Re is a former municipality in Vestfold county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The municipality existed from 2000 until its dissolution in 2020. The area is now part of Tønsberg Municipality. The

administrative centre An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

was the village of Revetal. Other villages in the municipality included Ramnes, Brekkeåsen, Bergsåsen, Gretteåsen, Undrumsdal, Fon, Vivestad. Prior to its dissolution in 2020, the municipality was the 316th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Re had a population of 9,730. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

is . The river Aulielva ran through the municipality. The highest point in Re was Snippane with an elevation of . Snippane was located along the border with Lardal Municipality, about south of the village of Hof.

General information

The municipality was established on 1 January 2002 when the two neighboring municipalities of Ramnes and Våle were merged to form one large municipality called ''Re''. On 1 January 2020, Re Municipality was dissolved and new borders were drawn for the municipalities of Horten, Tønsberg, and Holmestrand: *the area that is on the northeast coast Re Municipality, including the island of Langøya, was transferred into Holmestrand Municipality *the Haugan area was transferred from Horten Municipality to Re *the Nykirke/Pauliveien area was transferred from Re to Horten Municipality *the west Skoppum area was transferred from Re to Horten Municipality (creating a small exclave for the Råen farm inside Horten) *the remaining portions of Re Municipality was merged into Tønsberg Municipality

Name

The municipality is named after an old name for the district, Re (). The name is related to the old German word which means "line" or "row", referring to the local geological formation called Raet.

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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

was granted on 31 August 2001 in preparation for the establishment of the new municipality on 1 January 2002. It was determined by a public competition and a public vote among inhabitants of the new municipality. The official

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is ''" Vert, an escarbuncle Or"'' (). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a five-pointed escarbuncle. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The green color in the field symbolizes the importance of

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and

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

. The five-pointed design has a long history in the area and it symbolizes unity and to point back in time to the historic battles fought at Re. The five points represent the five parishes within Re. The arms were designed by Arvid Steen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway had five parishes () within the municipality of Re. It was part of the Nord-Jarlsberg prosti ( deanery) in the Diocese of Tunsberg.

History

In this area a battle took place in 1177, which is the last one mentioned in Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson. Graves and other findings from the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

and even earlier can be found throughout the district.

Government

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for

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

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

, senior citizen services, unemployment,

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

, zoning,

economic development In economics, economic development (or 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 object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a

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of directly elected representatives. The

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was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Nordre Vestfold District Court and the Agder Court of Appeal.

Mayor

Re Municipality had only one

() during its existence: Thorvald Hillestad from the Centre Party. He served from 2002 until its dissolution in 2020. Prior to this, he was the mayor of Våle Municipality for many years.

Municipal council

The

of Re was made up of 25 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.

References

External links

* *
Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, 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 year on its web site. All rele ...

* {{Authority control Tønsberg Former municipalities of Norway 2002 establishments in Norway 2020 disestablishments in Norway Populated places established in 2002 Populated places disestablished in 2020