From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kristiansand kommune

County	Vest-Agder
District	Sørlandet
Municipality	NO-1001
Administrative centre	Kristiansand
Mayor (2004)	Per Sigurd Sørensen(H)
Official language form	Bokmål
Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage	Ranked 287 277 km² 259 km² 0.09 %
Population  - Total (2007)  - Percentage  - Change (10 years)  - Density	Ranked 5 77,840 1.64 % 10.9 % 291/km²
Coordinates	58°10′N 8°0′E / 58.167, 8Coordinates: 58°10′N 8°0′E / 58.167, 8
www.kristiansand.kommune.no Data from Statistics Norway

Kristiansand

Kristiansand (help·info) (earlier Christianssand) is a city and municipality, and the capital of the county of Vest-Agder, Norway.

The city of Kristiansand was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipalities of Oddernes, Randesund and Tveit were merged with Kristiansand January 1, 1965.

Kristiansand was founded by King Christian IV in 1641. It was created as a market town to encourage growth in this area of strategic significance, providing a local economic base for construction of fortifications and population for defense of the area. The centre of Kristiansand is called Kvadraturen due to its square gridline of streets.

The zoological garden, Kristiansand Dyrepark (Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park) just east of the city, has a wide selection of animals in, for the most part, natural habitats. This includes animals such as wolves, tigers and the lynx. Due to the allocation of areas the combination of zoo and recreational park turns out surprisingly well.^{[citation needed]}

Each year in July, Kristiansand is the site of the Quart Festival, a multi-day music festival - the largest of its kind in Norway.^[1]

Kristiansand is also home to Agder Theatre.

Kristiansand is connected to continental Europe by air and sea. The local airport, Kjevik, is located 12 km (7 miles) east of the city and has routes to European and Norwegian cities. From the town centre, the ferry harbour has routes to Hirtshals (Denmark) and Hanstholm (Denmark). There are also buses and trains that connect Kristiansand to other Norwegian cities.

Kristiansand has major shipbuilding and repair facilities that support Norway's North Sea oil industry. Near Kristiansand there is the static inverter plant of the HVDC Cross-Skagerak.

The river Otra runs through Kristiansand.

Kristiansand and the Agder counties usually have a lot of summer sunshine compared to most of Norway. There may be heavy snowfall in winter with south-southeasterly winds (snow record at Kjevik is 170 cm), but the snow rarely stays long at the coast; see climate.

Note: Even though the names are different, Kristiansand is often noted as Kristiansand S (S for South) to distinguish it from Kristiansund, also in Norway, in such cases noted as Kristiansund N. The practice originated before postal codes were introduced, as mail sometimes was sent to the wrong city. Occasional mix-ups with the Swedish city of Kristianstad have also been known to happen.^[2]

The University of Agder's largest campus is located in Kristiansand; the university itself has about 8,000 students. Formerly a university college, it was granted status as a university on September 1, 2007. Study programs include business and economics, engineering and technology, the humanities, mathematics, nursing, teacher education, as well as fine arts.

Kristiansand is also home of one of the Norwegian School of Management's (Norwegian: Handelshøyskolen BI) campuses, in addition to The Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication (Norwegian: Mediehøgskolen Gimlekollen), which offers degrees in journalism and communication.

In 2006, 27% of those above 16 years in Kristiansand had higher education, compared to the national average of 24.2%.

See also: Category:People from Kristiansand

• Bernt Balchen (1899 – 1973), Norwegian-American aviator born in Tveit
• Jens Bjørneboe (1920 – 1976), painter, dramatist, essayist and novelist born in Kristiansand.
• Valdemar Knudsen (1819 – 1898), pioneered sugar cane production in Hawaii.
• Mette-Marit (1973 –), Norwegian Crown Princess, born and raised in Kristiansand.
• Lars Nedland (1976 –), vocalist, percussionist and keyboardist in a variety of Norwegian black metal and avant-garde bands
• Andreas Thorkildsen (1982 –), olympic gold medalist, javelin.
• Henrik Wergeland (1808 – 1832), poet
• Holger Hott Johansen (1974 – ), world champion in Orienteering

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Kristiansand

1. ^ Official Quart Festival site (English)
2. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/765629.stm