Hurum was a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. As of 1 January 2020 Hurum has merged with the municipalities of

Røyken Røyken is a district and village (''bygd'') and a former municipality in Buskerud in Viken County, Norway. In 2020 Røyken was merged with the municipalities of Hurum and Asker to form the new Asker Municipality (informally called "Greater Ask ...

and

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greater Asker) in Viken county, ...

to form the new Asker Municipality located in the newly formed

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village Sætre. The municipality of Hurum was established on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 Janu ...

). The small village of

Holmsbu Holmsbu is a small village located in Viken, Norway. Holmsbu is situated in the municipality of Asker on the west side of the peninsula of Hurumlandet on Drammensfjord Drammensfjord ( en, Drammen Fjord) is a fjord in Norway that connects to ...

was granted

town status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, city status ...

in 1847, but it did not become a municipality of its own. It lost its town status on 1 January 1964. Hurum was once suggested as the location for the new national

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

of Norway. The plan was, however, abandoned, due to fears of too much fog in Hurum, and the main airport is now situated at

Gardermoen Oslo Airport ( no, Oslo lufthavn; ), alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is the international airport serving Oslo, Norway, the capital and most populous city in the country. A hub for Flyr, Norse Atla ...

in Akershus.

Etymology

Name

The

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

form of the name was ''Húðrimar''. The meaning of the first element ''(Húð)'' is unknown and the last element is the

plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...

form of ''rimi'' which means "

ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

Coat-of-arms

The

coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...

is from modern times. They were granted on 2 February 1979. The arms show two blue wavy lines on a silver background. This was chosen because the municipality is on a peninsula between two

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...

Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the N ...

and Drammensfjord. At the same time the arms are based on the arms of the Huitfeldt family, who played a major role in the local history. The family used a single bend as arms.

History

Hurum was the site of the

Hurum air disaster The Hurum air disaster was an Aero Holland plane crash in Hurum southwest of Oslo, Norway when a Douglas DC-3 which was carrying Jewish children from Tunisia who were to transit through Norway while immigrating to Israel crashed as it was appr ...

on 20 November 1949. Hurum kirkested 300720088212 rk 84662

Geography

The municipality borders

to the north. To the west the coastline is located close to the eastern coast of

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered ...

with Svelvik. It is connected to the eastern side of the Oslofjord via

Oslofjordtunnel The Oslofjord Tunnel () is a subsea road tunnel which traverses the Oslofjord, connecting Hurum and Frogn in Norway. Carrying three lanes, the long tunnel reaches a depth of below mean sea level. The tunnel has a maximum gradient of seven per ...

, one of the longest undersea tunnels of its kind in

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54°N, or may be based on other geographical factors ...

. The tunnel is long and connects Hurumhalvøya to

Akershus Akershus () is a traditional region and current electoral district in Norway, with Oslo as its main city and traditional capital. It is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. From the middle ages to 1919, Akershus was a fief and main cou ...

county. Hurum is located on the southern part of Hurumhalvøya, which is the

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...

between the Oslofjord and Drammensfjord. The administrative centre is the village of Sætre, which together with Tofte are one of the two most populated villages in Hurum.

Churches in Hurum

* Filtvet Church * Holmsbu Church *Kongsdelene Church * Hurum Church

Hurum Church

Hurum Church (''Hurum kirke'') is the parish church for Hurum. This is a medieval era church dating from ca. 1150. The edifice is constructed of stone and has 150 seats. The original church was ravaged by fire the night after Christmas Day 1686. The following year the church received a new roof and turret. In 1849 the church was extensively rebuilt. The interior has undergone a number of changes in the course of time. The cemetery is surrounded by stone wall and has a chapel from 1938. Naval hero and native son, Ivar Huitfeldt (1665-1710) was buried in the church yard. The pulpit was received as a gift from his wife, Kirsten Røyem Huitfeldt (1671–1750).

Merging and dissolution

On 9 May 2016, a referendum on the status of the municipality was held, with a majority of voters voting to merge Hurum with

and

to create a new and larger Asker. Subsequently, on 21 June the same year, a majority of municipal councillors voted in favor of applying for the merger, which was subsequently accepted by the local councils of both Røyken and Asker. It was determined that the municipalities would officially merge on 1 January 2020. During the

2019 Norwegian local elections Local elections were held in Norway on 9 September 2019. Voters elected representatives to municipal and county councils, which are responsible for education, public transport, health, and elderly care, and for the levy of certain taxes. The loca ...

, voters in the three municipalities voted on who they wanted to govern the new municipality rather than their three original municipalities, the newly elected councillors took their seats on the same day as the municipalities merged. Fred

Notable people

Gustav Peter Blom Gustav Peter Blom (4 July 1785 – 28 October 1869) was a Norwegian civil servant, politician and historian. He was a member of the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly at Eidsvoll during 1814. Blom was born at Hurum in Buskerud, Norway. Blo ...

(1785 in Hurum – 1869) civil servant, historian and rep. at the

Norwegian Constitutional Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly (in Norwegian ''Grunnlovsforsamlingen'', also known as ''Riksforsamlingen'') is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised ...

at Eidsvoll in 1814 *

Andreas Tofte Andreas Tofte (28 March 1795 – 27 September 1852) was a Norwegian businessperson, elected official and philanthropist. He served as the first Mayor of Oslo, Norway. Biography He was born on the Tofte farm at Hurum in Buskerud, Norway. H ...

(1795 in Hurum – 1852) businessman, first

Mayor of Oslo The Mayor of Oslo is the chief executive of the Oslo. The Mayor's office administers all city services, public property, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within Oslo city. List of mayors of oslo This is a list of ...

in 1837 *

Thomas Fredrik Olsen Thomas Fredrik Olsen (1897–1969) was a Norwegian ship-owner. Son of Fredrik Olsen and born in Hvitsten, he worked in the family company Fred. Olsen & Co. from 1920. He held a board position in a range of companies, including Det Norske Luftf ...

(1857 in Filtvet – 1933) ship company owner of Fred. Olsen & Co. * Odd Børresen (1923 in Sætre – 2010) a linguist, preacher, and missionary in the

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Reiulf Steen Reiulf Steen (16 August 1933 – 5 June 2014) was a Norwegian author, ambassador and politician with the Norwegian Labour Party. He was active in the Labour Party from 1958 to 1990, serving as deputy party chairman from 1965 to 1975 and chairma ...

(1933 in Hurum – 2014) a Norwegian author, ambassador and politician * Morten Harket (born 1959) the voice of the Norwegian band

a-ha A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ro ...

, lives in Sætre

References

External links

Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every ye ...

{{Authority control Municipalities of Buskerud