is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

county,

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 ...

. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. 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, Lu ...

of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira,

Gyland Gyland is a village in the municipality of Flekkefjord in Agder county in Norway. It is located in the northeastern part of Flekkefjord along the river Gylandselva, just a short distance north of the lake Kumlevollvatnet. The Sørlandet Line runs ...

Rasvåg Rasvåg is a fishing village in Flekkefjord municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is one of two harbours on the Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwest ...

Kirkehavn Kirkehamn or Kirkehavn (literally: ''Church harbour'') is a fishing village in Flekkefjord municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is one of two harbor, harbours on the Norway, Norwegian island Hidra (island), Hidra. Kirkehamn lies on ...

, and

Åna-Sira Åna-Sira is a village in southwestern Norway, sitting mostly in Sokndal municipality in Rogaland county, but a small portion lies in Flekkefjord municipality in Agder county. The village is located at the mouth of the river Sira where it flows ...

are located in Flekkefjord. Flekkefjord is the westernmost municipality of the geographical region of

Sørlandet Southern Norway ( no, Sørlandet; lit. "The Southland") is the geographical List of regions of Norway, region (''landsdel'') along the Skagerrak coast of southern Norway. The region is an informal description since it does not have any govern ...

. Flekkefjord is approximately midway between the cities of

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

and

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

, located along

European route E39 European route E39 is the designation of a north–south road in Norway and Denmark from Klett, just south of Trondheim, to Aalborg via Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand. In total, there are nine ferries, more than any other single road in Eu ...

and the

Sørlandet Line The Sørlandet Line ( no, Sørlandsbanen) is a railway line between Drammen (though this is connected to Oslo by means of the Drammen Line) via Kristiansand to Stavanger. The line is long between Oslo and Stavanger. History The railway was con ...

. The municipality is the 198th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Flekkefjord is the 121st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 9,048. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

is and its population has increased by 0% over the previous 10-year period.

General information

The small town of Flekkefjord was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January ...

law). In 1942, a part of the municipality of

Nes The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

(population: 377) was transferred to the town of Flekkefjord. On 1 January 1965, there was a major municipal merger due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee ( no, Schei-komitéen) was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II. It convened in 1946, and its formal name was (The 1946 Committee on Municip ...

. On that date, the rural municipalities of Bakke (except the Øksendal area),

, Hidra, and

were merged with the town of Flekkefjord, creating a new, much larger municipality of Flekkefjord with about 8,800 people. On 1 January 1987, the Virak and Espetveit areas of northern Flekkefjord (population: 41) were transferred to

Sirdal Sirdal is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the northwestern part of the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tonstad. Other villages in Sirdal include Bjørnest ...

municipality.

Name

The municipality (and town) is named after the local

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

called the ''Flekkefjorden''. The fjord is named after the old ''Flikka'' farm ( non, Flikkar) that is located near the fjord. The meaning of the name is unknown.

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

for Flekkefjord are rather old (compared with most Norwegian municipal arms). They were granted around the year 1855. The arms were originally proposed in 1855 and they were described as a

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...

on the

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

. The original proposal showed a boat on a very natural sea, all in natural colours. The present shape of the boat and the more heraldically correct arms date from 1899.

Churches

The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

has four parishes () within the municipality of Flekkefjord. It is part of the

Lister og Mandal prosti This list of churches in Agder og Telemark is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark in Agder and Vestfold og Telemark counties in southern Norway. The diocese is based at the Kristiansand Cathedral in the cit ...

(

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

) in the

Diocese of Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark ( no, Agder og Telemark bispedømme) is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and most of Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth larges ...

Geography

The municipality is located in southwestern

county, along the border with

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

county and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

to the southwest. It is bounded by

Sokndal Sokndal is the southernmost municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Dalane. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hauge. Other villages in Sokndal include Li, Rekefjor ...

and

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

municipalities (in

county) to the west across the river Sira, by

municipality to the north, and by

Kvinesdal Kvinesdal is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Liknes. Other villages in Kvinesdal include Feda, Fjotland, and Storekvi ...

municipality to the east. The town of

Flekkefjord is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are lo ...

is located near the southern coast of the municipality in a fjord. It straddles the narrow

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

which connects the Flekkefjorden to Grisefjorden. The port is ideal due to the tiny difference in

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

s experienced here. This is a result of its close proximity to the

amphidromic point An amphidromic point, also called a tidal node, is a geographical location which has zero tidal amplitude for one harmonic constituent of the tide. The tidal range (the peak-to-peak amplitude, or the height difference between high tide and low ...

outside Eigersund. The lakes

Kumlevollvatnet Kumlevollvatnet or Kongevollvatnet is a lake in the municipality of Flekkefjord in Agder county, Norway. The lake lies along the river Fedaelva, just south of Gyland and about northeast of the town of Flekkefjord. See also *List of lakes in N ...

Lundevatn Lundevatn, or Lundevatnet,The suffix "''-et''" is a form of the Norwegian language definite article and means "the". Hence ''Lundevatnet'' is equivalent to "the Lundevatn." Both forms can be found in English language text. is a lake on the borders ...

, Selura, and

Sirdalsvatnet Sirdalsvatnet is a lake in the municipalities of Sirdal and Flekkefjord in Agder county, Norway. The lake is about long running from the village of Tonstad Tonstad is the administrative centre of the municipality of Sirdal in Agder county, N ...

are located in Flekkefjord. The southern coast is dominated by the

Listafjorden Listafjorden is a widely shaped fjord (or bay) between the island of Hidra and the Lista peninsula in Agder county, Norway. The fjord is located in the municipalities Farsund and Flekkefjord. The long and about the same distance wide at its mout ...

and

Fedafjorden Fedafjorden is a fjord in Agder county, Norway. The is located in the municipalities of Kvinesdal, Flekkefjord, and Farsund. The long, narrow fjord runs south from the mouth of the river Kvina to the Listafjorden. The fjord is long and only ...

with the large inhabited islands of Hidra and Andabeløyna lying in the Listafjorden.

Climate

History

Bakke kirke, Vest-Agder - Riksantikvaren-T218 01 0007

Flekkefjord was a landing place from early times. It was mentioned as a town as early as 1580. In 1589,

James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

landed there before travelling overland via

Tønsberg Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative ce ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, where he married Princess

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional fo ...

, daughter of Frederick II. When Kristiansand was founded in 1641,

Christian IV Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...

wanted to assure the economic survival of his new city by moving Flekkefjord residents there. Twice it was sentenced to extinction by royal

decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

. But many of the Flekkefjord inhabitants remained and continued to trade. Norway's plentiful stone was a Flekkefjord commodity. In 1736 over 300

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

ships are reported to have carried paving stones from Flekkefjord. By 1750 the

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

fishery began in earnest, such that herring and timber dominated the trade. In the 1750s Flekkefjord was the most important Norwegian herring export harbor. In 1760 Flekkefjord petitioned Frederik V to grant a town charter. At that time several ships were home ported there and both sailors and herring fishermen had their homes in this small town that was not officially recognized.

Barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

making ( cooperage) was also an important local trade that served the fishing fleet. During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

Flekkefjord found a new life as a

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

s port, exporting

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

to the

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

-occupied

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

during the period prior to 1807. The unusual tidal condition, the local timber abundance, and a long-term relationship with the Dutch were the reasons behind Flekkefjord's then serving as a smuggler's headquarters. They specialized in the lucrative oak trade, the

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster a ...

timber in those days. Ships could come and leave Flekkefjord at any hour of the day, without concern for the tides. Prior to 1807, Denmark-Norway had followed a policy of

armed neutrality A neutral country is a state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO, CSTO or the SCO). As a type of ...

, using its naval forces only to protect trade flowing within, into, and out of Danish and Norwegian waters. But this changed for the last phase of the Napoleonic Wars when, in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807, the British preemptively captured large portions of the Danish naval fleet to prevent the French from doing the same. As a result, the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

government declared war and built small gunboats in large numbers to attack the British. The

Gunboat War The Gunboat War (, ; 1807–1814) was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Nav ...

(1807–1814) was the title given to naval conflict between Denmark-Norway against the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

navy. It was natural for Flekkefjord to move from a smuggler's haven to blockade runner's headquarters. The unusual tides there were unknown to the British warships that were blockading the Norwegian coast against Napoleon-supporting ships and this provided the blockade runners a considerable advantage. After the war the Dutch maintained a strong presence in Flekkefjord, and continued exporting oak and

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

. The pine was used mainly to make foundations for the boom in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

house construction; as a result most of Amsterdam's houses from the 19th century are constructed of pines from Flekkefjord exporters. A section of Flekkefjord called ‘Hollenderbyen’ (town of the Dutch) dates from the 18th century.

Xenotime Xenotime is a rare-earth phosphate mineral, the major component of which is yttrium orthophosphate ( Y P O4). It forms a solid solution series with chernovite-(Y) ( Y As O4) and therefore may contain trace impurities of arsenic, as well as sili ...

, a rare

yttrium Yttrium is a chemical element with the symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost always found in com ...

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

whose

chemical formula In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, ...

is YPO₄, was discovered in 1832 at Hidra (Hitterø), Flekkefjord. The herring fisheries deserted the coast in 1838, depriving Flekkefjord residents of their main export. Tanning replaced fishing and by 1866 five tanneries were operating in Flekkefjord. The

Flekkefjord Line The Flekkefjord Line ( no, Flekkefjordbanen) is a abandoned branch line to the Sørland Line. It ran between Sira and Flekkefjord in Agder, Norway. The only current activity on the line is tourist draisines. The station buildings along the line ...

railway ran between Sira and Flekkefjord from 1904 to 1990. Flekkefjord and nearby areas are served by

Sørlandet Hospital Flekkefjord Sørlandet Hospital Flekkefjord is a local hospital in Flekkefjord in the far West of Vest-Agder County in Norway. It is one of the three main hospitals in southern Norway. Today' the hospital is embodied as a department within the Hospital of ...

that covers population needs for surgery, orthopedics, oncology, gynecology and obstetrics.

Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Flekkefjord, are responsible for

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient health services,

senior citizen Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...

services,

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...

and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

, and municipal

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

s. The municipality is governed by a

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 counci ...

of elected representatives, which in turn elect a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

. The municipality falls under the

Agder District Court Agder District Court ( no, Agder tingrett) is a district court located in Agder county, Norway. This court is based at three different courthouses which are located in Farsund, Kristiansand, and Arendal. The court serves most of Agder county and ...

and the

Agder Court of Appeal The Agder Court of Appeal ( no, Agder lagmannsrett) is one of six courts of appeal in the Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the town of Skien. The court has jurisdiction over the counties of Vestfold og Telemark and Agder (except for Si ...

Municipal council

The

() of Flekkefjord is made up of 35 representatives that are elected to four year terms. Currently, the

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

breakdown is as follows:

Parliamentary representation

After Flekkefjord acquired

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

status in 1842, it also became a constituency for elections to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

. The first representative was elected in 1845: Gerhard Heiberg Garmann. He served for three years before Nils Elias Børresen was elected. He served until 1863, when deputy Johan Andreas Kraft took over for one year.

Knud Geelmuyden Fleischer Maartmann Knud Geelmuyden Fleischer Maartmann (1821–1888) was a Norwegian politician. Biografia He was elected to the Parliament of Norway in 1865, representing the urban constituency of Flekkefjord. He worked as a merchant in the city. He was re-elected ...

served from 1865 to 1866 and 1868 to 1869, and Elias Didrichsen served from 1871 to 1888, interrupted by

Thorvald Olsen Thorvald Matheus "Torden" Olsen (30 July 1889 – 2 November 1938) was a Norwegian wrestler and sports official. He became Norwegian champion in his weight class in 1912, 1914, 1915 and 1918. He became Nordic champion in 1918. He represented ...

who served from 1877 through 1879.

Niels Eyde Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Saint ...

, Jakob Stang, Sivert Hanssen-Sunde and Hans Sivert Jacobsen served one three-year term each between 1889 and 1900. Then, Cornelius Bernhard Hanssen served from 1900 to 1921, interrupted by Bernhard Severin Sannerud in the years 1916 through 1918. A law change in 1919 repelled Flekkefjord as a constituency of its own; from then it was a part of the combined constituency

Market towns of Vest-Agder and Rogaland counties The Market towns of Vest-Agder and Rogaland counties ( no, Kjøpstedene i Vest-Agder og Rogaland fylker) was an electoral district for parliamentary elections in Norway. It comprised the market towns ( no, kjøpsteder) of Flekkefjord, Kristiansand a ...

Mayors

Mayors in Flekkefjord typically served for one year from the start of local government in 1837. Of the notable early mayors were Jens Henrik Beer (Parliament member before Flekkefjord became its own constituency) in 1840 and Anders Beer in 1843. Many of the parliamentarians served as mayors: J. A. Kraft in 1842, 1858 and 1859; Børresen in 1846, 1849, 1850, 1852 and 1862; Didrichsen from 1853 to 1857, 1863 to 1870, 1878 to 1879 and 1883 to 1888; Jacobsen in 1889; Hanssen-Sunde from 1893 to 1899; Sannerud from 1906 to 1909 and in 1917; and C. B. Hanssen in 1933, 1936 and 1937.

Twin towns – sister cities

Flekkefjord is twinned with: *

Bollnäs Bollnäs () is a Swedish locality and the seat of Bollnäs Municipality, in Gävleborg County, Sweden. It had 26,937 inhabitants in 2017 History The first recording of Bollnäs in writing is from 1312 when a vicar named Ingemund referred to it ...

, Sweden (1950) *

Burntisland Burntisland ( , sco, also Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269. It was previously known as Wester Kingho ...

, Scotland, UK (1946) * Elbow Lake, United States (1973) *

Kankaanpää Kankaanpää () is a town and municipality of Finland. Kankaanpää was founded in 1865, became a township in 1967 and finally a town in 1972. It is located in the crossroads of Hämeenkangas and Pohjankangas ridges. It belongs to the region of Sa ...

, Finland (1950) * Misburg-Anderten (Hanover), Germany (1971) * Morsø, Denmark (1950)

Notable residents

* Jens Henrik Beer Sr. (1731–1808) a ship-owner, sawmill owner and merchant * Jens Henrik Beer (1799–1881), ship-owner, sawmill owner, farmer and politician * Anders Beer (1801–1863) a Norwegian ship-owner, tanner and agriculturalist * Marie Aarestrup (1826–1919), painter, specialized in genre and portrait painting *

Peter Waage Peter Waage (29 June 1833 – 13 January 1900) was a Norwegian chemist and professor of chemistry at the University of Kristiania. Along with his brother-in-law Cato Maximilian Guldberg, he co-discovered and developed the law of mass action ...

(1833–1900), chemist and academic, developed the

law of mass action In chemistry, the law of mass action is the proposition that the rate of the chemical reaction is directly proportional to the product of the activities or concentrations of the reactants. It explains and predicts behaviors of solutions in dyna ...

* Anders Beer Wilse (1865–1949), photographer of natural sceneries and people at work *

Marta Steinsvik Marta Steinsvik (23 March 1877 – 27 July 1950) was a Norwegian author and translator. She was a champion of women's rights, a proponent of antisemitism and anti-Catholicism, and promoter of the use of Nynorsk. She was the first female to graduat ...

(1877–1950), author, promoted women's rights, Nynorsk and theology * Gudmund Seland (1907–1996) a

Norwegian resistance The Norwegian resistance (Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms: *Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled government, ...

member and Mayor of Nes * Nils Fuglesang (1918–1944) a Norwegian

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

pilot, escaped from

Stalag Luft III , partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...

, recaptured and shot *

Gunvald Tomstad Gunvald Jørg Tomstad (2 August 1918 – 12 May 1970) was a major agent of the British SIS, and a Norwegian resistance member during World War II. From 1941 to 1943, he was a mole or double agent while also operating a clandestine radio transmit ...

(1918–1970) a major agent of the British SIS and resistance member * Bitten Modal, (Norwegian Wiki) (1940–2008), journalist, writer and feminist * Kåre Drangsholt (1941–1983), boat designer and major boat manufacturer, Draco boats * Sverre Anker Ousdal (born 1944), actor IMDb Database
retrieved 03 January 2021 *

Eva Lundgren Eva Lundgren (born November 24, 1947) is a Norway, Norwegian-Sweden, Swedish sociology, sociologist. She is an expert on violence against women and sexual violence, particularly in religious contexts. She is Professor Emerita of sociology at Upp ...

(born 1947) a Norwegian-Swedish sociologist, re.

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...

* Arnfinn Moland (born 1951) a Norwegian historian, long jumper and triple jumper * Tove Pettersen (born 1962 on Hidra) a Norwegian feminist philosopher *

Boye Brogeland Boye Brogeland (born 1973) is a Norwegian professional bridge player. After a successful junior career, he won three Bermuda Bowl medals with the Norwegian team, including the gold in Shanghai 2007, and several North American Bridge Championships. ...

(born 1973) a Norwegian professional bridge player

Sport

* Olaf Søyland (born 1952) a sprint canoer, competed at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

Einar Rasmussen Einar Rasmussen (born 16 July 1956) is a Norwegian sprint canoeist who competed from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. He won ten medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with four golds (K-1 10000 m: 1981, 1983 ...

(born 1956) a sprint canoeist, medallist at several

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

* Svein Egil Solvang (born 1968) a sprint canoer, competed at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Anne Tønnessen Anne Tønnessen (born 18 March 1974 in Flekkefjord) is a Norwegian footballer and Olympic champion. She received a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most ...

(born 1974) a footballer, team gold medallist at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Eirik Verås Larsen Eirik Verås Larsen (born 26 March 1976 in Flekkefjord) is a Norwegian sprint kayaker who has competed internationally since the early 1990s. He has participated in three Summer Olympics, and has won a complete set of medals (gold: 2004 K-1 ...

(born 1976) a Norwegian sprint kayaker, medallist at three Olympics

References

External links

*
Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every yea ...

Municipal website

Map of Flekkefjord
{{use dmy dates, date=December 2020 Municipalities of Agder 1838 establishments in Norway