise of silver mining, Kongsberg became the largest industrial center in Norway before the industrial revolution. At the peak of silver mining in the early eighteenth century, Kongsberg's silver mines and related industries contributed 10% of the Denmark–Norway gross national product.

To develop the Kongsberg Silver Mines, Christian IV hired Germans from the silver mines of Saxony and Harz and brought in Germans from other mines in Norway. The Germans brought their knowledge of mining technology, especially important during the start-up phase. Before 1623, the city was located in the royal territory of Sandsvær.

Four years after the establishment of the Kongsberg Silver Mines, most of the 1,500 workers and officials were still German. Gradually, Norwegians entered the workforce and were hired as supervisors. In 1636, 1,370 Germans and 1,600 Norwegians were employed there. In 1648, there were 1,500 Germans and 2,400 Norwegians working in Kongsberg.

Gunpowder was officially introduced in mining in 1681. Mining in the particularly hard rock of Kongsberg Mountain was energy intensive, so the silver mine continued to develop new technology to reduce production costs. A large artificial dam powered the mine's hoists before electricity was introduced. In 1624, a road from Hokksund to Kongsberg was built to serve the Kongsberg Silver Mines, the most important road built in Norway in the 17th century. In 1665, the road was extended to Kristiansand and Larvik.

By 1683, the mining industry was an important industry of the state. The rapid development of Kongsberg meant that the number of workers in the city had increased significantly by the end of the 17th century. The proportion of Norwegians in the workforce increased, but for a long time, the main staff was dominated by Germans. Kongsberg was almost an outpost of Germany in Norway: the mine had a German name, and the official language was German, only later becoming bilingual (German and Danish). In Kongsberg, the German mountain justice system was also used. Legally, this means that the city was bound by independent regulations, partially separating the mining community from the country's legal system. The Germans brought with them the Knappschaft, a guild-like association of miners that provided including free medical assistance, a pension plan, worker sick leave and a Saturday break. The ring agriculture characteristic of Kongsberg may also have been inspired by the German pattern.

The proceeds from silver mining provided a valuable assistance to the tight finances of Denmark. Denmark–Norway relied heavily on the silver of Kongsberg to support an ongoing war against Sweden. Precious metals also became more and more important in the currency, and to get closer to its source of raw materials, the Royal Mint moved in 1686 from Akershus to Kongsberg. During the Great Northern War in 1716, the city became the main target of Karl XII's foray into Norderhof.

Kongsberg was particularly known for its Kongsberg Silver Mines and their high purity. Kongsberg's ore also contained a certain amount of gold and large amounts of copper, cobalt, lead-zinc and fluorite. Roughly 15750 t of silver was extracted between the discovery of the silver ore seams in 1623 and the last year of mining in 1957. The workforce at the Kongsberg silver mine began to increase substantially at the end of the 17th century. In the 1769 census, the mines employed about 4,000 workers. With 8,000 inhabitants in all, the town was the second largest in Norway, after Bergen (and thus larger than today's capital, Oslo).

In Norway's 1749 census, Kongsberg was the most populous town in Eastern Norway. It was granted its royal charter of trade—amounting to official township—in 1802. Following several hard years with reduced silver output from the mines, the war of 1807–1814, and a severe town fire in 1810 where 56 houses on the west side were destroyed, mining was complemented by the government establishing a defense industry in 1814. By 1835, the population had declined to 3,540.

Kongsberg is home to the Royal Norwegian Mint (Det Norske Myntverket), which mints Norwegian coins and also produces circulating and collectors' coins for other countries such as Israel. It was established in 1686, and was renamed from the Royal Norwegian Mint (Den Kongelige Mynt) in 2004 after having been sold to private investors (the Mint of Finland and Norwegian company Samlerhuset) in 2003. Kongsberg is also the site of the Kongsberg School of Mines (Kongsberg Bergseminar), an academic institution for mining technology which operated from 1757 to 1814.

During peaceful times, the defence industry gradually evolved into many other kinds of high tech activities as well, now dominating the town's employment. In 1987, however, the state-owned Kongsberg Weapons Factory (Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk) suffered a major financial crisis as well as accusations of breaching the CoCom rules by selling sensitive technology to the Soviet bloc. As a result, the company was split into several smaller units and partly sold to private investors. Today, the separate firms thrive as one of Norway's main high-tech industrial clusters, centering on the defence and maritime company Kongsberg Gruppen which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

On 13 October 2021, a man stabbed multiple people with a bladed weapon, killing five and injuring three. Police subsequently apprehended a suspect whom the Kongsberg police chief later told reporters was a Muslim convert.

Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times and was designed by Hallvard Trætteberg. They were granted on 25 August 1972. They are based upon the old seal for the city from 1689 which shows the Roman god Janus dressed as an emperor (to represent the king); the sword and the pair of scales represents justice. The colour green represents the forests, silver represents the mountains, and gold represents wealth.

Geography
Kongsberg is located at the mouth of the valley Numedal; farther to the South the valley is called Lågendalen.

The neighbouring municipalities of Kongsberg are Flesberg to the north; Øvre Eiker and Hof to the east; Lardal, Siljan, and Skien to the south; and Sauherad and Notodden to the west. Of these, the two first lie in Buskerud county like Kongsberg, while Hof and Lardal lie in Vestfold, and the others lie in Telemark. The town is divided by the river Numedalslågen, which has three waterfalls in the town itself.

Climate
Kongsberg has a humid continental climate (Dfb), with late summer and autumn as the wettest season and February – April as the driest season. Kongsberg has warm summers by Norwegian standards; average daily highs in summer are comparable to Oslo. In winter Kongsberg is colder than Oslo, and snow cover on the ground is common. The largest snow depth recorded is 123 cm on 3 March 2006.The all-time high temperature 34.6 °C was recorded 19 June 1970, while 10 August 1975 recorded 34.5 °C. The all-time low -32.5 °C was recorded 3 January 1941. As pr January 2022, all monthly record lows are old, 11 from before 1950. All record highs are from after 1950, 5 of 12 from after 2000 (pr January 2022). Kongsberg has recorded 30 °C as early as 14 May (in 2000). The weather station Kongsberg brannstasjon has recorded since 2003, extremes includes data from Kongsberg II, III and IV.

Transportation
The main highways are the E134, crossing Kongsberg east to west (and connected to the E18 to Oslo), and Norwegian national road 40 (Riksvei 40), going north to south. The Sørland Line stops at Kongsberg Rail Station, with connection to local and regional bus lines.

Culture
With the population increase during the town's silver mining heyday of the mid-eighteenth century came the need for a new church, which was built over a 21-year period and inaugurated in 1761. It has an austere red brick exterior, but a richly decorated baroque interior including unique chandeliers made at Nøstetangen Glass Works in neighbouring Hokksund. Kongsberg Church remains one of the largest in Norway with a seating capacity of 2,400.

The church's original baroque-era pipe organ, made by renowned German organ builder Gottfried Heinrich Gloger in 1760–65, was fully restored by Jürgen Ahrend in 1999–2000 and reopened to great fanfare in January 2001. With its 42 voices, it is the largest baroque organ in Scandinavia. At the end of January each year, the Gloger Music Festival now draws a select crowd of artists and music lovers from all over the world.

Since 1964, Kongsberg has hosted Kongsberg Jazzfestival, an annual international jazz festival. Heavily sponsored by the local industry, prominent world acts such as B. B. King, Diana Krall, Ornette Coleman, Joshua Redman and John Scofield have played at the festival in recent years.

Sport
The town is known for many great ski jumpers. Birger Ruud and his two brothers, as well as many other townsmen, such as Petter Hugsted, won numerous medals in Winter Olympics and other international championships in the 1930s and 1940s. The first ski jumping technique, the Konsberger was developed by Jacob Tullin Thams and Sigmund Ruud in Kongsberg, and was the most popular ski jumping technique from the late 1920s to the late 1950s. Their medals and equipment can be seen at the Kongsberg Skiing Museum (Kongsberg Skimuseum) which is co-located with the Norwegian Mining Museum (Norsk Bergverksmuseum) in central Kongsberg. Inventor of the modern ski binding, Norwegian-American skier and Olympic skiing coach Hjalmar Hvam, was born in Kongsberg in 1902. Recent winter sports athletes of the Kongsberg region include Olympic snowboarders Stine Brun Kjeldaas, Silje Norendal and Halvor Lunn; cross-country ski sprinter Børre Næss of the village Efteløt; and ski jumper Sigurd Pettersen of nearby municipality Rollag (60 km/37 mi north of Kongsberg). A large ski centre for alpine skiing and snowboarding, with several lifts and ca 320 m of height difference has been in operation and gradually expanding since 1965. Kongsberg hosted the cross-country skiing parts of the 2006 Nordic skiing National Championships. The arranging sports club was IL Skrim, the ski tracks being located at Heistadmoen, a former military camp.

The local basketball team Kongsberg Miners is regarded one of the best teams in the country.

The 1978 World Orienteering Championships were held in Kongsberg.

Motorcycle speedway has been prominent in Kongsberg. The first track existed at the Kongsberg Idrettsparken and it held the final of the Norwegian Individual Speedway Championship in 1969. More recently speedway practices have sporadically been run on an oval track (known as Basserudåsen Speedway) constructed by the NMK Kongsberg, adjacent to the Kongsberg Motorsenter Gokart. This site also held the final of the Norwegian Championships in 1997, 1998 and 2003.

The crowns in Håvet
This attraction (Kronene i Håvet) is a site where Norwegian royal monograms have been carved into the mountainside overlooking Kongsberg to mark royal visits to the city. In June 1704 King Frederik IV visited Kongsberg and started a tradition that is still celebrated. King Frederik also arranged for the monograms of visits from earlier monarchs to be recorded as well.

The first monogram on the hillside property belonged to Christian IV who in 1624 founded Kongsberg at the site of the newly discovered silver deposits. His visit was followed by that of Frederik III (1648) and Christian V (1685). Christian VI and his Queen Sofie Magdalene (1733), Frederik V (1749), Oscar I (1845), Oscar II (1890), Haakon VII (1908), Olav V (1962) and most recently Harald V (1995).

Kongsberg Technology Park
Kongsberg Technology Park is a part of Kongsberg that is located in Kirkegårdsveien 45 and the Arsenal on Kongsgårdsmoen. It has over 5.200 employees, spread across 60 nationalities and 48 countries and can trace its roots back to 1814. Among the tenants in Kongsberg Technology Park are Kongsberg Gruppen, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, GKN Aerospace, Siemens Energy, Kongsberg Terotech, TechnipFMC, Data Respons, and Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems.

The park also manages properties in Stjørdal, Horten, Sandefjord, Skedsmo, Asker, Bærum, Oslo, Rygge, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Ulsteinvik and Brattvåg.

Public service & public thinking

 * Johan Gerhard de Besche (1821–1875) – a physician, owned the Morgenbladet newspaper
 * Christian Peder Bianco Boeck (1798–1877) – a doctor, zoologist, botanist and mountaineer
 * Carl Wilhelm Boeck (1808–1875) – a Norwegian dermatologist
 * Erik Brofoss (1908–1979) – Economist and jurist, politician for the Labour Party and central bank governor
 * Thomas Bryn (1782–1827) – a jurist, magistrate and rep. at the Constitutional Assembly
 * Anders Bugge (1889–1955) – Norwegian theologist and art historian
 * Morten Thrane Esmark (1801–1882) – a Norwegian priest and mineralogist, Discoverer of Thorium
 * Sverre Fehn (1924–2009) – Architect and professor at Oslo's School of Architecture from 1971 to 1995
 * Roar Flåthen (born 1950) – Union leader and LO leader from 2007 to 2013.
 * Bernt Hagtvet (born 1946) – Professor of political science at the University of Oslo
 * Paul Ernst Wilhelm Hartmann (1878–1974) – Finance minister who served in the exile government of Johan Nygaardsvold during World War II
 * Iver Heltzen (1785–1842) – Norwegian priest, naturalist, and author
 * Gustava Kielland (1800–1889) – Writer and missionary
 * Jens Landmark (1811–1880) – a Norwegian military officer and Mayor of Kongsberg
 * Tinius Olsen (1845–1932) – Norwegian-American engineer and inventor
 * Ole Petter Ottersen (born 1955) – Professor of medicine and rector at the University of Oslo from 2009 to 2017
 * Thoralf Skolem (1887–1963) – Professor of mathematics at the University of Oslo
 * Poul Steenstrup (1772–1864) – industrial entrepreneur and rep. the Constitutional Assembly
 * Gunhild Stordalen (born 1979) – Physician and environmentalist, was married to the billionaire Petter Stordalen
 * Jørgen Herman Vogt (1784–1862) – First Minister of Norway, 1855 to 1858

The Arts

 * Tine Asmundsen (born 1963) – a Norwegian jazz bassist
 * Ingri d'Aulaire (1904–1980) – American writer of children's books
 * Håkon Austbø (born 1948) – a classical pianist and academic in the Netherlands
 * Halfdan Cleve (1879–1951) – classical composer and music teacher
 * Ivar Grydeland (born 1976) – jazz guitarist, raised in Kongsberg
 * Maurits Hansen (1794–1842) – journalist and novelist, teacher in Kongsberg from 1826
 * Morten Harket (born 1959) – lead singer of the synth-pop band a-ha
 * Per Theodor Haugen (1932–2018) – actor and theater manager
 * Morten Qvenild (born 1978) – jazz pianist, band leader and producer
 * Otto Sinding (1842–1909) – painter, illustrator, poet and dramatist
 * Christian Sinding (1856–1941) – composer and pianist

Sport

 * Hans Beck (1911–1996) – ski jumper, silver medalist at the 1932 Winter Olympics
 * Ailo Gaup (born 1979) – former freestyle motocross rider who invented the Underflip and won world title in FMX
 * Petter Hugsted (1921–2000) – ski jumper, gold medalist in the 1948 Winter Olympics
 * Hjalmar Hvam (1902–1996) – Nordic skier and invented the first safety ski binding
 * Bryan King (born 1947) – British footballer with over 540 club caps and scout, lives in Kongsberg
 * Roy Mikkelsen (1907–1967) – an American Olympic ski jumper and US Champion
 * Silje Norendal (born 1993) – Snowboarder and gold medalist in Winter X Games
 * Birger Ruud (1911–1998) – ski jumper, gold medalist at the 1932 & 1936 Winter Olympics
 * Sigmund Ruud (1907–1994) – ski jumper, silver medalist at the 1928 Winter Olympics
 * Magnus Sylling Olsen (born 1983) – a retired Norwegian footballer with over 250 club caps
 * Daniel-André Tande (born 1994) – ski jumper and team gold medalist at the 2018 Winter Olympics

Twin towns – sister cities
Kongsberg is twinned with:

 * 🇯🇵 Chitose, Japan
 * 🇫🇮 Espoo, Finland
 * Gouda, Netherlands
 * Køge, Denmark
 * 🇸🇪 Kristianstad, Sweden

 * 🇮🇸 Skagafjörður, Iceland

title: Kongsberg