Sandefjord () is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

(or town) that is the

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 ...

of the large

Sandefjord Municipality Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...

Vestfold Vestfold () is a county and a current electoral district in Norway. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it borders Buskerud and Telemark counties. The county administration is located in Tønsberg, Norway's oldest city, and the larg ...

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 at the head of the Sandefjordsfjorden, along the

Skaggerak The Skagerrak (; , , ) is a strait running between the North Jutlandic Island of Denmark, the east coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea. The Skagerrak contains some of the busiest shipping ...

coast in southern Vestfold. The large town also includes coastal areas on both sides of the Mefjorden on the Vesterøya and

Østerøya Østerøya () a peninsula in Sandefjord Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is one of two long, narrow peninsulas located south of the Sandefjord (town), city of Sandefjord. The peninsula lies between the Mefjorden and Tønsbergfjorden an ...

peninsulas. The town has a population (2022) of 45,816 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 . The city is known for its rich

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

history and the prosperous whaling industry, which made Sandefjord the richest city in Norway. Today, it has built up the third-largest merchant fleet in Norway. The Sandefjord Museum is located in the town, the only museum in Europe that is dedicated to whaling. The 9th-century

Gokstad Ship The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Norway, Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is displayed at the Viking Ship Museum (Oslo), Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. It is the largest pr ...

was discovered at the nearby Gokstad Mound, on the eastern edge of the city. The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

has several churches in the city of Sandefjord including Sandefjord Church,

Sandar Church Sandar Church () is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Sandefjord Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Sandefjord (town), city of Sandefjord. It is the church for the Sandar parish which is part of the Sandefjord ...

, Bugården Church, and Vesterøy Church. Sandefjord has numerous nicknames, including the

"capital" of Norway. It is also known as the undisputed summer city of

. The city is also known as the "

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

capital of the world" or the "whaling capital of Norway". It has also been dubbed the "Bathing City" (''Badebyen''), due to its many beaches and former resort spas. It is still considered a resort town, due to high numbers of visitors during summer months.

History

Sandefjord has been inhabited for thousands of years. Excavations indicate that people have inhabited Sandefjord for around 3,000 years. Rock carvings at Haugen farm by Istrehågan in Jåberg are dated to 1,500–500 BCE. The Vikings lived in Sandefjord and surrounding areas about 1,000 years ago, and numerous Viking artifacts and monuments can be found in Sandefjord. One of the most important remains from the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

was found at the grave site '' Gokstadhaugen'' (Gokstad Mound) in Sandefjord. The

Gokstad ship The Gokstad ship is a 9th-century Viking ship found in a burial mound at Gokstad in Sandar, Norway, Sandar, Sandefjord, Vestfold, Norway. It is displayed at the Viking Ship Museum (Oslo), Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. It is the largest pr ...

was excavated by

Nicolay Nicolaysen Nicolay Nicolaysen (14 January 1817 - 22 January 1911) was a Norway, Norwegian Archaeology, archaeologist and Norway's first state employed antiquarian. He is perhaps best known for his excavations of the ship burial at Gokstad ship burial, Gok ...

and is now in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The town of Sandefjord was established as a ladested in 1680, giving it rights as a seaport. On 1 January 1838, it was established as a self-governing municipality 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. Sandefjord functioned as a seaport defined by the twin industries of shipping and shipbuilding throughout the 1600s and 1700s. It was formally recognized as a market town (

kjøpstad A (historically ''kjøbstad'', ''kjöbstad'', or ''kaupstad'', from ) is an old Scandinavian term for a "market town" in Denmark–Norway for several hundred years. Kjøpstads were places of trade and exporting materials (e.g. timber, flour, iron ...

) by King Oscar in 1845 Over time, the city-municipality was enlarged. On 1 January 1889, a part of the neighboring municipality of Sandeherred (population: 318) was transferred into Sandefjord. In 1931, an area of the neighboring municipality of Sandar (population: 66) was transferred into Sandefjord. In 1950, another area of the neighboring municipality of Sandar (population: 226) was transferred into Sandefjord. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of 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 ...

. On 1 January 1968 the city-municipality of Sandefjord (population: 6,242) was merged into the surrounding municipality of Sandar (population: 24,898), creating a much larger municipality which was also named Sandefjord. Prior to the merger, the city and municipality were one and the same, but after the merger, the city was just one small part of a much larger municipality.

Etymology

The name Sandefjord was first mentioned in chapter 169 of ''

Sverris saga ''Sverris saga'' is one of the Kings' sagas. Its subject is King Sverre Sigurdsson of Norway (r. 1177–1202) and it is the main source for this period of Norwegian history. As the foreword tells us, the saga in its final form consists of mo ...

'' from the year 1200. It was then referring to the fjord which is now known as ''Sandefjordsfjord''. The municipality (originally the city of Sandefjord) is named after the local fjord, now called Sandefjordsfjorden since the city of Sandefjord grew up at the head of the fjord. The first element of the name comes from the old ''Sande'' farm (). The old farm name is the

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

form of which means "

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

" or " sandbanks". The last element comes from the word which means "

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

Gallery

Sandefjord Vestfold 2018.png Sandefjord byen vår.jpg Sandefjord (14547787946).jpg Kongens gate 10 Sandefjord fasade mot Byparken.jpg Kongens gate Sandefjord sett fra Kirkegata.jpg

References

{{use dmy dates, date=November 2023 Sandefjord Cities and towns in Norway Populated places in Vestfold

History

Etymology

Gallery

See also

References