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