is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

Rauma Municipality Rauma is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Romsdal. The administrative centre is the town of Åndalsnes. Other settlements in Rauma include the villages of Måndalen, Innfjorden, Veblu ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is t ...

county, Norway. Åndalsnes is in the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

of Rauma Municipality. It is located along the Isfjorden, at the mouth of the river Rauma, at the north end of the

Romsdalen Romsdalen is a valley in the western part of Norway. The long valley runs through Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county and Lesja Municipality in Innlandet county. It is the valley of the Rauma river, from Old Norse word ''Raumsdalr'' ...

valley. The village of Isfjorden lies about to the east,

Veblungsnes Veblungsnes is a village located in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village lies along Romsdal Fjord just across the mouth of the Rauma River from the town of Åndalsnes. The European route E136 highway runs through the ...

lies just to the west across the Rauma, and

Innfjorden Innfjorden is a village in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is situated about southwest of the town of Åndalsnes and southeast of the village of Måndalen along the European Route E136 highway. The road from Åndalsnes ...

lies about to the southwest via the

European Route E136 European route E 136 is a European highway located entirely in Møre og Romsdal and Innlandet counties in Norway. The highway begins in the town of Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal county on the west coast of Norway, and it goes east up through ...

highway. In 2017 the town had a population of 2,403 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

of . Åndalsnes has an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club,

Åndalsnes IF Åndalsnes Idrettsforening is a Norway, Norwegian sports club from Åndalsnes, Møre og Romsdal. It has sections for association football, team handball, floorball, gymnastics, track and field and skiing. It was founded on 25 May 1917. The men' ...

. The local church is

Grytten Church Grytten Church ( no, Grytten kyrkje) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located near the mouth of the Rauma River in the village of Veblungsnes. It is the church for the Grytt ...

, but its actually located across the river in

. The

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

is called "Tindekaia", and is visited every year by many cruise ships.

Geography

Åndalsnes is located at the mouth of the river Rauma, at the shores of the

Romsdalsfjord Romsdalsfjord or Romsdal Fjord ( no, Romsdalsfjorden) is the ninth-longest fjord in Norway. It is long and located in the Romsdal district of Møre og Romsdal county. It flows through the municipalities of Molde, Ålesund, Vestnes, and Rauma. T ...

, one of the first Norwegian rivers to host English

fly fishermen Fly fishing is an angling method that uses a light-weight lure—called an artificial fly—to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. The light weight requires casting techniques significantly diff ...

in the nineteenth century. The river's

salmon Salmon () is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...

population is currently undergoing restoration after seeing strong declines in the 1980s following an infestation of ''

Gyrodactylus salaris ''Gyrodactylus salaris'', commonly known as salmon fluke, is a tiny monogenean ectoparasite which lives on the body surface of freshwater fish. This leech-like parasite has been implicated in the reduction of Atlantic salmon populations in the ...

'', a freshwater fish

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

that mainly affects salmon. As with many other infested rivers, the Rauma is experiencing an increase in the population of

sea trout Sea trout is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of e ...

. The river flows through the

valley, which features some of the most spectacular scenery in the entire country.

Trollveggen The or is part of the mountain massif Trolltindene (Troll Peaks) in the Romsdalen valley in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located to the south of the towns of Åndalsnes and Molde inside the Reinheimen National ...

(the Troll Wall) one of the cliff formations in the valley, has a vertical drop of more than . It was an early launch site for European

BASE jumpers ''Base Jumpers'' is a platform game developed by Shadow Software for the Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers wit ...

Transportation

The

European route E136 European route E 136 is a European highway located entirely in Møre og Romsdal and Innlandet counties in Norway. The highway begins in the town of Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal county on the west coast of Norway, and it goes east up through ...

highway and

Norwegian County Road 64 County Road 64 ( no, Fylkesvei 64) is a two-lane highway which runs between the towns of Kristiansund and Åndalsnes in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It branches from National Road 70 in Kristiansund, runs through the Atlantic Ocean Tunnel, ...

pass through Åndalsnes. County Road 64 heads to the towns of

Molde Molde () is a town and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

and

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. The administrative center of the municipality is the tow ...

to the north and the E136 highway heads to the town of

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

to the west and to

Dombås is a village or small town in Dovre Municipality in northern Innlandet county, Norway. The village serves as the commercial centre for the upper Gudbrandsdalen valley. It lies at an important junction of roads with the European route E6 highwa ...

to the southeast. Trains on the

Rauma Line The Rauma Line ( no, Raumabanen) is a long railway between the town of Åndalsnes (in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county), and the village of Dombås (in Dovre Municipality in Oppland county), in Norway. Running down the Romsdale ...

terminate at the port of Åndalsnes, with bus connections to the nearby towns of

and

History

The village of Åndalsnes was the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

of the old municipality of

Grytten Grytten is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality encompassed the Romsdalen valley which follows the Rauma River from the Oppland county border to the inner p ...

from 1838 until 1964, when Grytten was merged with several other municipalities to form the new

. Åndalsnes then became the administrative centre of the new municipality of Rauma. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, after the German

invasion of Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in April 1940, British troops landed in Åndalsnes as a part of a

pincer movement The pincer movement, or double envelopment, is a military maneuver in which forces simultaneously attack both flanks (sides) of an enemy formation. This classic maneuver holds an important foothold throughout the history of warfare. The pin ...

to take the mid-Norwegian city of

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...

. The northern arm of the attack was based in

Namsos ( sma, Nåavmesjenjaelmie) is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Namdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Namsos. Some of the villages in the municipality include Bangsund, Kli ...

. Lacking control of the air, the forces at Åndalsnes were withdrawn in early May 1940. At the waterfront here, rigs were built to develop off-shore oil and gas wells in the North Sea, with the railroad bringing steel, etc.to the water's edge, and the rigs taken out to sea, past Ålesund, through the fiord waters. In 1996, the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

of Rauma Municipality declared Åndalsnes a

( no, By).

Media

The newspaper ''

Romsdalsbladet ''Romsdalsbladet'' (The Romsdal Gazette) was a newspaper published in Åndalsnes, Norway. It appeared for only two years, in 1947 and 1948.Moen, Eirik. 1988. Romsdalsbladet og Romsdals reising. ''Romsdal Sogelag Årsskrift'' 1988, pp. 48–53. Mol ...

'' was published in Åndalsnes from 1947 to 1948. The town's newspaper, ''Åndalsnes Avis'', had a circulation of 4,125 in 2007.

Notable people

Notable people that were born or lived in Åndalsnes include: *

Kitty Lossius Kitty Lossius (April 19, 1892 – November 26, 1981) was a Norwegian teacher and novelist. She had a publishing career that lasted nearly fifty years. Life and work Lossius grew up in Kristiansund, where she graduated from high school in 1908. ...

, teacher and novelist

Gallery

File:Åndalsnes.jpg, Åndalsnes File:Winter in Åndalsnes.jpg, Winter in Åndalsnes File:Aandalsnes fra kjerringplassen.jpg, View of the port area and mouth of the river

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aandalsnes Cities and towns in Norway Populated places in Møre og Romsdal Rauma, Norway Romsdal