Spikkestad is a village in the municipality of Asker, in the province of Viken,

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 ...

. Its current population (2022) is between 4000 and 5000. Spikkestad is located in the northern part of the peninsula of Hurumlandet, closer to the

Drammensfjord Drammensfjord ( en, Drammen Fjord) is a fjord in Norway that connects to Ytre Oslofjord on the west side. It stretches to the north and northeast. The Drammenselva river discharges into the head of the fjord. The municipality and city of Drammen ...

than the Oslo Fjord. Spikkestad railway station was opened in 1885 to link Asker to Drammen. The village was named after the farm "Spikkestad", as the station was built on its lands. In the early 1970s, the Lieråsen tunnel was built 3 km to the North-West of the village, which made the trip between Oslo and Drammen much shorter. The segment of the train track between Spikkestad and Drammen was closed after the tunnel opened. Spikkestad thus became the terminus of

Spikkestadbanen The Spikkestad Line () is a 14 kilometre long railway line between Asker and Spikkestad in Norway. It was originally part of the Drammen Line between Oslo and Drammen which was built in 1872. In 1973, Lieråsen Tunnel was built to shorten the Dr ...

. However, there are still trains running between Asker and Spikkestad, every half-hour. Spikkestad is also well connected by road. The Norwegian National Road 23 (now European highway E134) runs through the outskirts of the village and the road provides links to Drammen and

Drøbak Drøbak is a List of cities in Norway, town and the centre of the municipality of Frogn, in Viken county, Norway. The city is located along the Oslofjord, and has 13,409 inhabitants. History Drøbak and Frogn was established as a parish on its o ...

. Drammen is the closest large city, only 11 km away from Spikkestad. During the

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

of the town at the end of the 19th century, factories and schools, as well as an influx of new inhabitants made the village into more than just a train station. The manufacturing company

Elopak Elopak is a Norway, Norwegian company producing cartons for liquids, starting with aseptic processing, aseptic Carton#Gable top, gable top cartons for milk. The company was founded in 1957 by Johan Henrik Andresen (1888–1953), Johan Henrik Andre ...

was founded in Spikkestad in 1957. Spikkestad and the area surrounding it have a long history dating back to the

viking era The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

. Once a year, the community organizes an historic walk (''Oldtidsveien''), which travels along sites such as a historic burial site. It runs from

Gullaug Gullaug is an unincorporated village at Lier municipality in Buskerud, Norway. Gullaug is located between Lierbyen, Røyken and Drammen. Geographically, Gullaug is an area that encompasses little more than a small commercial area and local sho ...

on the Drammen Fjord to Slemmestad on the Oslo Fjord.

References

External links

*
www.spikkestad.no

Photos of the railway station
Villages in Viken (county) Villages in Buskerud Villages in Asker Villages in Røyken Røyken {{Buskerud-geo-stub