is a coastal
town and a
municipality|Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...
in
Østfoldis a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The county administration is in Sarpsborg, and Fredrikstad is the largest city....
county||-|Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 431 municipalities...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Moss. The city of Moss was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see
formannskapsdistriktFormannskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837...
). The rural municipality of
JeløyJeløy is a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway.Jeløy was established as a municipality January 1, 1838...
was merged with the city on 1 July 1943.
Its administrative district covers areas east of the town, such as the island of Dillingøy in the lake
VansjøVansjø is a lake in the municipalities of Moss, Råde, Rygge, Våler in Østfold county, Norway. It has an area of 36.9 km² and an estimated coastline of about 250 km. Etymologically the name likely derives from "Varna sjor", the ancient name of the municipality of Rygge...
. Parts of the town are located on the peninsula of Jeløy. Moss city has 40,217 inhabitants (2007).
Name
The
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
form of the name was
Mors. It may be derived from an old root
mer- which means to "divide" or "split".
The adjacent topography shares similar etymology:
Mosse-elva. Mosse -"marsh-river-border (Moses?)"+ Elva -"see Elbe,
Elver Old Norse for river" The name is thought to be very old and the meaning of it is not clear.
Mosse-sundet. Mosse-"marsh-river-border (Moses?)"+ Sundet -"Sound, South?"
Mosse-herred. Mosse-"marsh-river-border (Moses?)"+ Herred -"Court" akin to hort(us,en), "garden," from PIE *ghr-ti-, from base *gher- "to grasp, enclose" (see yard)
Coat-of-arms
The
coat-of-armsA coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways. Historically, they were used by knights to identify them apart from enemy...
is from modern times. They were granted on 2 April 1954. Moss became a separate city in 1786 and received its first seal in the same year. The seal showed a church under some clouds, the whole thing placed within a circle. Above the circle there were some
fascesFasces symbolize summary power and jurisdiction, and/or "strength through unity"...
, the freedom symbol of the late 19th century. A later seal, dating from around 1829, shows the same composition, but now also with six
birdBirds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...
s flying around the church.
When in the 1930s the city wanted to adopt a coat-of-arms and the birds were chosen as a possible symbol. The original birds probably were
dovePigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds. In general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s, symbol of peace. In 1934, the idea of the
crowThe true crows are large passerine birds that form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-sized jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on...
was launched, since the nickname of the inhabitants was 'crows'. The arms were finally granted in 1954 and show a yellow crow on a red background. It was designed by Christian Stenersen.
History
Archeological finds suggest that there were settlements in the area more than 7,000 years ago and continuously through the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
,
Viking AgeViking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the eighth to eleventh centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
, through to modern times. During the Viking era, the place was known as
Varna (forne, vorne, front-protection?) and was the site of a cooperative for battleships held by local warlords on behalf of the king.
The first literary reference to the name Mo(u)ſs(ß) is from 1390 "Gothic Minuscule", and by then the town had become a commercial center with craftsmen and mills. By the 1500s, the town's port was significant enough to warrant its own customs official. Liquor
distilleriesDistillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
became one of the dominant industries, and it wasn't until 1607, after the
ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
, that the town got its own church.
By 1700, Moss had become a hub for both ship and land traffic between
CopenhagenCopenhagen ; ) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179...
and
Christianiais the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the town was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania . Oslo, then an alternative name, became official again in 1925...
, and in 1720 it received its charter as a merchant town, with its own official. This may have had background in an important battle in 1716 that was fought in the town square in Moss in which Norwegian troops commanded by Vincent Budde prevailed over invading Swedish forces, sent by
Charles XIICharles XII was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718....
to capture
Akershus FortressAkershus Fortress or Akershus Castle is the old castle built to protect Oslo, the capital of Norway. It has also been used as a prison.- Construction :...
.
In 1814, Moss became the site for the signing of the Convention of Moss, which effectively put an end to the
Dano-NorwegianDenmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...
kingdom. This set the stage for economic development that has persisted to this day.
On the morning of 14 July 2006, a
bolideA meteoroid is a sand to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor. If a meteoroid reaches the ground, it is then called a meteorite. Many meteors are part of a meteor shower...
exploded above the nearby town of Rygge - moments later, several stony
meteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
s fell over Moss. A number of meteorites were recovered by local residents and visiting meteorite hunters, which after analysis and classification, were found to be a rare type of
carbonaceous chondriteCarbonaceous chondrites or C chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites comprising at least 7 known groups and many ungrouped meteorites. They include some of the most primitive known meteorites...
.
Norwegian lady statues
Moss and
Virginia Beach, VirginiaVirginia Beach is an independent city located in the South Hampton Roads area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Although Fairfax County is the most populous jurisdiction, Virginia Beach is the most populous city in Virginia and the 42nd largest city in the...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
are sister cities. On Good Friday, 27 March 1891, the Norwegian bark
Dictator, whose home port was Moss, was lost in the treacherous waters of the
Graveyard of the AtlanticGraveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname given to the treacherous waters in the Atlantic Ocean along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the Virginia coastline south of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry...
. The ship had been en route to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from
Pensacola, FloridaPensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2007, the estimated population was 54,283....
with a cargo of Georgia Pine
lumberLumber or timber is wood that is used in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
. After being caught and disabled in a storm, she was headed for port at Hampton Roads,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
to make repairs when she encountered another storm just off Virginia Beach.
Working in the high winds and seas, lifesaving crews from shore were able to save some of the 17 persons aboard. However, the pregnant wife of Captain J.M. Jorgensen, Johanne, and their 4 year-old son Carl were among the 7 persons who drowned.
The ship's wooden female
figureheadA figurehead is a carved wooden decoration, often female or bestial, found at the prow of ships largely made between the 16th and 19th century.-History:Although earlier ships had often had some form of bow ornamentation A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration, often female or bestial, found at...
had washed ashore. It was placed in a vertical position facing the ocean near the
boardwalkA boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden path for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles. Boardwalks are often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments. Boardwalks along intertidal zones are known as...
as a memorial to those who lost their lives in the
shipwreckA shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, it having either been sunk or beached. A shipwreck can refer to a wrecked ship or to the event that caused the wreck, such as the striking of something that causes the ship to sink, the stranding of the ship on rocks, land or shoal, or the...
. It was a landmark there for more than 60 years, but gradually became weathered and eroded.
In 1962, Norwegian sculptor
Ørnulf BastØrnulf Bast was a Norwegian sculptor, born in Kristiania 1907 and died in Oslo 1974.Among his works were the 2 identical bronze Norwegian Lady Statues, dedicated in 1962, which were placed in Moss, Norway and Virginia Beach, Virginia facing each other across the ocean...
was commissioned to create two nine-foot bronze replicas of the original figurehead by the City of Moss. The
Norwegian Lady StatuesNorwegian Lady Statues are located in the sister cities of Moss, a coastal town and municipality in the county of Østfold, Norway, and at the Oceanfront in the coastal resort city of Virginia Beach, Virginia in the United States...
were unveiled on 22 September 1962. One was presented as a gift to Virginia Beach, and an exact duplicate was erected in Moss to unite the two sister cities. Each statue faces the other across the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
.
On 13 October 1995, Her Majesty
Queen Sonja of NorwayQueen Sonja of Norway is the wife of King Harald V of Norway. -Prior to marriage:Sonja was born in Oslo on 4 July 1937 as the daughter of Dagny Ulrichsen and Karl August Haraldsen ....
visited the Norwegian Lady statue in Virginia Beach, and placed memorial flowers.
Industry
The town is known for
paper millA paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from wood pulp and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier Machine or similar apparatus.A website that collects and distributes essay papers on the internet, either free or for a fee is known as "web paper mills"...
s, as well as
metalworksMetalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to precise engine parts and delicate jewellery. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of skills,...
and other factories. Dillingøy is known as a place for alternative non-military
civil serviceThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
. Moss is mentioned since the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
and was the site of the signing of the Convention of Moss in 1814, which solidified the union with
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
. The headquarters of textile producer Helly-Hansen are located here. The maker of international hotel keycards, Trio Ving, also has their headquarters here.
Transportation
In the autumn of 2007, the military airport called Rygge just outside Moss was converted into a civil airport.
Moss Airport, RyggeMoss Airport, Rygge is an international airport in Rygge, Norway that opened October 8, 2007. The airport is planned to serve as a regional airport for Østfold as well as an international airport for low cost airlines and as a secondary airport for Oslo...
received the IATA code RYG. The project initially started in 1992 was dubbed RSL an acronym for
Rygge sivile lufthavn (Rygge civilian airport).
A ferry line (the Bastø Ferry) across the Oslo Fjord runs between Moss and
Hortenis a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the villages of Borre, Åsgårdstrand, Skoppum, and Nykirke....
in
Vestfoldis a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg.Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates. It includes many smaller, but well-known towns in Norway, such as Larvik, Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Horten. The river Numedalslågen runs...
.
Sister cities
The following cities are
twinnedSister cities, also known as town twinning, is an agreement between towns, cities and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties...
with Moss: -
AguacatánAguacatán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is situated at 1670m above sea level. It has a population of 41,000. It covers a terrain of 300km2.-Geography:...
, Huehuetenango,
GuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its size is just under 110,000 km² with an estimated population...
-
BlönduósBlönduós is a small settlement in northern part of Iceland in the county of Austur-Húnavatnssýsla, 245 km from Reykjavík. The town has a population of around 1000, a small 9-hole golf course and is a good base for touring around the Húnaflói area....
,
Austur-HúnavatnssýslaAustur-Húnavatnssýsla is a county of Iceland. It is located in the Norðurland vestra region of the country....
,
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
-
HorsensHorsens municipality is a municipality in Region Midtjylland on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality includes the island of Endelave, and covers an area of 542 km². It has a total population of ca. 80,102 . Its mayor is Jan Trøjborg, a member of the Social...
,
MidtjyllandCentral Denmark Region or Central Jutland Region is an administrative region of Denmark established on January 1, 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which replaced the traditional counties with five larger regions. At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
-
KarlstadKarlstad Municipality is a municipality in Värmland County in west central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Karlstad....
,
VärmlandVärmland County is a county or län in west central Sweden. It borders the Swedish counties of Dalarna, Örebro and Västra Götaland, as well as the Norwegian counties of Østfold, Akershus and Hedmark to the west.- Province :...
,
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
-
NokiaNokia is a town and a municipality on the banks of the Nokianvirta River in the region of Pirkanmaa and the province of Western Finland, some west of Tampere. As of it has a population of .- History :...
,
Länsi-Suomen lääniThe Province of Western Finland is a province of Finland. It borders the provinces of Oulu, Eastern Finland and Southern Finland. It also borders the Gulf of Bothnia towards Åland.- Former provinces :...
,
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
-
NovgorodVeliky Novgorod is the foremost historic city of North-Western Russia and the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. Translated from Russian, its name means roughly "The Great New City" or "The Big New City"...
,
Novgorod OblastNovgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The administrative center is the city of Veliky Novgorod. Some of the oldest Russian cities, including Veliky Novgorod and Staraya Russa, are located there...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
-
Virginia Beach, VirginiaVirginia Beach is an independent city located in the South Hampton Roads area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Although Fairfax County is the most populous jurisdiction, Virginia Beach is the most populous city in Virginia and the 42nd largest city in the...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
External links