Mandal is a town in Agder with 11,053 inhabitants. The city was
an administration center in the former Mandal municipality and is
now an administration center in the new municipality of Lindesnes.
The city is known for its salmon river, as a maritime city, and
for its industry with shipyards, production of boat engines and
textiles. Mandal is also known for its artists. Mandal became a
charging station in the 19th century, and gained city status in
1921.
The beginning
The mandal area is mentioned as
"Vester-Risør" at the end of the 14th century when King Erik of
Pomerania gave the place the right to trade in the later famous
mandal salmon. The settlement at this time, however, was not the
same place as the current town (settlement) is located, but at the
entrance to Skogsfjorden, a small trading place called Spidsbo. This
place is today a beach without buildings located in Furulunden just
west of the city center.
Today's city dates from the 16th
century. There were early settlements up in the Mandal River, called
Marndal or Mandal, and Mandal is thus one of the oldest cities in
the south - if not the oldest. In addition, there was a third
settlement in Kleven, where the natural harbor was crucial. Kleven
was a very important port along the coast of Agder in historical
times, and here was the pilot and customs station. The trading place
Vester-Risør is first mentioned with loading place privileges in
1632. Vester-Risør had the privileges renewed in 1662, under the
market town of Kristiansand, and with a name change to Mandal.
Sailing time
The town fire in 1810 took the old stone church
from the 16th century, which stood on the square down in the town.
Today's Mandal Church is from 1821 and Norway's largest wooden
church, built in the Empire style. Mandal was given its own
chairmanship and municipal self-government as a charging station in
1837. The 19th century was a pioneering time with great growth,
bustling art life and new businesses. Salmon fishing and trade made
Mandal a rich trading town, as evidenced by large, large bourgeois
houses. A handful of families with forest and salmon dishes made a
good living from fishing and exporting salmon and timber. The
prosperity is reflected in the statue "Mandalitten" in the center,
he has "salmon in his pockets, eggs in his shoes and fine bread in
his hat".
The industrial city
Mandal Hospital was built in
1877. The city was given the status of a market town on 1 July 1921,
and at the same time the municipal boundaries were expanded, with
i.a. Vestnes from the then Halse and Harkmark municipality.
After the First World War, industry began to come to the city, and
Mandal is known for its shipbuilding and engineering industries.
Large shipyards have delivered ships and ship equipment in Norway
and abroad: Westermoen Hydrofoil, Båtservice Verft by the
Skogsfjord, the later Umoe Mandal southeast of the mouth of the
Mandal River. The city also produced the legendary Marna boat
engines from 1930 to 1984.
The municipality has also been a
center for the development and construction of high-speed boats in
Norway since the early 1950s. It was Toralf Westermoen who started
this work. Since then, new speedboat concepts have been built and
developed continuously in the city. The Navy's new missile torpedo
boats of the Skjold class are currently under construction in Mandal
at the Umoe Mandal shipyard.
Furthermore, the textile
industry has been significant, with four industrial companies in the
heyday of the 1930s to 60s - Sjølingstad Uldvarefabrik, Buøy Veveri,
Mandal Kokosveveri and Mandal Veveri. In the last century, from time
to time, 2-300 people worked at the textile companies in the city.
During World War II, the German occupation forces built an
airport on the flat land on Vestnes, between Furulunden and
Skogsfjorden, and the airport made Mandal an Allied bomb target.
After the war, the airport was removed and the area was built with
detached houses. The city has continued to expand and today also
covers areas that were previously part of Halse and Harkmark,
including the Skinsnes business area and the Ime residential area
with its own school.