Kongsberg

Kongsberg (lit. The King's Mountain) is a municipality and town in the county of Buskerud, Norway. It has 22,657 inhabitants as of January 1, 2002. Including the surrounding rural districts, the administrative area is 792 km². The town was founded in 1624 under the name Konings Bierg by Danish/ Norwegian king Christian IV as a mining community (see below), and was granted its royal charter of trade, thus making it a proper town, in 1802.

Kongsberg is particularly known for its old silver mines, from which roughly 1350 metric tons of silver was extracted between the discovery of silver ore in 1623, and the last year of mining, in 1957. In 1814, following several hard years, mining was complemented by defence industry, the latter gradually evolving into many other kinds of high-tech activities as well, and dominating the town's employment (see Kongsberg Gruppen).

Kongsberg is home to the Mint of Norway (Det Norske Myntverket), which exclusively makes Norwegian coins. It was established in 1686, and was renamed from Royal Norwegian Mint (Den Kongelige Mynt) in 2004 after being sold to private investors in 2003.

Kongsberg is also known for many great ski jumpers. Birger Ruud and many others won numerous medals in Olympic and other international championships in the 1930th and 40th. Their medals and equipment can be seen at Kongsberg Ski Museum which is co-located with Norwegian Mining Museum (Norsk Bergverksmuseum) in central Kongsberg.

de:Kongsberg nl:Kongsberg no:Kongsberg