Kongsberg

:This article is about the Norwegian town. For the eponymous industrial concern, see Kongsberg Gruppen (with links to subsidiary firms).

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Kongsberg (lit. The King's Mountain) is a municipality and town in the county of Buskerud, Norway. Including the surrounding rural districts, the administrative area is 792 km?. The town was founded in 1624 under the name Konings Bierg by Danish/Norwegian king Christian IV as a mining community (see below), and was granted its royal charter of trade—amounting to official township—in 1802.

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The neighbouring municipalities of Kongsberg are Flesberg to the north, ?vre Eiker and Hof to the east, Lardal, Siljan and Skien to the south, and Sauherad and Notodden to the west. Of these, the two first lie in Buskerud county like Kongsberg, while Hof and Lardal lie in Vestfold, and the others lie in Telemark. The town is divided by the river Numedalsl?gen, which has three waterfalls in the town itself. Main highways are the E134, crossing Kongsberg east-west (and connected to the E18 to Oslo), and National Highway no. 40 (Riksvei 40), going north-south. S?rlandsbanen railwayline stops at Kongsberg station, with connection to local and regional bus lines.

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Kongsberg is particularly known for its old silver mines, from which roughly 1350 metric tons of silver was extracted between the discovery of silver ore in 1623, and the last year of mining, in 1957. In 1770, the mines employed ca 4,000 workers, and the town was the second largest in Norway after Bergen. The large population needed a new church, which was built during 21 years and inaugurated in 1761, with a strict exterior, but a richly decorated baroque interior. It is one of the largest churches in Norway with a seating capacity of 2,400. The original organ built by the German Gottfried H. Gloger, has been fully restored and reopened in January 2001. At the end of January each year, the Gloger-festival now draws a select crowd of artists and music lovers from all over the world.

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Following several hard years with reduced silver output from the mines, the war 1807-1814, and a severe town fire in 1810 where 56 houses on the west side were destroyed, mining was complemented by the Government establishing a defence industry in 1814. During peaceful times, the defence industry gradually evolved into many other kinds of high-tech activities as well, now dominating the town's employment.

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In 1987, however, the state-owned Kongsberg Vaabenfabrik (KV) (lit.: Kongsberg Weapons Factory) suffered a major financial crisis as well as accusations of breaching the CoCom rules by selling sensitive technology to the Soviet bloc. As a result the company was split into several smaller units and partly sold to private investors. Today, the separate firms thrive as one of Norway's main high-tech industrial clusters, centering on the defence and maritime company Kongsberg Gruppen.

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Kongsberg is also home to the Mint of Norway (Det Norske Myntverket), which exclusively makes Norwegian coins. It was established in 1686, and was renamed from the Royal Norwegian Mint (Den Kongelige Mynt) in 2004 after having been sold to private investors (the Mint of Finland and Norwegian company Samlerhuset) in 2003.

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The town is known for many great ski jumpers. Birger Ruud and his two brothers, as well as many other townsmen, won numerous medals in Winter Olympics and other international championships in the 1930s and 40s. Their medals and equipment can be seen at the Kongsberg Skiing Museum which is co-located with the Norwegian Mining Museum (Norsk Bergverksmuseum) in central Kongsberg. A large ski center for slalom with several lifts and ca 320 m height difference has been in operation and gradually expanding since 1965.

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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.

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Kongsberg is also the hometown of composers and pianists Christian Sinding and Halfdan Cleve, as well as pianist H?kon Austb?.

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Municipality: A municipality or "general-purpose district" (compare with: "special-purpose district") is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government....

County: Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count. Counts are called "earls" in post-Celtic Great Britain and Ireland - the term is from Old Norse jarl and was introduced by the Vikings - but there is no correlation between "county" and "earldom." Rather, t...

Buskerud: Buskerud is a county in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark, and Vestfold. The county administration is located in Drammen....