Thursday, 4 June 2015 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Free Trade Association Category/Kategorie: GeneralReading Time: 4minutes
Kongsberg is a town and municipality in Buskerud county. It is located at the southern end of the traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsberg. The town was founded in 1624 under the name Konings Bierg by Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV as a mining community. It was granted its royal charter of trade—amounting to official township—in 1802. The municipality of Kongsberg was established on 1 January 1838 (see Formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipalities of Ytre Sandsvær and Øvre Sandsvær were merged into the municipality of Kongsberg on 1 January 1964.
Today, Kongsberg is perhaps best known for being the home of Norway’s major defence contractor, Kongsberg Gruppen, formerly Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk. Two of its well known products were the Kongsberg Colt and the Krag–Jørgensen rifle. The latter was adopted in the late 19th century as the standard army rifle in Denmark, United States of America and Norway.
Kongsberg is particularly known for its old silver mines, from which roughly 1,350 tonnes (2,980,000 lb) of silver was extracted between the discovery of silver ore seams in 1623, and the last year of mining, in 1957. In 1770, the mines employed about 4,000 workers, and the town was the second largest in Norway, after Bergen (and thus larger than today’s capital, Oslo). Kongsberg is also home to the Mint of Norway (Norwegian: Det Norske Myntverket), which mints Norwegian coins and also produces circulating and collectors’ coins for other countries. It was established in 1686, and was renamed from the Royal Norwegian Mint (Norwegian: Den Kongelige Mynt) in 2004 after having been sold to private investors in 2003.
The town is known for many great ski jumpers. Birger Ruud and his two brothers, as well as many other townsmen, such as Petter Hugsted, won numerous medals in Winter Olympics and other international championships in the 1930s and 1940s. A large ski centre for alpine skiing and snowboarding, with several lifts and ca 320 m of height difference has been in operation and gradually expanding since 1965. Kongsberg hosted the cross-country skiing parts of the 2006 Nordic skiing National Championships. The arranging sportsclub was IL Skrim, the ski tracks being located at Heistadmoen, a former military camp. Since 1964, Kongsberg has hosted Kongsberg Jazzfestival, an annual international jazz festival. Heavily sponsored by the local industry, prominent world acts such as BB King, Diana Krall, Ornette Coleman, Joshua Redman and John Scofield have played at the festival in recent years.
