Kristiansund

Kristiansund kommune

Missing image Kristiansund_kart.png Image:Kristiansund kart.png
County	Møre og Romsdal
Landscape	Nordmøre
Municipality	NO-1503
Administrative centre	Kristiansund
Mayor (2004)	Dagfinn Ripnes (H)
Official language form	Bokmål
Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage	Ranked 426 23 km² 22 km² 0.01 %
Population  - Total (2004)  - Percentage  - Change (10 years)  - Density	Ranked 58 17,105 0.37 % 0.1 % 763/km²
Coordinates	Template:Coor dm
www.kristiansund.kommune.no Data from Statistics Norway (http://www.ssb.no/english/municipalities/1503)

Kristiansund, officially rewarded township status in 1742, is a city and municipality on the northwestern coast of Norway, in the Nordmøre district of county Møre og Romsdal. The city borders islands/municipalities Smøla to the northeast, Tustna to the east, Frei* to the south, and Averøy to the SW (in the NW, there's nothing but the Norwegian Sea, besides the small island Grip**). For mail addressing purposes, the city's name is often written as Kristiansund N (N for North), to distinguish it from southern city Kristiansand.†

Kristiansund is built on four 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"). 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 Kirk(e)landet.

Started in 1876 and still going strong is the Sundbåt ("Sound/Strait 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 Kirk(e)landet, 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.

Kristiansund. Clockwise from lower left: Innlandet, Kirk(e)landet, Gomalandet, and Nordlandet.

The road to Kristiansund from the mainland comes through the bridges and tunnel called KRIFAST, over Frei, and onto Nordlandet. A high bridge brings the road to Gomalandet and Kirk(e)landet. Another high bridge leads from Kirk(e)landet to Innlandet. There is a car ferry going from Kirkelandet to Averøy, whose people have been commuting to town since many years ago for work as well as selling agriculture products. A second car ferry goes from Seivika on Nordlandet to Tustna in the east, with road and ferry connections to Smøla and to Aure on the mainland. Besides roads and car ferries and the airport, communications to/from Kristiansund consist of the traditional Hurtigruten coastal express connecting coastal towns from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes in the north, and a fast commuter ship service to mid-Norway's "capital city" Trondheim.

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, Statoil and Norsk Hydro 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.

The local newspaper is called Tidens Krav.

Notable people from Kristiansund

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

• Frode Alnæs (b. 196X), musician/entertainer (Dance With A Stranger, and solo career)
• Karsten Alnæs (b. 1938), author (parents were from Kr.sund)
• Edvard Fliflet Bræin (1924–1976), composer and conductor (biography) (http://www.ballade.no/mic.nsf/home/forsiden?opendocument&url=http://www.ballade.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2002101215193620317692)
• Sigurd Frisvold (b. 1947), Army General, former Chief of Defence
• Ole Gunnar Solskjær (b. 1973), professional football player (Manchester United 1996–)
• Arnulf Øverland, author (1889–1968) (born in Kr.sund)

Notes

* Kristiansund will merge with Frei on January 1, 2008. The new municipality's name, as well as its administrative center, will be Kristiansund.

** Grip was Norway's smallest-area municipality before being merged into Kristiansund in 1964.

† This addressing mix-up was particularly problematic in the era before postal codes were established in Norway in 1968.

‡ Salted, dried cod is known locally as klippfisk.

nl:Kristiansund nn:Kristiansund no:Kristiansund