Arendal

Arendal Municipality

*Arendal kommune*
Arendal Municipality Arendal kommune
Municipality
	View of Arendal's city centre in August 2006
	Coat of arms
	Agder within Norway
	Arendal within Agder
	Coordinates: 58°27′39″N 08°45′59″E
Country	Norway
County	Agder
District	Sørlandet
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Arendal
Government
• Mayor (2015)	Robert Cornels Nordli (Ap)
Area
• Total	270.19 km2 (104.32 sq mi)
• Land	255.14 km2 (98.51 sq mi)
• Water	15.05 km2 (5.81 sq mi) 5.6%
• Rank	#273 in Norway
Population (2023)
• Total	45,891
• Rank	#24 in Norway
• Density	179.9/km2 (466/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+5.9%
Demonym	Arendalitt
Official language
• Norwegian form	Bokmål
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4203
Website	Official website
	Data from Statistics Norway

Arendal (Urban East Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈɑ̂ːɳɖɑːɫ] ^ⓘ) is a municipality in Agder county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the region of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Arendal (which is also the seat of Agder county). Some of the notable villages in Arendal include Rykene, Eydehavn, Færvik, Strengereid, Kongshavn, Kilsund, Brattekleiv, Torsbudalen, Longum, Saltrød, Staubø, Vrengen, and Kolbjørnsvik. The offices of UNEP/GRID-Arendal are also located in the city of Arendal.^[4]

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The 270-square-kilometre (100 sq mi) municipality is the 273rd largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Arendal is the 24th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 45,891. The municipality's population density is 179.9 inhabitants per square kilometre (466/sq mi) and its population has increased by 5.9% over the previous 10-year period.^[5]^[6]

Municipal history

The town of Arendal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1875, a small area with 22 inhabitants was transferred from the town to the neighboring municipality of Østre Moland and another small area with 52 residents was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Øyestad.^[7]

On 1 January 1902, the rural municipality of Barbu (population: 6,787) was merged into the town of Arendal. In 1944, a small area of Moland with a population of 21 inhabitants was transferred to Arendal as well. On 1 January 1992, the town was vastly expanded. The neighboring rural municipalities of Hisøy (pop: 4,026), Moland (pop: 8,148), Tromøy (pop: 4,711), and Øyestad (pop: 8,679) were all merged with the town of Arendal which had a population of 12,478, bringing the total population of the new municipality of Arendal to 38,042.^[7]

Origin of the name

The Old Norse form of the name was probably Arnardalr. The first element is the genitive case of ǫrn which means "eagle". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale", thus meaning the "valley of the eagle".^[4]

A link for the name also has been theorized to the Vasconic substrate hypothesis, for similarity to placenames like Val d'Aran and Arundel.^{[citation needed]}

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 7 November 1924 (based upon an older seal). The blazon is "Per fess, Azure with a three-masted ship argent over barry wavy of seven argent and azure". This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is an 18th-century, three-masted sailing ship above seven, thin, wavy stripes. The charge has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The arms usually have a gold mural crown above the shield. The design was chosen as a symbol for the importance of fisheries and sailing to the local economy. A ship appeared on the oldest known seal of the town, dating back to the 17th century. In the late 19th and early 20th century the arms showed the ship in the upper part and a landscape with the coat of arms of Norway in the base of the shield. The arms were designed by Miss C. Aubert who based it off a draft by Fred Barth. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Churches

The Church of Norway has six parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Arendal. It is part of the Arendal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.

More information Parish (sokn), Church name ...

**Churches in Arendal**
Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Barbu	Barbu Church	Barbu	1880
Hisøy	Hisøy Church	His	1849
Moland	Austre Moland Church	Brekka	1673
	Flosta Church	Flostaøya	1632
	Stokken Church	Saltrød	1878
Trefoldighet	Trinity Church	Arendal	1888
Tromøy	Færvik Church	Færvik	1884
Tromøy	Tromøy Church	Brekka	c. 1150
Øyestad	Bjorbekk Church	Bjorbekk	1884
	Engene Church	Nedenes	1849
	Øyestad Church	Rykene	c. 1200

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The village of Arendal was established in the middle of the 16th century, and was then called Arendall. Initially, it had no formal town status.

When the town of Christianssand was founded by King Christian IV in 1641, he granted the citizens a monopoly on all trade in Nedenæs and Lister og Mandal counties (including the area of Arendal). This grant, intended to subsidize Christianssand and its fortifications, placed existing towns in a difficult position. Both towns and the peasants in the rural countryside protested the hardships this caused. As a result, Arendal received royal permission in 1622 to continue as a loading-place for timber until a means could be found to transfer its trade to Christianssand.

The town of Arendal was given market city privileges in 1723. However the peasants in the surrounding district, who by law were to sell their goods only at Arendal, were smuggling their goods out on cutters and selling them in Denmark, in the Baltic, and in Great Britain.

This continued until 1735, when Arendal was granted a full town charter. This charter, combined with Danish imposition of a monopoly on grain imports, caused great poverty and starvation among the peasants in the surrounding districts, leading to several famous rebellions.

As a result of the rebellions, the age of privileges for towns like Christianssand and Arendal came to an apparent end in 1768 by royal proclamation. But the problems did not end then; a farmer, Christian Jensen Lofthuus, in nearby Vestre Moland led a rebellion in 1786 which resulted in the government actually remedying some of the most repressive trade policies, but Lofthus died in prison. The charges against Lofthus were that he dealt in grain and other commodities to the detriment to Arendal's privileges.

Shipping, shipbuilding, and timber trade as well as mining and ironworks were important branches of industry in Nedenæs county for many centuries, especially in the Arendal region. Frequent contacts with the world abroad put their mark on the local culture and traditions. In 1880, it was the country's biggest port in terms of tonnage handled. At the end of the 19th century, Arendal was recognized as a major shipping centre with many wealthy shipowners. However, this came to an end following the 1886 Arendal crash, in which Axel Nicolai Herlofson had defrauded many bank customers in the city, leading to bankruptcies and extreme unemployment.^[11] At one point in the middle of the 18th century, Arendal was one of Norway's biggest mining towns. The main production consisted of iron ore and magnetite.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, when thousands of Norwegians sought to take advantage of the more stable economic climate of the United States by emigrating, many of those from Arendal took their economic traditions with them. In New York City and the surrounding areas, a great deal of Americans who claim Norwegian ancestry can trace their roots to Arendal, as a great deal of Norwegian sailors, trimmers, shipbuilders, and carpenters from Arendal settled in areas of New York such as Brooklyn, Port Richmond (Staten Island), and several industrial centers in northern New Jersey such as Jersey City, Bayonne, Perth Amboy, and Elizabeth. In 1939, Arendal had the 4th largest Norwegian tanker fleet; only Oslo, Bergen, and Stavanger were larger.

During the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, Arendal was captured by the German torpedo boat Greif.^[12]

Today, the town has small boat manufacturing, mechanical industry, electronics industry, as well as one of the world's largest silicon carbide refining plants.

The municipality had a prison (Arendal Prison), however Agder Prison opened in 2020; Arendal Prison was sold the next year.^[13]

Arendal 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.^[14] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Agder District Court and the Agder Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Arendal is made up of 39 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.