Halden Topphåndball

Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish municipalities Strömstad, Tanum and Dals-Ed respectively to the southwest, south and southeast.

The seat of the municipality, Halden is a border town located at the mouth of the Tista river on the Iddefjord, the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden. The town of Halden is located about south of Oslo, north of Gothenburg, and east of the border crossing at Svinesund.

History

Evidence of early human settlements in this region of Norway have been found, particularly in the Svinesund area of the municipality where evidence of early settlements from the Nordic Bronze Age have been found. Named after a small farm ''Hallen'' ( en, "rise" or "slope") first mentioned in 1629, "Halden", became the city of ''Fredrikshald'' in 1665, named after Frederick III of Denmark. The ''Gud med oss'' (''God be with us'') coat-of-arms created in 1665 shows a knight standing on a mountain, yellow on a blue background, and was inspired by the bravery of the citizens of the city in the Dano-Swedish War (1658–1660).

Swedish forces unsuccessfully attempted to invade the town six times between 1658 and 1814. As a reference to the town's citizens burning their own houses to prevent them being taken on 4 July 1716 by the forces of King Charles XII of Sweden, Halden is one of only two cities in Norway's national anthem. In 1718, the Great Northern War ended when Charles XII was shot and killed at the Fredriksten fortress. The fortress had been erected in the 17th century as a replacement for the Bohus Fortress lost at the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 when Bohuslän was ceded to Sweden. Halden has never been captured by force by any invading army, although it was occupied by Nazi forces in WWII.

In an 1835 census, Fredrikshald was the seventh largest town or city in Norway, with 4,921 inhabitants. In 1838, Fredrikshald became a city municipality ( no, herred), and in 1928, the name was changed back to Halden. Tistedalen, which is east of Halden, was part of the city from 1686 to 1967, until it was separated from Halden. At the same time, the area of Halden, Tistedalen, and the rural municipalities of Berg and Idd, became the Halden municipality on 1 January 1967.

Politics

The political situation in Halden has become infamous in Norway for conflicts between individual politicians and between local political parties.
The municipality is governed by the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Centre Party, and the Green Party.

Economy

The slogan, ''Halden, IT- og Miljøbyen'' (Halden, IT and Environment City), is a reference to Halden's relatively large number of information technology companies. In the late 1960s, the most powerful mainframe computer in Norway at the time was located at the Institute for Energy Technology's facilities in Halden. From the 1960s-1980s, Halden was infamous for high levels of industrial pollution, largely originating from the Norske Skog Saugbrugs paper mill (part of Norske Skog since 1989). As a result of projects initiated by both Norske Skog-Saugbrugs and the city authorities, the polluted fjords and rivers of Halden have been cleaned up and the city was dubbed Norway's Environment City in 1996.

One of Norway's two nuclear reactors under decommissioning is located in Halden. The Halden Boiling Water Reactor is a research reactor located within Månefjell, adjacent to the Saugbrugs paper mill. The OECD Halden Reactor Project is one of the world's longest running international research collaborations and is the largest international research project in Norway. While the reactor closed in 2018, safety-oriented research collaboration for the nuclear power industry has continued, focusing primarily on human-technology-organisation research. IFE's Man-Technology-Organisation Lab facility in Os Alle was opened by the Prince Regent in 2004 and houses the most recent incarnations of the Halden Man-Machine Laboratory (HAMMLAB) and Halden Virtual Reality Centre's (HVRC) VR laboratory. IFE also has advanced robotics and cybersecurity labs in Halden. The Halden Project at IFE has ensured a steady influx of international guest scientists to the city, many of whom made Halden their permanent homes.

Nexans has a large cable factory in Halden. The main products from this factory are submarine power cable

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