Mandal is the administrative centre of Mandal municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. It is the second largest town by population in Vest-Agder county after Kristiansand and the fourth largest town in the Sørlandet/Agder region. The town is located at the mouth of the riverMandalselva at the southern end of the Mandalen valley. The town has a population of 10,725 which gives the town a population density of. The town lies along the European route E39 highway, about southwest of the town of Kristiansand and about southeast of the town of Flekkefjord. Mandal has a few suburban villages lying just outside its borders such as Ime immediately to the east and Sånum to the southwest. The village of Krossen lies about to the north, along the Mandalselva river.
History
The area around what is today Mandal was not developed during the Middle Ages. During the 1300s, a trading post called Vester-Risør grew up along the Skogsfjorden, just west of the present-day town. The town began when King Eric of Pomerania gave the town the right to trade salmon. By the 1500s, Vesterrisør was a bustling kjøpstad, making it the oldest market town in Vest-Agder. During the 1600s, the name of the town was changed to Mandal. Salmon fishing and the timber industry pushed the town's growth even more during the 1700s. Mandal Church was completed in 1821 after the old church burned down in the town's fire of 1810. On 1 January1838, the kjøpstad was granted self-governing rights as a ladested under the new formannskapsdistrikt law. In 1921, Mandal received full town status under the law. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the town of Mandal was merged with the neighboring municipality of Halse og Harkmark and most of the municipality of Holum to form a new, larger municipality of Mandal. Today, the town is also a tourist destination, especially due to its Sjøsanden beach.
Name
The town is named after the valley in which it is located: Mandalen. The name Mandal which comes from the Old Norse nameMarnardalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river nameMǫrn and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". Prior to 1653, the town was named Vesterrisør. The name was originally referring to the islandRisøya outside the town, and the first element was added in the 16th century to distinguish it from the town of Østerrisør, which is now simply called Risør.
