Haugesund is a town and municipality in northern Rogaland on the
west coast of Norway. The municipality borders Tysvær municipality
in the east, Karmøy in the southwest and Sveio in Vestland in the
north.
The settlement Haugesund had 45,352 inhabitants (of
which 8,884 belong to Karmøy) as of 1 January 2020, and is thus the
14th largest settlement in the country. The city functions as a
regional center for Haugalandet as well as Sveio and Etne in
Sunnhordland, an area with a total of around 110,000 inhabitants.
Haugesund is a town that grew up from the middle of the 19th
century as a result of rich herring deposits in the sea areas
outside. It gained status as a charging station in 1854 and purchase
rights in 1866. Although the herring gradually disappeared, the town
is still connected to maritime industries through shipbuilding and
shipping. The Norwegian Maritime Directorate has been located in
Haugesund since 2006. Today, however, the trade and service industry
is dominant, and in 2014 Haugesund had the country's 8th largest
turnover figure per capita in retail (NOK 133,897 per capita).
Haugesund is a municipality with a small area, only 72 km². The
town itself (the settlement) is located east of Smedasundet and on
the islands Hasseløy, Risøy and parts of Karmøy, ie on the mainland
side of Karmøy (Vormedal, Norheim, Spanne and Skre) and on the
northern part of the island Karmøy (Avaldsnes and Storasund). The
contiguous settlement in the two municipalities of Haugesund and
Karmøy is defined by Statistics Norway as Norway's 12th largest
settlement as of 2014. The settlement of Haugesund has 45,352
inhabitants as of 1 January 2020, and 8,884 of these belong to
Karmøy. The city functions as a regional center for just over
111,000 people on Haugalandet.
The town is open to the North
Sea, but most is sheltered by the island of Karmøy (Karmøy
municipality), as well as the island community Røvær (Haugesund
municipality) in the west. Between Karmøy and Haugesund is the
shipping route Karmsundet. Between Karmsundet and southern parts of
Bømlo (Bømlo municipality) lies the weather-hard stretch of sea
Sletta.
Haugesund center is characterized by its square
(grid), based on the zoning plan that was prepared in connection
with the city's establishment in 1854. The center stretches along
Smedasundet, and across Smedasundet there are bridges to the islands
Risøy (Risøynå) and Hasseløy (Bakarøynå), which have the same the
grid of streets.
The city has a very varied offer of
nightlife such as cafes, discos and restaurants, which are visited
by guests from both the city and neighboring municipalities.
Haugesund is a city for large events. Since 1973, Haugesund has
hosted the Film Festival, considered one of the two most important
in Scandinavia. The film festival is held at the end of August. The
most popular festival is undoubtedly the Sildajazz, which can be
described as a folk festival. Herring jazz is held in mid-August,
and in addition to thousands of mounders, the festival attracts many
visitors, especially from Rogaland and Hordaland. Many visitors come
in leisure boats, which dock at Indre kai, so they occupy half of
Smedasundet, just as the herring boats did when herring fishing was
an important industry for the city. Besides these festivals, the
city hosts various music festivals and national meetings.
North of the city center we find the national monument
Haraldshaugen, erected in 1872, in memory of Harald Hårfagre's
collection of Norway in 872. The name Harald is also found in
Haraldsgata (the city's main street) and Haraldshallen (sports and
swimming hall).
As the natural center for a surrounding area
of around 100,000 people, it is said that Haugesund is the small
town with the big city's qualities and challenges. The city has for
several decades had a heavy drug environment, and has for several
years topped the statistics on overdose deaths in relation to the
population. In the peak year of 2000, the city experienced 14
overdose deaths.
The city also has challenges in terms of
traffic. The pressure areas in the road network apply to both supply
roads and through roads in the city, but also the roads south over
Karmøy and east through Tysvær. On the main thoroughfare
Karmsundsgata, which is a normal two-lane road, almost 28,000 cars
passed per day during unofficial counts in 2005.
History
Haugesund was separated from Torvastad municipality and given status
as a charging station in 1854, and had 1066 inhabitants. The town
was thus able to celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2004.
Haugesund's status was upgraded to a market town in 1866, and grew
strongly as a result of rich deposits of herring in the sea areas
outside. Until this, there were few buildings in the area, and the
most important settlements between Stavanger and Bergen were
Skudeneshavn at the southern tip of Karmøy and Karmøy's current
administrative center - Kopervik. Despite its relatively new
history, Haugesund still has a strong connection to the Viking Age,
as Harald Hårfagre's royal estate at Avaldsnes is located on the
Karmøy side of Karmsundet a little south of the city. After his
death, Harald Hårfagre was laid to rest on Haug by Karmsund, an area
that later gave its name to the town and municipality of Haugesund.
A little north of the city, the national monument Haraldsstøtten
stands on the place where it is believed that Harald is buried.
The so-called peasant clause in the Constitution meant in the
19th century that new shopping centers had difficulty getting their
own parliamentary representatives, the parliamentary elections for
Haugesund had to be made in constituencies together with Stavanger,
and for decades representatives were elected only from Stavanger.
This led to the election strikes in Haugesund which began in 1888,
and which ended with Haugesund getting the first representative to
the Storting elected in 1902.
The town's weather-protected
location on the inside of Karmøy, as well as the good harbor
conditions in Smedasundet between the mainland and the islands Risøy
and Hasseløy, gave the town an advantage as a growing fishing port.
In terms of shipping, the city was centrally located, all the time
most of the ship traffic along Western Norway chose the protected
lease through Karmsundet rather than going outside Karmøy. To this
day, Karmsundet is one of the country's busiest ship leaders.
Along with herring fishing (and to some extent whaling) followed
several other industries in Haugesund. The town has a tradition as
an important shipyard, shipbuilding and shipping town, and at one
time had the third largest merchant fleet in Norway. Haugesund,
Karmøy and Bømlo (in Sunnhordland) have traditionally had a lot of
seafarers, who went fishing, in coastal trade or in foreign trade.
The most important shipbuildings were Haugesund Mekaniske Verksted
AS (HMV), AS Haugesund Slip and Brødrene Lothe AS Flytedokken. Today
only the former exists, which is now called Aibel. It is also the
city's largest workplace. Of shipping companies, Knut Knutsen
O.A.S., H.M. Wrangell, Chr. Haaland and Stolt-Nielsen. Knutsen OAS
is still among the city's shipping companies.
The city's
distinctive pink town hall was donated to the city by shipowner Knut
Knutsen O.A.S. and his wife Elisabeth, and consecrated in 1931. It
testifies to one of several wealthy shipowners, who bestowed upon
the city rich gifts.
The strong growth meant that the city
was expanded in several rounds. On 1 January 1911, the town was
expanded with parts of the surrounding Skåre municipality, parts
that to some extent were already part of the urban settlements. On 1
January 1958, the rest of Skåre followed, and became part of
Haugesund municipality. The city is growing geographically strongly
even today, although the population has grown more cautiously in
recent decades. Today, the city is growing to the east with large
residential areas in Skåredalen, and in the 70s, 80s and 90s, large
areas were also developed to the north, including Bleikemyr being
densely populated. To the south, the settlement of Haugesund extends
into the mainland part of Karmøy municipality, and attempts have
been made on several occasions to move the municipal boundary.
Gradually, industry and trade took over for the fisheries, and
when the herring disappeared - first in periods and then for good -
the city had such a large business activity and so many inhabitants
that the city continued to grow. The city had several shipyards and
other mechanical industries. The city's largest industrial workplace
is Aibel (formerly Haugesund Mekaniske Verksted, Umoe, ABB and Vetco
Aibel), for a number of years engaged in shipbuilding, today engaged
in construction and maintenance in the oil-related industry. Today,
the most important industry in the city is the service industry,
first and foremost trade and service / health / education for the
rest of Haugalandet.
Haugesund was little affected by World
War II. The city was not strategically important, other than that
the area has its share of fortifications and bunkers that were built
along the entire coast. There were thus few Allied bombing raids on
the city, which means that some of the very beautiful, older wooden
houses are still intact. Even after the war, the city has not played
any military strategic role, and has not had military activity
beyond the home security level.