Kristiansund

Kristiansund, city (1995 pop. 17,098), Møre og Romsdal co., W Norway, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the site of a large trawler fleet and has industries that produce ships and fish and forest products. Chartered in 1742, Kristiansund was destroyed (1940) by bombardment in World War II and has since been rebuilt on three islands enclosing the harbor.

Kristiansund is a city and municipality on the western coast of Norway, in the Nordmøre district of the county Møre og Romsdal. It was officially awarded township status in 1742.

Kristiansund was established as a municipality 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The island and municipality of Grip was merged with Kristiansund 1 January 1964. The island and municipality of Frei was merged with Kristiansund 1 January 2008.

Geography

The city borders islands/municipalities Smøla to the northeast, Tustna to the east, and Averøy to the southwest. In the south, the island of "Nordlandet" borders the island of Frei, which is now part of the Kristiansund municipality. In the northwest there is the small island of Grip.

History

Toponymy

The city, formerly named "Christiansund", is named after the Danish-Norwegian king Christian VI in 1742. The last element of the name, sund, means 'strait, sound'. The old name of the town/village (originally the island Kirkelandet) was Fosna or Fosen — from Old Norse fólgsn f 'hiding place' (here 'hidden port'). It was also often named Lille Fosen ('the small Fosen') to distinguish it from the island Storfosen ('the big Fosen') in Ørland.

Until 1877 the name was written Christianssund, in the period 1877-1888 Kristianssund, from 1889 on Kristiansund.

Before the introduction of postal codes in Norway in 1968 it was easy to confuse the name Kristiansund with Kristiansand in the south. It was therefore obligatory to always add an N (for north) to Kristiansund (Kristiansund N), and an S (for south) to Kristiansand (Kristiansand S).

Coat of arms

The coat of arms is from 1742. It shows a waterfall, because the old name of the town (Fosen) was misinterpreted as Fossund (as a compound of foss m. waterfall and sund n. strait). There are, however, no waterfalls in the municipality.

Another myth concerning the coat of arms is that there was a mix up, between Kristiansund's and Molde's intended shield. The Dano-Norwegian government officials in charge of the giving of the coats, had a party to remember the momentous occasion and became too drunk and hungover to remember which was which, and so Molde got the coat with a whale (which are scarce in between the Romsdal fjords) and Kristiansund got the waterfall (Since Molde is on the mainland and Kristiansund lies in the open sea, it would be more likely that the waterfall was intended for Molde's mountains and the whales for Kristiansund.)

Newspaper

The local newspaper is Tidens Krav.

City parts and structure

Kristiansund is built on five islands, where Nordlandet ("North Land"), humorously called Marokko ("Morocco"), is the largest, and the site of the local airport, Kvernberget (IATA code: KSU). Gomalandet and Kirk(e)landet ("Church Land"), second and third in size, are considered separate "lands" (islands) even though they are connected. The smallest island is Innlandet ("Innermost Land"; humorously, "Tahiti"). It also consists of the island of Frei which was, until 1 January 2008, not a part of Kristiansund. Frei has now merged into Kristiansund municipality.

Frei is now the largest of the five islands of Kristiansund, even though there are many more smaller islands in Kristiansund, there are only five "larger" islands. The highest point of the municipality is located in Frei, Freikollen at a height of 629 metres.

The island of Grip, located northwest of Kristiansund is also a part of the municipality. It was Norway's smallest island, and also one of the most remote municipalities until it merged with Kristiansund in 1964. Today the island of Grip holds status as a deserted fishing village, but in the summer season it is a popular tourist attraction due to the very special location and architecture. The smallest Stave church of Norway is also located on Grip.

Kristiansund is one of the most densely populated cities of Norway, having what is arguably the country's most urban small city center, due to the relatively small size of the islands on which it is built and the very constricted central harbour/town area of Kirkelandet.

Churches

• Kirkelandet kirke is the newest church, built on the main island Kirkelandet after the World War II, as the last piece in the reconstruction of the city.
• Nordlandet kirke is located on the island Nordlandet. A stone church built in 1914.
• Frei kirke is located on the island Frei.

Climate

Kristiansund has a maritime, temperate climate with cool-to-warm summers and relatively short and mild winters. The city structure with the unique natural harbour of the city combined with warm wind from the southwest of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream gives Kristiansund a much warmer climate than its latitude would indicate.

Twin Towns

• Kokkola, Finland
• Härnösand, Sweden
• Fredericia, Denmark

Together they have a tournament called Nordiske Dager (Nordic Days).

Transport

Started in 1876 and still going strong is the Sundbåt ("Sound Boat"/"Strait Crossing Boat") shuttle service with a capacity of a few tens of passengers, travelling between the islands. The small motor ferry crosses the harbour from Kirk(e)landet to Innlandet, then goes on to Nordlandet, to Gomalandet, and back to Kirkelandet, repeating the round trip in half-hour intervals morning to evening on weekdays. The Sundbåt bears the distinction of being the world's oldest motorized regular public transport system in continuous service.

The road to Kristiansund from mainland Norway, National Road No. 70 (RV 70) is connected to European route E39 at the bridge/tunnel system called Krifast. After passing through the underwater tunnel from the central part of Krifast, RV 70 crosses Frei, and enters Kristiansund over the Omsund Bridge onto Nordlandet. The Nordsund Bridge brings the RV 70 to Gomalandet and its terminus in downtown at Kirkelandet. Another high bridge, the Sørsund Bridge, leads from Kirkelandet to Innlandet. The above mentioned E39 leads southwest to Molde and northeast via the E6 to Mid-Norway's principal city, Trondheim.

There is a car ferry going from Kirkelandet to Averøy, whose people have been commuting to town for many years for work as well as selling agriculture products. The ferry to Averøy connects Kristiansund to RV 64, which goes on via the scenic Atlanterhavsvegen to Molde. The ferry is scheduled to be replaced by the 5.7 km long underwater tunnel Atlanterhavstunnelen in December 2008. A second car ferry goes from Seivika on Nordlandet to Tustna in the northeast (road: RV 680), with further road and ferry connections to the islands Smøla and Hitra, and to Aure on the mainland.

Besides roads and car ferries and Kvernberget airport, communications to/from Kristiansund consist of the traditional coastal express Hurtigruten connecting coastal towns from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes in the north, and the high speed catamaran passenger service Kystekspressen to Trondheim. Another option to get to Kristiansund is to fly with Coast Air or SAS from several other Norwegian cities.

Commerce and industry

Kristiansund is known as the major bacalao city of Norway. Bacalao is made of salted, dried codfish, and has traditionally been exported in large amounts to Spain, Portugal and Latin America as food suitable during Lent. In recent years Kristiansund has become the major oil and gas city at the northwestern coast. Oil companies like Shell and StatoilHydro have offices in Kristiansund from where they serve their offshore installations at Haltenbanken (one of the northernmost underwater oil fields in the world).

Due to the city's heavy involvement in fish processing and international shipping, there used to be as many as seven consulates in Kristiansund, mainly to Latin countries. Currently, there are only five left: Britain, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

Tourist Attractions

• The archipelago of Grip, southwest of Kristiansund was until 1964 the smallest municipality of Norway. Today it is a deserted fishing village, but is a popular tourist attraction for the special architecture and unique location.
• Sundbåtene in Kristiansund holds status as the world's oldest public transport system founded in 1776. The small "Sundbåt" passenger ferries crosses between the four "lands" of the city.
• The old city structure in Vågen is a center for the historical fishing settlement in Kristiansund. Many old harbours and buildings. Mellemværftet is also located here, which is an old shipbuilding facility for sailer ships. The Norwegian Clipfish Museum is also located here.
• Innlandet is an old city part of Kristiansund with very special and unique coastal architecture. Innlandet is the part of Kristiansund who was least destroyed during the bombings of Kristiansund during World War Two.
• Nordic Light is an annual festival of photography arranged for the first time in 2006. The festival is represented by Morten Krogvold

Notable people from Kristiansund

The following people are from, or have their roots in, Kristiansund.

• Frode Alnæs (b. 1959); pop singer, guitarist, entertainer (Dance with a Stranger pop band and solo career)
• Karsten Alnæs (b. 1938); fiction and popular history writer (his parents were from Kristiansund)
• Edvard Fliflet Bræin (1924–76); choir and orchestra composer and conductor, two operas and three symphonies
• Ingar Knudtsen (b. 1944); fantasy & science fiction author
• Jan Erik Mikalsen (b. 1979); composer
• John Neergaard (1901–64); baritone singer at the Kiel and Nuremberg opera houses
• Arnulf Øverland (1889–1968); author (born in Kr.sund, raised in Bergen)
• 120 Days (formerly "The Beautiful People", founded 2001); rock band
• Babe Didriksen (Zaharias) (1914–56); U.S. golfer, athlete, and Olympic gold medalist (her father Ole was from Kristiansund)
• Anders Giske (b. 1959); football player (German premier league 1983–92: Nuremberg, Bayer Leverkusen, Köln)
• Gudrun Høie (b. 1970); female wrestler, four times world champion
• Øyvind Leonhardsen (b. 1970); football player (English Premier League 1995–2004: Wimbledon, Liverpool, Tottenham, Aston Villa)
• Ole Gunnar Solskjær (b. 1973); football player (Manchester United 1996–2007)
• Sigurd Frisvold (b. 1947); Army General, former Chief of Defence
• Steinar Wiik Sørvik (b. 1962); defence lawyer (several national level crime trials)
• Vera Zorina (1917–2003); dancer and choreographer

Notes