Aurskog-Høland is a

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

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It is part of the

Romerike Romerike is a Districts of Norway, traditional district located north-east of Oslo, in what is today south-eastern Norway. It consists of the Akershus municipalities Lillestrøm, Lørenskog, Nittedal, Rælingen and Aurskog-Høland in the southern ...

traditional region A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bjørkelangen. The municipality of Rømskog, in

Østfold Østfold () is a county in Eastern Norway, which from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023 was part of Viken. Østfold borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other ...

county was merged into Aurskog-Høland on 1 January 2020.

General information

Name

The new municipality of Aurskog-Høland was created on 1 January 1966 after the merger of the four old municipalities of Aurskog, Nordre Høland, Søndre Høland, and

Setskog Setskog is a village and a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It bordered Østfold county to the south, Hedmark county to the north and Sweden to the east. History Setskog was created by a split from Høland municipality on 1 Janua ...

. The name ''Aurskog'' comes from the old ''Ør'' farm (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''Aurr'' which means "

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

"). The last element is ''skog'' (

: ''skógr'' which means "

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

" therefore the meaning of the full name is "the woods around the farm Aurr". Prior to 1918, the name was written "Urskog". The name ''Høland'' is an old district name. The first element is ''høy'' which means " hay" and the last element is ''land'' which means "land".

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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achiev ...

is from modern times. They were granted on 4 February 1983. The arms show a black European

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...

( Astacus astacus) on a gold background. It was derived from an older logo of the municipality. The logo showed a typical landscape of the area, a lake surrounded by woods and a crayfish in the lake. To place the whole composition in a shield to create the arms was not allowed according to Norwegian heraldic rules, so the crayfish was chosen as a symbol.

Demographics

Geography

It is the biggest municipality in Akershus, covering . The main villages are Aurskog and Bjørkelangen, of which the latter is the administrative center.

Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s cover much of the area, but there is very good farmland as well. The rivers of Haldenvassdraget and Hølandselva run through the district.

Economy

An important printing office
PDC Tangen AS
and a crushing mill are situated here.

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

is less than one hour's drive to the west. The Think

electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...

was manufactured in Aurskog.

Notable people

* Christian Christensen Kollerud (1767–1833) a farmer, rep. on Norwegian Constitutional Assembly * Engebret Soot (1786–1859) was a Norwegian engineer and canal builder *

Johan Vaaler Johan Vaaler (March 15, 1866 – March 14, 1910) was a Norway, Norwegian inventor and patent clerk. He has often erroneously been identified as the inventor of the common paper clip. Biography John was at Aurskog-Høland in Akershus, No ...

(1866–1910) was a Norwegian inventor and patent clerk *

Anders Heyerdahl Anders Heyerdahl (29 October 1832 – 9 August 1918) was a Norwegian violinist, composer and folk music collector. He was born in what is today Aurskog-Høland and was the younger brother of engineer Halvor Emil Heyerdahl. He studied music mainly ...

(1832–1918) was a Norwegian violinist, composer and folk music collector * Betzy Akersloot-Berg (1850–1922) a seascape and landscape painter, lived in Vlieland * Gunnar Nordbye (1888–1977) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

in Minnesota. * Anette Tønsberg (born 1970) a speed skater, competed at the

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Nagano, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, with some events ...

* Lasse Ottesen (born 1974) was a former ski jumper, silver medallist at the

1994 Winter Olympics The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Hav ...

Charlotte Frogner Charlotte Frogner (born 9 April 1981) is a Norwegian actress, best known outside of Norway for her role in the Norwegian zombie film ''Dead Snow''. She has been employed by Oslo's Det Norske Teatret since 2004 where she has appeared in a number ...

(born 1981) is a Norwegian actress

Sister cities

The following cities are twinned with Aurskog-Høland: * -

Frederikssund Frederikssund () is a Denmark, Danish town, seat of the Frederikssund Municipality, in the Capital Region of Denmark, Region Hovedstaden with a population of 17,583 (1 January 2025).

Region Hovedstaden The Capital Region of Denmark (, ) is the easternmost administrative region of Denmark, and contains Copenhagen, the national capital. The Capital Region has 29 municipalities and a regional council consisting of 41 elected members. As of 1 ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

* - Kumla, Örebro County,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

* -

Sipoo Sipoo (; ) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the municipality i ...

, Etelä-Suomi,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

References

External links

Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, 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 year on its web site. All rele ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurskog-Holand Municipalities of Akershus Populated places established in 1966 1966 establishments in Norway