Egersund is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Eigersund Eigersund is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Egersund. The tow ...

municipality in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

county,

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 ...

. The town is located along the southwestern coast of Norway, about south of the city of

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

. The town is situated along a strait which separates the mainland from the island of Eigerøya. From 1838 until 1964, the town was also an independent municipality. The town has a population (2019) of 11,433 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of . Egersund has one of the best natural harbours in Norway, and it used to be the largest harbour in Norway when measured in quantity of fish brought in each year (surpassed by Ålesund in 2006). The tidal range, the difference in height between high tide and low tide, is practically zero due to the presence of an amphidromic point. Several internationally known companies have divisions here, like

Navico Navico is a marine electronics company providing navigation, marine instruments and fish finding equipment to both the recreational and commercial marine sectors. The Navico Recreational Marine Division is one of the world's largest provider of ...

(earlier Robertson autopilots) and

Jeppesen Jeppesen (also known as Jeppesen Sanderson) is an American company offering navigational information, operations planning tools, flight planning products and software. Jeppesen's aeronautical navigation Aeronautical charts, charts are often call ...

Norway formerly C-MAP Norway (producer of electronic sea-maps). In addition, the Aker Solutions corporation owns and runs a large installation here which specializes in the building of parts for oil platforms. Most of the industry is related to the sea and to boats.

History

Early history

People have lived around the area of Egersund since the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

. There are several places around Egersund where one can find ruins of settlements dating back to the age of migrations in Norway (400–600 BC).

Middle Ages

There used to be a church here, the Church of St. Mary, mentioned in 1292 in a privilege of indulgence issued in Rome on 5 February 1292 by Pope Nicholas IV as ''Ecclesia beatæ Mariæ de Eikundarsund''. It was the first church in Egersund, and was the parish church of the St. Mary parish. It is believed to have been located where the present

Egersund Church Egersund Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Eigersund municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the centre of the town of Egersund. It is one of the two churches for the Egersund parish which is part of the D ...

stands today. Old folklore from Egersund also says that before the Church of St. Mary, an altar where people sacrificed to the old Norse gods was placed here, but this has not been verified from any sources except old stories. There was also a chapel, the chapel of St. Laurenti, mentioned in a letter issued on 5 February 1308 as ''Ecclesia beati Laurentii de Eikundarsund'', where

Pope Clement V Pope Clement V (; – 20 April 1314), born Raymond Bertrand de Got (also occasionally spelled ''de Guoth'' and ''de Goth''), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 June 1305 to his death, in April 1314. He is reme ...

gives King Håkon V Magnusson extensive privileges concerning the King's 14 chapels (including the chapel of St. Laurenti), which was founded by himself or his father, King Magnus Lagabøte, and his grandfather, King Håkon Håkonson. Since these chapels often were built on the king's estates, it is presumed to have been on grounds owned by the Husaby estate. An old tradition says it was located at what is now "Strandgata 43", but the exact position is somewhat uncertain.

17th and 18th centuries

In 1623 the old church (probably the Church of St. Mary) was demolished and a new

was erected. This building still stands today. On 18 July 1798, the village of Egersund was established as a ladested with its own customs office.

19th and 20th centuries

The ladested of Egersund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 under the new

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

law. This effectively gave Egersund the municipal self-government that was now uniformly given to all areas of Norway. In 1843, a fire destroyed two thirds of the town, allowing a major redesign of streets. In 1847, Johan Feyer founded A/S Egersunds Fayancefabriks Co., which became the town's major employer until closing in 1979. On 7 July 1859, there was another major fire, and another again on 20 October 1862. This was the last major town fire, since town planners finally understood wooden structures' vulnerability and reconstructed buildings using extra wide streets to prevent fires from spreading. In 1878, the Jærensbanen railway line between Egersund and the city of

opened with Egersund Station in the center of the town. In 1905, Egersund became the first town in

county to get electrical lighting. On 9 April 1940, the German military invaded Norway and they occupy Egersund during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Egersund had strategic importance because of its

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

, as well as because the telegraph line between

and England was situated there. The Germans built large camps in the area. The occupation lasted until the end of the war. In 1947, the town was growing rapidly, and an area of the neighboring municipality of

(population: 515) was transferred into the town of Egersund. During the 1960s, the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

met in Norway to discuss the municipal structure in the nation. It was decided that the number of cities and municipalities in Norway was too large, so on 1 January 1965, the town of Egersund lost its status as a self-governing municipality. On that date, the following places were all merged into the new, larger municipality of

, with the town of Egersund as the new

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

: *the town of Egersund (population: 3,787) *the municipality of

(population: 4,664) *the municipality of Helleland (population: 851) *the Gyadalen and Grøsfjell areas in the municipality of Heskestad (population: 114)

Name

The town (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

) is named after the Eigersundet strait (). The first element is the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

of the name of the island of ''Eikund'' (now Eigerøya). The name of the island comes from the word which means " oak" followed by the

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

which means "plentiful of" (i.e. "the island covered with oak trees"). The last element is which means " strait" or "

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

". The name is among the oldest place names in Norway. It can already be found in the form ''Eikundarsund'' in the

Norse saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

of Olav the Holy, written by Icelandic author Snorri Sturlasson in the 13th century. From around the year 1000 Olav the Holy's fleet was here often. We can also find the name in texts and scaldic poems from Olav's saga. ;"Egersund" vs. "Eigersund" During the 1910s, the name of the municipality was changed from ''Egersund'' to ''Eigersund'', but the town of Egersund within

Eigersund Municipality Eigersund is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Egersund. The tow ...

kept the old spelling. The form of the name spelled without the

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

i(''Egersund'') is the

Danish language Danish (, ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are a ...

form of the name and at that time the municipal name was changed to use the Norwegian language form. The town kept the old spelling for historic purposes.

Municipal self-government (1838-1964)

From 1838 until 1964 when the town of Egersund was an independent municipality, it was responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

, senior citizen services, unemployment,

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council

The

of Egersund was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:

Mayors

The mayors () of Egersund: * 1838-1838: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland * 1839-1839: Isach P. Brodahl * 1840-1840: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland * 1841-1841: Isach P. Brodahl * 1842-1842: Andreas Faye-Lund * 1843-1843: Gunnar R. Titus Eide * 1844-1844: Andreas Faye-Lund * 1845-1845: Gunnar R. Titus Eide * 1846-1846: Aanen Atlaksen * 1847-1847: Ole A. Bodum * 1848-1848: Tollak Bowitz * 1849-1849: Nils A. Nøsted * 1850-1850: Ole Hamre * 1851-1851: Sigbjørn Egelandsdal * 1852-1852: Ole Hamre * 1853-1853: Johan Fredrik Feyer * 1854-1854: Rasmus Torjusen * 1855-1856: Michael Puntervold * 1857-1857: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland * 1858-1858: Michael Puntervold * 1859-1859: Gunder Jacobsen Bjerckeland * 1860-1860: Johan Stiansen Vemmestad * 1861-1861: Johan Feyer * 1862-1862: Johannes Eriksen Ollestad * 1863-1863: Fredrik Bøckman * 1864-1864: Wilhelm Bøe * 1865-1865: Christen M. Feyer * 1866-1866: Iver Carlsen * 1867-1867: Osmund Olsen Lindefjeld * 1868-1868: Theodor Christian Bernhoft * 1869-1869: Tønnes Houge Puntervold * 1870-1870: Lars Samuelsen Bowitz * 1871-1871: Anders Bøe * 1872-1872: Wilhelm Bøe * 1873-1874: Thorvald Rynning * 1875-1875: Tønnes Houge Puntervold * 1876-1877: Adolf Birkeland * 1878-1879: Thorvald Rynning * 1880-1881: Adolf Birkeland * 1882-1882: Anders Bøe * 1883-1883: Adolf Birkeland * 1884-1885: Christen M. Feyer ( H) * 1886-1887: Adolf Birkeland ( V) * 1888-1889: Thorvald Rynning ( H) * 1889-1891: Adolf Birkeland ( V) * 1892-1894: Magnus Feyling ( V) * 1895-1898: Hans Thu ( V) * 1899-1907: Erik H. Torjusen ( V) * 1908-1909: Thomas Dybing ( V) * 1910-1915: Hans Thu ( AvH) * 1916-1916: Thomas Dybing ( V) * 1917-1917: Geirulv Albretsen ( H) * 1918-1918: Jacob G. Åse ( V) * 1919-1920: Geirulv Albretsen ( H) * 1921-1922: Christian Michelsen ( H) * 1923-1925: Ole A. Kjellberg ( AvH) * 1926-1928: I: ngjald Mehus ( AvH) * 1929-1929: Einar Øxnevad ( H) * 1930-1930: Odd H. Torjusen ( V) * 1931-1931: Einar Øxnevad ( H) * 1932-1934: Hans Berentsen ( AvH) * 1934-1935: Odd H. Torjusen ( V) * 1935-1935: Hjalmar Fardal ( H) * 1936-1936: Tollak P. Rygh ( AvH) * 1937-1937: Albert Melhus ( H) * 1938-1938: Adolf A. Albrethsen ( H) * 1939-1940: Asbjørn Hadland ( V) * 1946-1951: Edvard M. Edvardsen ( Ap) * 1952-1953: Thor Tingbø ( KrF) * 1954-1964: Karl Jensen ( H)

Transportation

Egersund has good connections by road to the cities of

and

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, 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 th ...

, via the

European route E39 European route E39 is the designation of a north–south road in Norway and Denmark from Klett, just south of Trondheim (city), Trondheim, to Aalborg via Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand. In total, there are nine ferries, more than any other ...

highway. There is also a more scenic coastal highway Norwegian County Road 44. There is an hourly train connections northwards to Stavanger, while express and regional trains run southwards towards Kristiansand and Oslo.

Neighborhoods

Egersund is divided up into several neighborhoods *Central (the central part of the town) It is further divided into: **Damsgård, Havsøyne, Husabø, Lervige, Mosbekk, Årstad, Årstaddalen *Hestnes (far south part of the town) *Lagård (along the lake) *Rundevoll (central-south part of the town) *Sandbakkan (far southeastern part of the town) *Slettebø (far northeastern part of the town) *Søra Eigerøy / Søra Øyne (the south part of the island of Eigerøya) *Norda Eigerøy / Nora Øyne (the north part of the island of Eigerøya) *Tengs (far northwestern part of the town) *Åsan (near the bridge to Eigerøya)

Attractions

*''Dalane Folkemuseum'': Museum of antiquities and history of Egersund. *''Egersund Fayancemuseum'': Museum of the glazed earthenware and porcelain made by Egersund Fayancefabrik from 1847 till 1979. *''« Stoplesteinan»''. A rather unknown attraction, since it has not been embraced by the local tourist bureau. «Stoplesteinan» is a smaller «

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

», i.e. a stone circle. It is more than a thousand years old, and believed by some to be almost 2000 years old. Who built it and why, is unknown. The stone circle is situated directly above Skårabrekkå just outside downtown Egersund. *Central Egersund houses some of the best preserved wood buildings in Norway. They are built in late Empire style, and most of the buildings are protected by law. *''Magma UNESCO Global Geopark'': open air geological park provided with facilities for outdoor activities to discover the amazing geological heritage of the area. From November 2017 in Egersund headquarter will be open to the public the geoVR virtual exhibition. *Home to the popular Trollpikken rock formation.

Notable people

References

External links

Egersund - Unofficial home page

Egersund - Official home page
{{use dmy dates, date=July 2020 Cities and towns in Norway Former municipalities of Norway Port cities and towns in Norway Port cities and towns of the North Sea Eigersund 1798 establishments in Norway 1964 disestablishments in Norway