Porsgrunn is a town and municipality in the county of Telemark, Norway.
Porsgrunn was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The town of Brevik, and the rural district of Eidanger, were merged with Porsgrunn January 1, 1964. Porsgrunn borders the municipalities of Skien and Siljan to the north, Bamble in the west and Larvik in the east. It is part of a cluster of municipalities south in Telemark that constitute the Grenland area of Norway.
Porsgrunn is situated at the mouth of the river Telemarksvassdraget and is an important center of industry. The town is first mentioned in 1576 ("Porsgrunn"). It gets it's name from a small, now flooded, island in the river overgrown with the shrub pors (Myrica gale) and the norwegian word grunn meaning 'ground'. Until 1931 the name was written "Porsgrund".
History
Porsgrunn has been an important harbor town in the Grenland area since the late 16th century. In 1653, the Customs House was moved further down the Telemarksvassdraget from Skien to Porsgrunn mainly because industrial waste such as sawdust and mud made the river too shallow to allow boats to go any further up the river. Moving the Customs House from Skien to Porsgrunn in 1653 added to the flourishing harbor activity, and Porsgrunn became a thriving market town. It was granted limited city status in 1807, but this was expanded to full city status in 1842.
Industry
Porsgrunn has a long history of heavy industry.
Important industries in Porsgrunn include:
Transport
Transport links from Porsgrunn:
Famous people from Porsgrunn
References
Books
Footnotes
External links
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