Åndalsnes

 

Åndalsnes is a town and is the administration center for Rauma municipality in Møre og Romsdal. The city has 2,428 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020. The postal address is 6300 Åndalsnes. The center is located on a large sandbank on the right (eastern) side of Rauma's outlet.

The town is located at the bottom of Romsdalen, at the mouth of the river Rauma in Romsdalsfjorden. At Åndalsnes, Romsdalsfjorden crosses Isfjorden. The city is surrounded by high mountains of up to 1800 m, with Trolltindan, Vengetindan and Romsdalshornet as the most prominent.

Åndalsnes has significant tourist traffic and has a cruise port with around 30 annual calls. The place is a center for mountain sports in Norway and is marketed by the municipality as "Norway's peak capital". In July every year, the Norwegian Mountain Festival is held. As well as several music festivals including Trollblues and RaumaRock.

There are three schools at Åndalsnes, Rauma upper secondary school, Åndalsnes primary school and Åndalsnes secondary school.

Rauma culture house was inaugurated on 14 September 2007. There is a cinema hall, library, performance hall and rehearsal rooms.

The Norwegian peak center opened in 2016 in the center of Åndalsnes and mediates the development of the peak sport. Norwegian Peak Museum based on Arne Randers Hein's collections opened in 1991.

 

Communication

Åndalsnes is a communications center with industry, and is a trade and service center in inner Romsdal. The place is a traffic hub where county road 64 to Molde takes off from European road 136 between Ålesund and Dombås, and Åndalsnes station is also the terminus of the Rauma Railway, the only railway line in Møre and Romsdal.

In the period from the opening of the Rauma Railway until the three towns in the county each got their own airport, Åndalsnes was the county's communications centre. The three cities all had their corresponding scheduled buses to and from the trains on the Rauma line. There are still buses from Ålesund and Molde, which correspond with trains to/from Åndalsnes.

 

History

The name Åndalsnes is composed of the farm names Åndal and Nes, first combined when the post office Aandalsnæs opened in 1888. The postmark was changed to "Åndalsnes" in 1921. The interpretation of Åndal is uncertain, perhaps actually Åmdal after Old Norse amr for rusty red or dark. The place was called Nes (Næs) until modern times and is still used in everyday speech locally. According to Sandøy, the name is not due to the fact that Nes was a farm under Åndal. The farm Nes is probably the oldest settlement and the name is known from written sources in 1354 as "Nese j Raumsdale" when the farm was under the Giskegodset. The name "Åndal" appears in a land register for Reinsklosteret from around 1550 when Inger til Austrått had the estate in fief of the king. Both "Affuendal" and "Neessze" are mentioned in the land register from 1550. Later, the spellings "Andall", "Offuendal" and "Aandahl" have been used. Sandøy also has documentation for the forms "Omdal" and "Aamdahl". The interpretation of "Åndal" is uncertain, but Sandøy concludes with Old Norse "amr" (rust-red, dark from soil) as a possible origin.

In 1860, the farm Næs (today's Åndalsnes) on the right bank was chosen as the end point for the road, instead of the old beach site and end point Veblungsnes. The rationale for Åndalsnes rather than Veblungsnes as the end point was that Åndalsnes offered a better connection via Isfjorden and Åfarnes to Molde, that Åndalsnes had the possibility of a larger harbor facility and also that Åndalsnes was better suited for a future urban facility. In the 1860s, the road down Romsdalen to the farms Åndal and Nes was completed, and the new place Åndalsnes grew up.[8] The tourist ships eventually chose Åndalsnes as a port and during the 1880s the place emerged as the new tourist center in Romsdal.

Åndalsnes really became the center of inner Romsdal after the Rauma Railway was opened in 1924.

Rauma municipal council decided in 1996 that Åndalsnes can use the designation city.

Second World War
Early in the Second World War, Åndalsnes played an important role, during the campaign in Norway 1940. British forces were landed here 12–18. April. Åndalsnes was destroyed after German bombing during the German invasion, also Veblungsnes and Setnesmoen (the infantry emplacement) as well as British positions and ships were bombed. German planes began bombing Åndalsnes on the evening of 20 April. On the same day, six railway wagons arrived with Norges Bank's gold holdings. The bombing was particularly intense on 23 April and the following three days. The bombing continued until 30 April and 1 May, at most 400 bombs were dropped on that day. The cruisers "Carlisle" and "Curacoa" had anti-aircraft guns and remained at Åndalsnes, while "Manchester" and "Galatea" left Åndalsnes on 19 April after landing soldiers and material. The Norwegian torpedo boat "Trygg" and the British "Curacoa" were hit by bombs. Both military and civilian personnel died in the bombing. The British left Åndalsnes on 2 May, leaving behind a lot of destroyed war equipment. German army forces took Åndalsnes on 2 and 3 May. Parts of the gold holdings were loaded onto a British ship at Åndalsnes, the rest of the gold and cash holdings were sent on to Molde by lorry on 25 April.

The plan was to evacuate the British forces in Gudbrandsdalen from Åndalsnes by ship on the night between 30 April and 1 May. During the evacuation of Dombås on 30 April, a large train set with four locomotives, 14 passenger wagons and a number of goods wagons was sent towards Åndalsnes at night. The train derailed in a bomb hole at Lesjaverk, eleven soldiers were killed and several injured in the accident. The derailment at Lesjaverk delayed the evacuation by one day. The British forces were evacuated while Veblungsnes burned after bombing earlier in the day. The fire on Veblungsnes was so intense that the highest mountain peaks glowed red in the darkness of the night.

Martin Linge left Oslo by train on 9 April and took part as a conscription lieutenant in the battles at Åndalsnes, and served as a liaison officer between Norwegian and British forces. Linge led, among other things, work on the landing of British forces. Linge was injured in the work on the provisional airport at Setnesmoen and was one of the first to be evacuated to Great Britain on 30 April. Intelligence officer Eric Welsh lived in Norway and reported to Åndalsnes, evacuating on 29 April.

The ministers Anders Rasmus Frihagen, Trygve Lie, Birger Ljungberg and Oscar Torp had arrived in Åndalsnes on 18 April. The king and crown prince traveled through Romsdalen to Åndalsnes on the evening of 22 April. The king and crown prince left Åndalsnes for Molde on 23 April by boat from Åfarnes.

On 26 April, the five remaining Gloster Gladiator planes from Lesjaskogsvatnet were moved to Setnesmoen (where a small airstrip had been cleared on the exercise ground) and flew from there. The Gladiator planes lacked oskygen equipment and the German bombers over Åndalsnes rose to such a high altitude that the Gladiator planes could not follow.

Arvid S. Kapelrud came down Romsdalen on the night of 30 April and then the fire at Åndalsnes was so intense that it reflected the snow-covered Trolltinde. It looked like the mountain itself was burning, wrote Kapelrud.

After the hostilities in April 1940, mostly only the foundation walls remained of the settlement in Åndalsnes. The railway station building and a couple of houses survived. The population was accommodated in barracks or they built roofs over the foundation walls and lived in cellars. The occupying power was strongly present for the rest of the war. Åndalsnes was one of 24 destroyed towns that were subjected to the regulation work carried out by Brente Steders Regulering, under the leadership of Sverre Pedersen and under the supervision of Planning Minister Albert Speer.

In the autumn of 1944, six Soviet prisoners of war escaped from camps at Åndalsnes and at Marstein over the mountain to Valldal, where they were hidden by the local population until the war was over.

Timeline 1940
from 9 April Martin Linge to Setnesmoen to register
17-18. April: British forces landed, the Gleditsch couple with the "High Command's information office"
18 April: ministers Frihagen, Lie, Ljungberg and Torp to Åndalsnes on reconnaissance
April 20 at 4:30: The gold transport to Åndalsnes
23rd of April:
The king and members of the government to Molde with the boat DS "Romsdal" from Åfarnes to Molde at night.
Åndalsnes was bombed, no people were injured, minor material damage.
The passenger vessels DS "Sigurd Jarl" and DS "Rauma" were bombed and sank.
night of April 24: Parts of the gold together with Øivind Lorentzen and Arne Sunde to Great Britain with the cruiser HMS "Galatea"
25 April: The rest of the gold by truck to Molde
April 26: Five Gloster Gladiators moved from Lesjaskogsvatnet to Setnesmoen
30 April: British forces evacuated Dombås in the direction of Åndalsnes
1 May: Veblungsnes burned after a German air raid
2 May: Last British forces evacuated from Åndalsnes, German forces led by Richard Pellengahr moved in

Fallen
Jens Fløttum (born 1903 in Singsås), served in the engineering force, died during bombing on 30 April
Tord Høivik (born 1915 in Øvre Eiker), lieutenant in the air force then the infantry, died during bombing 29-30. April
Karl Vilnes Jørgensen (born 1919 in Skodje), volunteer lorry driver at Setnesmoen, died during bombing in Romsdalen on 25 April
Knut Myking (born 1913 in Herefoss) lieutenant in the engineering force, died on 30 April after being wounded at Setnesmoen
Harald Martin Olsen (born 1917 in Lillehammer) served in the army's sanitation, died when Setnesmoen was bombed on the night of 1 May.
Martin E. Sylte (born 1907 at Ringebu), wounded during bombing of Setnesmoen, evacuated to Orkney, where he died on 8 May
Johan Arnulf Tandsæther (born 1910 in Kolbu), died when Setnesmoen was bombed on 29 April.
Jonas Monrad Uri (born 1897 in Norddal), died when Setnesmoen was bombed on 30 April.

 

Media

Åndalsnes Avis is published in Åndalsnes.
Radio Rauma FM formerly local radio, originally had the name Radio Rauma.

Sport
Åndalsnes IF