Skien

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Skien kommune
—  Municipality  —
Skien church
Coat of arms Telemark within Norway
Skien within Telemark
Coordinates: 59°12′29″N 9°33′10″E / 59.20806°N 9.55278°E / 59.20806; 9.55278
Country	Norway
County	Telemark
District	Grenland
Municipality ID	NO-0806
Administrative centre	Skien
Government
- Mayor (2003)	Rolf Erling Andersen (Ap)
Area (Nr. 140 in Norway)
- Total	779 km2 (300.8 sq mi)
- Land	719 km2 (277.6 sq mi)
Population (2007)
- Total	50,595
- Density	70/km2 (181.3/sq mi)
- Change (10 years)	4.6 %
- Rank in Norway	12
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Official language form	Neutral
Data from Statistics Norway
Website	www.skien.kommune.no

Skien (help·info) is a city and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Skien. Skien is also the administrative centre of Telemark county.

The municipality of Skien was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipalities of Gjerpen and Solum were merged into the municipality of Skien on 1 January 1964.

The conurbation of Skien and Porsgrunn is considered by Statistics Norway to be the seventh largest city in Norway straddling an area of three municipalities: Skien municipality (about 52% of the population), Porsgrunn (35%), and Bamble (11.5%). The area is home to more than 85,000 people.

Contents 1 General information 1.1 Name 1.2 Coat-of-arms 2 History 3 Transportation 3.1 Roads 3.2 Water 3.3 Railroads 3.4 Air 4 Culture and Recreation 4.1 Museums 4.2 Music and Entertainment 4.3 Amusement Parks 4.4 Food 4.5 Media 5 Sports 5.1 Arenas 5.2 Teams 6 Economy 6.1 Commerce and industry 6.2 Shopping 7 Notable residents 8 Sister cities 9 References 10 External links

[edit] General information

[edit] Name

The Old Norse form of the name was Skiða (from the word skiða which means "straight plank"), and the town is probably named after a brook (with a straight run) with this name.

[edit] Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms are derived from the oldest known seal of the city, dating back to 1609. The seal shows two skis and in the middle a cross, with a small star on the crosspoint. The skis are a semi-canting element (based on a misunderstanding of the meaning of the town's name) and the cross is a religious symbol. There have been several theories about the meaning of the cross, but its meaning is not clearly known. It has been suggested that it is a symbol for the main church in Skien, the Holy Cross church. The small star may be a symbol of St. Mary as the second medieval church of Skien was devoted to her. Besides the skis and cross, there are two meadow buttercups on each side.

In 1854, the arms were shown as two skis, but the cross was now made from ski poles, as another canting element. This remained so until the early half of the 20th century.

In the 1980s, the city officially adopted the current arms, which are identical to the oldest seal. The colours are the colours that have been used since the 19th century. The differences between the seal and the present arms are that in the arms the cross is placed on top of the skis and the star is changed from a four-pointed star to a six-pointed star, and that the cross is made of ski-poles.^[1]

[edit] History

Until 1979, it was believed that Skien was founded in the 14th century. However, the archaeological find of a carving of the Skien animal has established its founding to before 1000 A.D. The city was then a meeting place for inland farmers and sailing traders, and also as a shipping harbour for whetstones from Eidsborg (inland Telemark). The settlement can be traced back to the 11th century, and Gimsøy Abbey was founded in the 12th century. Skien was given formal commercial town rights by the Danish crown in 1358. Timber has historically been the most dominant export product from Skien. The oldest remaining building is Gjerpen church (built in approximately 1150).

The current town layout was fixed after the last town fire in 1886. In 1964, the rural municipalities Solum and Gjerpen were merged together with Skien town, forming the Skien municipality.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Roads

[edit] Water

Skien is one terminus for the Telemark Canal (Norwegian: Telemarkskanalen), which consists of two canals. In Europe, canals were commonly built in the pre-railroad period to transport goods, timber, and passengers.

• The “Norsjø-Skienskanalen”, with one terminus at Skien and the other at Løveid, was built in 1854–1861, and is the oldest of the two canals.
• The “Bandak-Nordsjøkanalene” continued the canal beyond Løveid. It was opened in 1892.

Skien harbour is located at Vold havneterminal.

[edit] Railroads

Skien was connected to the Norwegian railway network (Vestfoldbanen) in 1882. In 1919, Bratsbergbanen opened between Skien and Notodden. Norges Statsbaner still operates regular train services on both railways.

[edit] Air

The local airport is called Skien Airport, Geiteryggen and serves domestic flights to Bergen and Stavanger as well as international flights to Stockholm by the airline Vildanden.

[edit] Culture and Recreation

[edit] Museums

Telemark Museum is located in Skien. Skien was the birthplace of the author and playwright Henrik Ibsen. At Venstøp in Skien, you can find the Venstøp Farm, established as the Ibsen Museum in 1958.

[edit] Music and Entertainment

[edit] Amusement Parks

[edit] Food

[edit] Media

The daily newspapers Varden and Telemarksavisa are published in Skien. The local television for Telemark, TVTelemark, is located in Skien.

[edit] Sports

[edit] Arenas Gjerpenhallen Mælahallen Skagerak Arena Skienshallen Skien Ishall Skien Isstadion

[edit] Teams Gjerpen I.F. (handball) Odd Grenland (football) Sceen Curling Klubb (curling) Skien Ishockeyklubb (ice hockey) Tollnes Ballklubb (football)

[edit] Economy

[edit] Commerce and industry

The largest industries are ABB Asea Brown Boveri (engineering firm), Norske Skog Union (a paper mill which was closed down in the spring of 2006), and EFD Induction (induction heating and induction welding).

Other important places of work are the Sykehuset Telemark (hospital) and the Fylkesmannen (local Norwegian State Administration).

[edit] Shopping

Skien has four shopping malls:

• Handelsbyen Herkules (110 stores, 15 food places)
• Arkaden Skien Storsenter (44 stores, 6 food places)
• Lietorvet Senter (29 stores, 2 food places)
• Klosterfoss (10 stores)

[edit] Notable residents

[edit] Sister cities

The following cities are twinned with Skien:^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Skien

Look up Skien in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway
• Telemark travel guide from Wikitravel
• Skien travel guide from Wikitravel
• Municipal website (Norwegian)
• Municipal website (English)

v • d • e Municipalities of Telemark Bamble · Bø · Drangedal · Fyresdal · Hjartdal · Kragerø · Kviteseid · Nissedal · Nome · Notodden · Porsgrunn · Sauherad · Seljord · Siljan · Skien · Tinn · Tokke · Vinje File:Skien våpen.svg

v • d • e 30 most populous urban settlements (cities) of Norway as of 2008, according to Statistics Norway [1] 1. Oslo 856,900 2. Bergen 223,600 3. Stavanger / Sandnes 185,900 4. Trondheim 156,800 5. Fredrikstad / S'borg1 100,500 6. Drammen 94,900 7. Skien / Porsgrunn 86,300 8. Kristiansand 66,500 9. Tromsø 54,100 10. Tønsberg 46,900 11. Ålesund 45,900 12. Haugesund 42,100 13. Sandefjord 40,600 14. Moss 40,300 15. Bodø 36,100 16. Arendal 32,100 17. Hamar 29,800 18. Larvik 23,600 19. Halden 22,700 20. Lillehammer 19,900 21. Harstad 19,500 22. Molde 19,200 23. Kongsberg 18,600 24. Gjøvik 18,400 25. Askøy 18,100 26. Horten 18,000 27. Mo i Rana 17,700 28. Kristiansund 16,900 29. Jessheim 14,600 30. Hønefoss 14,200 1 Sarpsborg.