Tvedestrand

is a town and municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative center is the village of Tvedestrand.

The town has a picturesque, white-painted town center with irregular streets climbing steep hills around the harbor. The natural beauty of the area makes it a popular tourist destination. The municipality includes numerous islands, which makes it a very popular place in the summer for boaters, who can easily find an island or an inlet for themselves which provides peace and quiet. The number of people in the county at least double in the summer, due to vacationers. There are approximately 1,700 summer cottages ("hytter") around the fjord. Tvedestrand has over 2,000 buildings that are more than 100 years old.

General information
The town of Tvedestrand was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1960, the rural municipalities of Dypvåg (population: 1,805) and Holt (population: 3,759) were merged with Tvedestrand (population: 868) to form a new municipality named Tvedestrand.

On 1 January 1962, the Strengereid area (population: 375) of Tvedestrand was transferred to neighboring Moland municipality. Then on 1 January 1964, the Holtegården area (population: 5) was transferred from Moland to Tvedestrand. The uninhabited Folevatnet area in Tvedestrand was transferred to the municipality of Risør on 1 January 1984.

Name
The first element is the genitive case of the name of the old Tveite farm (Old Norse: Þveitar) and the last element is strond which means "strand" or "beach". The name of the farm is the plural form of þveit which means "small farm".

Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 4 April 1986. The arms show a tern, a typical seabird, which was chosen as the village is dependent on the sea for its economy.

History
The church at Holt probably dates from the twelfth century and has an ancient baptismal font. The interior was decorated by Torsten Hoff.

Around 1600 Tvedestrand was mainly a harbour for the Berge and Tveite farms’ boats, hence the name Tvedestrand (strand means beach or coast in Norwegian).

Lyngør was the site of the Battle of Lyngør between English and Dano-Norwegian forces during the Napoleonic Wars resulting in the sinking of the frigate of the Dano-Norwegian forces, Najaden by the British ship-of-the-line Dictator in 1812.

The town as it now exists was built in the 19th century as a harbour for Norway's longest existing iron works, Næs jernverk. Lying in the parish of Holt, Næs jernverk has one of the largest and most significant of the surviving mansions in Sørlandet, built by Ulrich Schnell. Schnell bought up various iron works in the neighborhood and set up several sawmills in the district. He obtained a special license to export timber directly from Tvedestrand, establishing the basis for an international harbor.

Geography
Tvedestrand is a town and municipality that lies between Arendal to the west and Risør to the east. The municipality also borders on Froland, Åmli and Vegårshei. The municipality assumed its present borders in 1960 with the consolidation of Dypvåg and Holt municipalities and the port at Tvedestrand.

Tvedestrand belongs to the geographical region of Sørlandet. The town itself lies at the end of a picturesque fjord, Oksefjorden (originally Ufsefjorden, meaning the fjord with steep, rocky sides), while the municipality also encompasses the lovely islands Borøy and Sandøy as well as the unique village of Lyngør. Lyngør was acclaimed "Europe's best preserved village" by Europa Nostra in 1991.

The Storelva, one of the Southern Coast's best salmon and sea trout rivers, flows past Nes Ironworks, in Tvedestrand. Tvedestrand municipality includes 162 islands, with a collected coastline of 214 km.

Geology
A number of rare minerals are found in Tvedestrand:
 * Sunstone, a rare feldspar exhibiting in certain directions a brilliant spangled appearance, which has led to its use as a gemstone.
 * A rare yttrium phosphate mineral Xenotime.
 * Thulite (also called rosaline), an opaque, massive pink variety of the mineral zoisite.

Attractions

 * The 18th century Nes Iron Works are 7 km from the town center.
 * Tvedestrand is recognized as a book town, a small village with a large number of second-hand or antiquarian book shops.
 * Interesting Places in Tvedestrand municipality:
 * Lyngør, a cluster of offshore islands which have been described as the 'Skagerrak Venice' and proclaimed by the European Commission to be “Europe’s best preserved village.”
 * Sagesund village
 * Sandøya island, including the villages of Kilen and Klåholmen
 * Borøy island

Notable residents

 * Arne Garborg (1851–1924), author. In 1872, he founded and was editor of the Tvedestrandsposten newspaper (still published in 2008)
 * Knud Knudsen (1812–1895), linguistics scholar

Twin towns — Sister cities
The following cities are twinned with Tvedestrand:
 * 🇸🇪 Lysekil, Västra Götaland County, Sweden