Farsund

is a town and municipality in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway.

The town of Farsund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt), although already recognized as a trading center in 1795. The rural municipalities of Herad, Lista, and Spind were merged with Farsund on 1 January 1965.

Farsund is a coastal municipality, bordering on Kvinesdal municipality in the north and Lyngdal in the north and east. In terms of square mileage it is one of the smallest municipalities in Vest-Agder county, yet one of the largest in number of inhabitants. The municipality of Farsund has about 9,400 inhabitants, concentrated in three centres of population: Farsund town, Vanse, and Vestbygda.

Name
The first element is far n 'travel, journey' (like in English farewell 'good journey'), the last element is sund n 'strait, sound'.

Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms has been used since 1900 or 1901. It shows four linden trees (Tilia). Since around 1750 four linden trees stand in the center of the town.

Economy
The largest industries are Alcoa Lista, an aluminium plant, and Farsund Aluminium Casting AS, which makes auto parts of aluminium. Historically, shipping and fisheries have also been important. Farsund is the largest agricultural district in the county of Vest-Agder, having 26 km² productive land, 88 km² forest, and 17 km² freshwater areas. Farsund was already organized as a trading centre in 1795, and in 1995 celebrated its 200 year jubilee.

Famous residents

 * Eilert Sundt
 * Abraham Berge
 * Kjell Elvis
 * James DeNoon Reymert