Ålesund

Population development, 1951-2008
Source: Statistics Norway

In 1793, the port of Aalesund was granted limited ladested rights. Later, in 1824, it was granted full ladested rights. In 1835, Ålesund had 482 inhabitants.[6] On 1 January 1838, the new formannskapsdistrikt law went into effect, granting limited local self-government to all parishes in Norway. Therefore, on that date, the small ladested of Aalesund became a small municipality with its own council. It was surrounded by the large rural municipality of Borgund. In 1848, it was upgraded to the status of a kjøpstad, a more important market town.

On 1 January 1875, part of Borgund Municipality (population: 902) was transferred to the town of Ålesund. In 1922, another part of Borgund Municipality (population: 1,148) was transferred to the town of Ålesund. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1968, most of the neighbouring municipality of Borgund (population: 20,132) was merged with the town of Ålesund. This merger vastly increased the land area of the municipality and more than doubled the population of Ålesund, for a new total population of 38,589. On 1 January 1977, the island of Sula and some small surrounding islets (population: 6,302) were separated from Ålesund to form the new Sula Municipality.[7]

On 1 January 2020, the municipality of Ålesund was greatly enlarged when Haram Municipality, Skodje Municipality, Sandøy Municipality, and Ørskog Municipality were merged with Ålesund to form one large municipality of Ålesund.[8]

Churches

The Church of Norway has twelve parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Ålesund. It is part of the Nordre Sunnmøre prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Møre. The seat of the deanery is at Ålesund Church.

Ålesund Church

Churches in Ålesund

Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Borgund	Borgund Church	Borgund	1130
Brattvåg	Brattvåg Church	Brattvåg	1977
	Hildre Church	Hildrestranda	1905
Ellingsøy	Ellingsøy Church	Ellingsøya	1998
Hamnsund	Hamnsund Church	near Søvik	1875
Haram og Fjørtoft	Fjørtoft Church	Fjørtofta	1878
	Haram Church	Austnes	1838
	Lepsøy Chapel	Lepsøya	1896
Sandøy	Sandøy Church	Sandøya	1812
	Harøy Church	Harøya	1934
Skodje	Skodje Church	Skodje	1860
Spjelkavik	Spjelkavik Church	Spjelkavik	1987
Vatne	Vatne Church	Vatne	1868
Volsdalen	Volsdalen Church	Nørvøya (in Ålesund city)	1974
Ålesund	Ålesund Church	Aspøya (in Ålesund city)	1909
	Skarbøvik Church	Heissa	1995
Ørskog	Ørskog Church	Sjøholt	1873

Ålesund, Norway, ca. 1895, before the fire

Legend has it that Gangerolf (outside of Norway better known as Rollo), the 10th-century founder of the dynasty of the dukes of Normandy, hailed from the community of Giske, north-west of Ålesund. At least three statues of Rolle exist: in the town park in Ålesund, in the city of Rouen, France, and in Fargo, North Dakota, United States.

In 1835, Ålesund had 482 inhabitants.[6] By 1900, the population had increased to 11,777.[11]

In the night of 23 January 1904, the town was the scene of the Ålesund Fire, one of the most terrible of the many conflagrations to which Norwegian towns, once built largely of wood, have been subjected. Practically the entire town was destroyed during the night, a gale aiding the flames, and the population had to leave the town in the middle of the night with only a few minutes' notice. Only one person died in the fire, the 76-year-old Ane Heen, but more than 10,000 people were left without shelter.[12]

Jugendstilsenteret - The Art Nouveau Centre of Norway

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany had often been on vacation to Sunnmøre. After the fire, he sent four warships with materials to build temporary shelters and barracks. After a period of planning, the town was rebuilt in stone, brick, and mortar in Jugendstil (Art Nouveau), the architectural style of the time. The structures were designed by approximately 20 master builders and 30 Norwegian architects, most of them educated in Trondheim and Charlottenburg, Berlin, drawing inspiration from all over Europe. To honor Wilhelm, one of the most frequented streets of the town is named after him.

The town has an unusually consistent architecture, most of the buildings having been built between 1904 and 1907. Jugendstilsenteret is a national interpretation centre, visitors can learn more about the town fire, the rebuilding of the town and the Art Nouveau style. Ålesund is a partner in the Art nouveau network, a European network of co-operation created in 1999 for the study, safeguards and development of the Art nouveau.

The term "Little London" was often applied to the community during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany due to the Norwegian resistance work that took place here. Among other things, the city was central to the flights to Scotland and England.

The municipality of Ålesund occupies seven of the outer islands in the county of Møre og Romsdal: Hessa, Aspøya, Nørvøya, Oksenøya, Ellingsøya, Humla, and Tørla. The town centre is located on the islands Aspøya and Nørvøya, while Heissa and Oksnøya contain residential areas.

The second largest island, Ellingsøya, used to be accessible only by boat or by road via Skodje Municipality, but the undersea Ellingsøy Tunnel was built in 1987 to make traveling between the island and the town centre more convenient. The tunnel is 3,481 metres (11,421 ft) long, and was upgraded in 2009.

Situated 236 kilometres (147 mi) north northeast of the city of Bergen, Ålesund is adjacent to the Hjørund and Geiranger fjords, the latter being on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.[13]

The municipality covers an area of 93 square kilometres (36 sq mi). The population (2017) is 47,199, making the population density of 506.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,312/sq mi). The population of the agglomeration, which includes parts of the neighbouring Sula Municipality, is 48,460.[14] The municipality also contains three smaller separate urban areas on the island of Ellingsøya: Hoffland, Årset, and Myklebost with a total population of 1,279.[14] Other villages include Løvika and Spjelkavik, both on Uksenøya.

All municipalities in Norway, including Ålesund, are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, which in turn elect a mayor.[17] The municipality falls under the Sunnmøre District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Aalesund (Norway) by night.

The town of Ålesund has the most important fishing harbour in Norway. The town's fishing fleet is one of the most modern in Europe. Ålesund and its surroundings also has a large furniture industry. Some well-known household items are manufactured here. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ålesund was one of the chief stations of the herring fishery business.

In relation to the relatively large fishing fleet belonging to Ålesund and nearby harbours a large shipbuilding and ship equipment industry has evolved. There are not any yards building ships in Ålesund any more, the last shipyard - Liaaen Shipyard evolved into ship repairs and since late 1990s has mainly been serving the offshore industry through the company Liaaen Technology that merged and rebranded to Strata Møre in 2007. In the close by communities however shipyards continue to operate successfully: Vard, Ulstein Verft, Kleven Maritime, Havyard Group.

When oil was found in the North Sea in the 1970s the local fishing fleet ship owners seized the opportunity and rebuilt fishing vessels to serve the infant oil exploration and production industry. Soon they were able to build purpose designed offshore vessels at local shipyards to serve the North Sea oil adventure even better. Today this has become a cornerstone industry in and around Ålesund through leading offshore supply ship owning companies Farstad, Bourbon, Olympic, Havila, and Rem. Serving the ship building industry a large number of equipment manufacturers has evolved: Rolls Royce, Odim, Sperre, Optimar, Ship Equip, Jets and many more.

To the east of Ålesund lies the Sykkylven Municipality where the Ekornes factory, producing furniture such as the StressLess chair, is located. Håhjem, another village near Ålesund, contains the headquarters of the Stokke company. Ålesund is also one of the harbours at which the Hurtigruten arrives two times per day. As the cultural center of the region and with close proximity to the fjords, Ålesund is a tourist attraction.[42] The Atlanterhavsparken aquarium is another tourist attraction.[43]

MS Polarlys in Ålesund (December 2005)

From Øye at the head of Hjørundfjorden, a road strikes south to the Nordfjorden, and from Maråk on Geirangerfjorden another strikes inland to Otta. The Rauma Line starts at Åndalsnes, 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of Ålesund, going to Dombås, then southwards on the Dovre Line to Lillehammer and Oslo. Ålesund is a port of call for passenger and freight vessels travelling between Bergen, Kingston upon Hull, Newcastle, Hamburg, and Trondheim, including the Hurtigruta (Norwegian Coastal Express) cruise ships, which arrive in Ålesund twice a day.

The town's airport, Ålesund Airport, Vigra, has several daily flights to/from Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Copenhagen. It used to have several weekly flights to/from Riga (Riga International Airport) (AirBaltic) and London (London Gatwick Airport) but these routes have since ceased. In November 2012 KLM announced it would fly to Ålesund 5 days a week from Amsterdam starting in April 2013.[44]

Lately, there have been suggestions of a high-speed rail link to Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim, as well as metro-style local services to meet the needs of the expanding population of the town.

The inner harbour in winter

The Norwegian Centre of Art Nouveau Architecture, Jugendstilsenteret, is situated in Ålesund. It is a museum and interpretive center, with exhibitions telling the story of the town fire and Art Nouveu/Jugendstil in Norway and Europe.

Sunnmøre museum,[45] founded in 1931, is an outdoor folk museum devoted to the Norwegian coastal culture and way of life. Located on an area of 120 hectares (50 acres), it has more than 55 old and distinct houses from the past 300 years moved to the site, replicas of old Viking ships, and the Medieval Age Museum with artifacts from excavations of the old trading centre.

The local newspaper is Sunnmørsposten, founded in 1882 and published six days a week. The newspaper Arbeidernes blad was briefly published in Ålesund in 1898.[46][47] Ålesund is the site of the annual Norwegian Food Festival.

Ålesund is home to a sub-division of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), with approximately 1,800 students and 150 employees. The Ålesund School of Art (Norwegian: Ålesund Kunstskole) is a school for visual arts located in Ålesund. The Norwegian School of Management had a campus in Ålesund, but it closed on 1 August 2008.[48]

Ålesund videregående skole, also known as Latinskolen, formerly Aalesund Lærd- og Realskole, is the oldest secondary school in Ålesund, having been established in 1863.[49] Of the six upper secondary schools in Ålesund, including Latinskolen, Fagerlia videregående skole is the largest with room for approximately 1,000 students.

Ålesund also features an International school for children aged 5–15.[50]

• 
  The viewpoint Aksla on a summer night
• 
  Cruise port and Aspøy School
• 
  Downtown Ålesund.
• 
  Ålesundet
• 
  Ålesundet

The local football team, Aalesunds FK (Aalesunds Fotballklubb) was founded in 1914. The team played in the Norwegian top flight for the first time in the 2003 season. The club won its first Norwegian Cup in 2009 and won again in 2011. They played their home matches at Kråmyra Stadium until the 2005 season, when they relocated to the new Color Line Stadium, located approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) outside the town centre. AaFK's supporter club is called "Stormen" and has about 2,000 members.

Mark Kozelek wrote and performed an eponymous song about Ålesund under the Sun Kil Moon moniker, on the record Admiral Fell Promises.
Ålesund was shown briefly at about the 20:17 mark in the 1969 film, "It's Tough to Be a Bird," by Disney. The town is shown being stepped on by an enormous bird foot.

Ålesund is twinned with:[51]

• Aalesund ship
• Shetland bus

Look up Ålesund in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Ålesund.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ålesund.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Aalesund.

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Municipality website (in Norwegian)
• Jugendstil Centre/Art Nouveau Centre
• Ålesund Hospital (in Norwegian)
• "Ålesund" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
• Webcam from Ålesund (in Norwegian)