Porsgrunn

Porsgrunn Municipality

*Porsgrunn kommune*
Porsgrunn Municipality Porsgrunn kommune
Municipality
	Porsgrund (historic name)
	View of the town of Porsgrunn
	Coat of arms
	Telemark within Norway
	Porsgrunn within Telemark
	Coordinates: 59°6′56″N 9°42′36″E
Country	Norway
County	Telemark
District	Grenland
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Porsgrunn
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Janicke Andreassen (Ap)
Area
• Total	164.45 km2 (63.49 sq mi)
• Land	160.78 km2 (62.08 sq mi)
• Water	3.67 km2 (1.42 sq mi) 2.2%
• Rank	#315 in Norway
Population (2023)
• Total	37,056
• Rank	#29 in Norway
• Density	230.5/km2 (597/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+4.7%
Demonyms	Porsgrunnsfolk; Porsgrunnsmann; Porsgrunnskvinne
Official language
• Norwegian form	Bokmål
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-4001
Website	Official website
	Data from Statistics Norway

Porsgrunn^ⓘ is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Porsgrunn. Some other notable settlements in Porsgrunn include the town of Brevik and the villages of Langangen and Heistad.^[4]

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The 164-square-kilometre (63 sq mi) municipality is the 315th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Porsgrunn is the 29th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 37,056. The municipality's population density is 230.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (597/sq mi) and its population has increased by 4.7% over the previous 10-year period.^[5]^[6] The conurbation of the cities of Porsgrunn and Skien is called Porsgrunn/Skien by Statistics Norway and it is considered to be the seventh-largest urban area in Norway.

View of the town of Brevik in Porsgrunn Municipality

The town of Porsgrunn was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The small urban town of Porsgrunn grew over time. On 1 July 1920, the growing town annexed some adjacent areas of some of the neighboring rural municipalities: an area of Gjerpen Municipality (population: 437), an area of Eidanger Municipality (population: 550), and an area of Solum Municipality (population: 1,614).^[7]

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, there was a major municipal merger where the following areas were merged to form a new Porsgrunn Municipality.^[7]

the town of Porsgrunn (population: 10,863)
the town of Brevik (population: 2,498)
all of Eidanger Municipality (population: 13,018)
the Bakke area (population: 75) of Hedrum Municipality in Vestfold county
the Enigheten, Høyberg, and Skavåsen areas (population: 12) of Brunlanes Municipality in Vestfold county

On 1 January 1968, an area of Skien Municipality (population: 3,554) was transferred to Porsgrunn Municipality (these areas had originally been part of Solum and Gjerpen municipalities).^[7]

Name

The place is first mentioned in existing historical records in 1576 ("Porsgrund") by the writer Peder Claussøn Friis in his work Concerning the Kingdom of Norway (see the article: Norwegian literature). He writes: "Two and a half miles from the sea, the Skien River flows into the fjord, and that place is called Porsgrund." The name was probably given during medieval times to the then swampy area by the nuns of Gimsøy Abbey, who went here to collect the shrub pors ("Bog Myrtle"). The last element of the name grunn which means "ground".^[4] The name was historically spelled Porsgrund. On 1 January 1930, the spelling of the name of the municipality was changed to Porsgrunn, giving it a more "Norwegianized" spelling.^[8]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was originally granted on 16 January 1905 for the town of Porsgrunn. The arms were originally devised in 1905 when the city needed a new city hall. After the municipal merger on 1 January 1964, the old arms were re-adopted by the new, larger Porsgrunn Municipality. The blazon is "Gules and azure, a bend between a bog myrtle branch and an anchor argent" (Norwegian: Delt av sølv skråbjelke. Øvre felt i rødt en sølv pors-kvist, nedre felt i blått et sølv anker). This means the arms have a red (above) and blue (below) field (background) and the charge is a diagonal bend (stripe) with an anchor below it and the branch of a bog myrtle plant above it. The charge has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The silver bend (stripe) symbolizes the small river running through the city. The bog myrtle plant is a canting symbol since the name Porsgrunn comes from the Norwegian word for the plant. The anchor on a blue background symbolizes the importance of the local harbor and sea. The arms were designed by Wilhelm Rudolph.^[9]^[10]

Churches

The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Porsgrunn. It is part of the Skien prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark.

More information Parish (sokn), Church name ...

**Churches in Porsgrunn**
Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Eidanger	Brevik Church	Brevik	1963
	Eidanger Church	Eidanger	c. 1150
	Herøya Church	Porsgrunn	1957
	Langangen Church	Langangen	1891
	Stridsklev Church	Porsgrunn	2000
Porsgrunn	Vestre Porsgrunn Church	Porsgrunn	1758
Porsgrunn	Østre Porsgrunn Church	Porsgrunn	2019

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Porsgrunn has been an important harbor town in the Grenland area since the late 16th century. In 1653, the Customs House was moved further down the Skien river from Skien to Porsgrunn mainly because industrial waste such as sawdust and mud made the river too shallow to allow boats to go any further up the river.^[11] Moving the Custom House to Porsgrunn added to the flourishing harbor activity and Porsgrunn became a thriving market town with a ladested status.^[12]^[13]^[14]

In the 18th century, Porsgrunn was the home of some of Norway's most influential families at the time, such as the Aalls, Cappelens, Løvenskiolds, and Deichmans. Also in this period, Porsgrunn was considered the cultural centre of Norway. The city was granted limited city status as a kjøpstad in 1807. The town was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838, and it was expanded to full city status in 1842.^[12]^[13]^[14]

Porsgrunn was once home to Skomvær, the country's largest sailing ship. In 1985, the sculpture Amphitrite, the wave and the sea birds was unveiled in Porsgrunn. The sculpture, which is one of Jørleif Uthaug's best known works, has a nautical theme in honor of Porsgrunn's maritime history.

Porsgrunn Municipality borders the municipalities of Skien and Siljan to the north, Bamble in the west, and Larvik in the east. It is part of a cluster of municipalities in southern Telemark that constitute the Grenland area of Norway. The Frierfjorden, Gunnekleivfjorden, and the mouth of the river Telemarksvassdraget or Porsgrunn River (Porsgrunnselva) are located in the western part of the municipality. The peninsula of Herøya, southeast of the main city centre, was originally an industrial park and has grown into a suburb of Porsgrunn. The Eidangerfjorden runs through the central part of the municipality.

Porsgrunn Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[15] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Telemark District Court and the Agder Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Porsgrunn is made up of 49 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.