Arendal is a town and a municipality in Agder county. The
municipality of Arendal is often referred to as a large municipality
after five municipalities, Arendal, Hisøy, Tromøy, Moland and
Øyestad, were merged on 1 January 1992. The number of inhabitants in
the municipality is 44,999 as of 1 January 2020.
Arendal is
first mentioned as an important port in a customs account from 1528.
In 1610, Peder Claussøn Friis says that Arendal was a charging
station. There are many indications that Arendal is the oldest town
on Agder. Arendal received full market town rights in 1723. The town
of Arendal has 37,815 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020.
The
municipality borders in the southwest towards Grimstad, in the
northwest towards Froland, and in the northeast towards Tvedestrand.
To the southeast, the municipality has a long coastline towards the
Skagerrak.
Geography and nature
Topography
Arendal's topography is
characterized by the coastline that runs in a direction from
northeast to southwest. The landscape is dominated by fracture zones
that partly run parallel to the coastline, partly north – south. The
valleys in the fracture zones have steep slopes up to heaths located
at about 100 masl. The highest peaks are Skrattereidknuten (222 m
above sea level) which is the border between Arendal, Tvedestrand
and Froland in the far northwest of the municipality, and
Rindfjellet (254 m above sea level) southwest of the municipality.
The islands
Three large islands are located along Arendal's
coastline, from west Hisøy and Tromøy separated by Galtesund, and
furthest east Flosterøya. Outside and between these are a number of
smaller islands: Outside Galtesund are Merdø and Torungene as well
as Havsøya, outside Nedenes are Jerkholmen and Gjervoldsøy.
Together, the islands in the municipality form a fantastic
archipelago. Before the amalgamation of municipalities in 1992, the
three large islands each formed their own municipality.
"Venice of the North" is a widely used characteristic of Arendal.
One then thought of the old city center where, according to
tradition, the buildings were erected on seven islets. Between the
islets there were canals, as in Venice. "The city with the
waterways" is the name of recent tourist brochures, and then one
thinks of the many navigable leaders of the leisure fleet in sea or
fresh water. The discussion is constantly about whether the city
should dig up one or more of the refilled canals, and Kanalplassen
is one of the city's gathering points. Canal Street is the city's
jazz and blues festival.
Waterways and watercourses
The
good harbor and the outlet for one of the country's largest rivers
have created the city of Arendal. The harbor basin, which is often
called "Byfjorden", is a closed and clean sea area and is surrounded
by old buildings on all sides. From here, two straits lead out to
the open sea, namely Tromøysund to the east, and Galtesund to the
south.
From the west, the Nidelva, which is part of the
Arendal watercourse, flows into the Byfjord. The Nidelva has two
outlets, one on each side of Hisøy; inside the island, the river
forms a small lake, Hølen. Smaller vessels can operate the river
channel up to Helle, and they can go both river outlets south or
west of Hisøy. Here also an idyllic tributary, Lillelv, flows into
the Nidelva. It forms waterfalls that were previously exploited. The
area around the Nidelva below Rygenefossen constituted Øyestad
municipality. Around Rygenefossen, a small industrial site, Rygene,
was established in the 19th century.
Further east in the
municipality there are two smaller watercourses. The Barbu
watercourse has a fairly small catchment area around Longumvannet
and is drained through Barbuelva. This river has small waterfalls,
and was important for business development in Arendal from the 16th
century. The Molandsvassdraget begins with several small lakes and
streams in the forests northernmost in the municipality.
Molandsvannet is divided into several fjords separated by narrow
straits. The watercourse is drained through the Sagene River, which
has several waterfalls; here, too, there were upswing, milling and
milling activities around the river. From Sagene there is a passable
waterway through canals and water, Rånene, out to Neskilen by
Tromøysund. The area around these two watercourses inside Tromøysund
previously formed the municipalities of Austre Moland and Stokken.
Climate
Arendal has a coastal climate, with relatively mild
and short winters, and moderately warm summers. The open sea, even
in winter, means that the winter temperature is relatively high. The
normal at Store Torungen lighthouse, measured from 1960 to 1990,
shows that the coldest month is February with an average of −0.8 and
the warmest month is July with 15.5; while October is usually the
month with the most precipitation, 112 mm. April usually has at
least 42 mm of precipitation.