Drøbak (of "drøye bakker") is a former market town, now a town on the east side of Drøbaksundet. Drøbak is the administration center in Frogn municipality in Akershus in Viken county, and had 13,485 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020.
Drøbak and Frogn were separated from Ås parish by royal res.
September 8, 1823.
In the middle of the 17th century, the
beach town Drøbak in the Frogn annex was under Ås parish, and during
the 17th and 18th centuries, a larger settlement gradually grew up
on the shoreline. That Drøbak would soon grow into a charging
station and later a city is not due to coincidence. At Husvik and
Kaholmene there was a good harbor and at Sundbrygga a ferry terminal
arose. In Drøbaksundet, the fjord was at its narrowest and here you
could cross the fjord relatively easily. Drøbak harbor also remained
ice-free longer in the winter than the harbors around Christiania.
When navigating large sailing ships in narrow waters was difficult.
When the fjord froze to ice within Drøbak, the goods were
transported by horse and sleigh to Christiania. That is why Drøbak
was important.
The properties Drøbakstrand, Vennebekkstrand
and Husvik were three small homesteads under the farm Holter and
constituted what together became the charging station Drøbak in the
middle of the 18th century.
Drøbak was granted purchase
rights on 20 August 1842 and thus became a town; the only one in
Akershus at that time. In 1962, the Schei committee decided that
Drøbak should cease to be a separate municipality and be
incorporated into Frogn rural municipality. Thus, Drøbak no longer
had city status in the legal sense. Drøbak regained its city status
in 2006, following a decision by the municipal council.
The
Oslo Fjord is at its narrowest in Drøbaksundet, and when there are
severe winters, the fjord can freeze again from Drøbak to Oslo. In
the old days, therefore, Drøbak functioned as a winter port for
Oslo. For defense reasons, an underwater pier was built in the 19th
century - Drøbakjeteen, on the Hurum side of the strait so that
foreign warships were forced to the east in the passage where the
Norwegian fortifications were strongest.
An important event
in Drøbak's history was the sinking of the German cruiser "Blücher"
during the German attack on Norway on the morning of April 9, 1940.
The cruiser transported German soldiers and bureaucrats for a
planned takeover of Oslo. But Commander Eriksen at Oscarsborg
Fortress, which is located on the other side of Drøbaksundet, on his
own initiative gave the order to protect the cruiser. The warship
was sunk and this delayed the German invasion. It was enough for the
government, parliament and royal family to be evacuated, and the
gold reserves were saved from the occupiers.
Tourism in Drøbak is not insignificant. Many tourists visit
Drøbak because of the city and the coast. The town has many
picturesque old houses. Many of them are outbuildings from the late
17th century onwards. The many art galleries, small shops and
exhibitions attract many visitors to the city during the summer.
Then the square and especially the beach is full of people. The town
also has Santa's Post Office. At the harbor in Drøbak, the sculpture
is of three mermaids, made by Reidar Finsrud and unveiled in 1999.
At Badeparken is Drøbak church, called Our Savior's Church,
which was consecrated on October 29, 1776. The church is inspired by
Our Savior's Church in Kristiania, the current Oslo Cathedral. The
church is architecturally a bit of a sight. Rococo in wood. Few such
churches remain.
Drøbak is often called the "bathing town",
this because the town has many beaches and was in the old days a
popular bathing place for Oslo residents. Of the beaches in Drøbak,
it is worth mentioning: Badeparken, Parrstranda, Torkildstranden and
Skiphelle.