Moss is a coastaltown and amunicipality inØstfoldcounty,Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Moss. The city of Moss was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (seeformannskapsdistrikt) and City in 1720. The rural municipality ofJeløy was merged with the city on 1 July 1943. The former municipality ofRygge was merged into it on 1 January 2020.
Its administrative district covers areas east of the town, such as the island ofDillingøy in the lakeVansjø. Parts of the town are located on the peninsula of Jeløy. The city of Moss has 30,723 inhabitants (2012).
TheOld Norse form of the name wasMors. It may be derived from an old rootmer- which means to "divide" or "split".
The adjacent topography shares similar etymology:
Mosse-elva, Mosse-"marsh-river-border"+elva (seeelbe,elver, Old Norse for river). The name is thought to be very old and the meaning of it is not clear.
Mosse-herred, Mosse-"marsh-river-border"+herred -"court" akin tohort(us, en), "garden," from PIE *ghr-ti-, from base *gher- "to grasp, enclose" (see yard) Actually "Moss county".
Archeological finds suggest that there were settlements in the area more than 7,000 years ago and continuously through theIron Age,Viking Age, through to modern times. During the Viking era, the place was known asVarna (from the Old Norsevorn, or protection)[5] and was the site of a cooperative for battleships held by local warlords on behalf of the king.
Konvensjonsgården in Moss from 1778, the signing place of theConvention of MossMoss in 1885
The first literary reference to the nameMo(u)ſs(ß) is from Bishop Eystein Aslaksson'sRed book (NRA AM fol. 328) from 1396, and by then the town had become a commercial center with craftsmen and mills. By the 16th century, the town's port was significant enough to warrant its own customs official. Liquordistilleries became one of the dominant industries, and it was not until 1607, after theReformation, that the town got its own church.
By 1700, Moss had become a hub for both ship and land traffic betweenCopenhagen andChristiania, and in 1704Moss Jernverk (Moss Ironworks) was established just north of the city center. By 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 byVincent Budde prevailed over invading Swedish forces, sent byCharles XII to captureAkershus Fortress. In 1767 a local resident built a "pleasure pavilion" near the town, which survives as the HotelRefsnes Gods.[6]
In 1814, Moss became the site for the signing of theConvention of Moss, which effectively put an end to theDano-Norwegian kingdom. This set the stage for economic development that has persisted to this day.
On the morning of 14 July 2006, abolide exploded above the nearby town of Rygge - moments later, several stonymeteorites 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 ofcarbonaceous chondrite.
Moss became a separate city in 1786 and received its first seal the same year. The seal showed a church under some clouds, placed within a circle. Above the circle werefasces, the late 19th century symbol of freedom. A later seal, dating from around 1829, shows the same composition, but with six birds flying around the church.
In the 1930s the city wanted to adopt acoat-of-arms and the birds were chosen as a possible symbol. The original birds were likelydoves, a symbol of peace.[7] In 1934, the idea of thecrow was launched. The residents of Moss have long been referred to as crows.[7] An old tale tells of a number of birds, thought to have been crows, swarming around the church spire due to a fire that started when lightning struck a birds' nest in the spire. The fire was quickly put out; birds became a motif in the city seal (and later coat-of-arms) for that reason.[7][8]
The coat-of-arms was granted on 2 April 1954 and shows a yellow crow on a red background. It was designed by Christian Stenersen.[9][10]
Moss andVirginia Beach, Virginia in the United States aresister cities. On Good Friday, 27 March 1891, the Norwegian barkDictator, whose home port was Moss, was lost in the treacherous waters of theGraveyard of the Atlantic. The ship had been en route to England fromPensacola, Florida with a cargo of Georgia Pinelumber. After being caught and disabled in a storm, she was headed for port atHampton Roads,Virginia 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, Captain J. M. Jorgensen's pregnant wife, Johanne, and their 4-year-old son Carl were among the 7 persons who drowned.[11]
The ship's wooden femalefigurehead had washed ashore. It was placed in a vertical position facing the ocean near theboardwalk as a memorial to those who died in theshipwreck. It was a landmark there for more than 60 years, but gradually became weathered and eroded.
In 1962, Norwegian sculptorØrnulf Bast was commissioned to create two nine-foot bronze replicas of the original figurehead by the City of Moss. TheNorwegian Lady Statues 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 gives the appearance of facing the other across theAtlantic Ocean.
On 13 October 1995,Queen Sonja of Norway visited the Norwegian Lady statue in Virginia Beach, and placed memorial flowers.
Moss is located on the eastern shore ofOslofjord, 60 km south of Oslo. The municipality also includes some islands, like Jeløya. TheRaet goes through the municipality. The area is forested lowland, the highest point is 140 m asl. 84% of the population is located in the town Moss.
In central Moss, a channel divides the mainland fromJeløya in the west. The surrounding area is calledKanalen ("The Channel").Moss Station is close to the channel, and in the late 2010s, 121 buildings in the neighborhoodNyquistbyen were torn down to develop the station area.[12]
North of the station,Moss Church and the city hall are located. This area is typically calledMoss sentrum. To the north is the river Mosseelva with the waterfall Mossefossen. The area around the waterfall is calledMøllebyen ("The Mill Town"), containing the town's early industry. North of the river, heavy industry developed includingMoss Jernverk andM. Peterson & Søn, resulting in the nameVerket ("The Works").[12]
Another neighborhood north of the river and the lake that empties into it (Vansjø) isKrapfoss. South of Krapfoss and across the lake, neighborhoods likeKlommesten,Ørehavna andØrejordet are mainly residential.Ørejordet also has a sports complex, as doesMelløs south of here, known forMelløs Stadion.[12]
Moss has ahumid continental climate (Dfb), or a temperateoceanic climate (Cfb) if the original −3 °C (27 °F) threshold in theKöppen climate classification is used.The weather station at Moss Airport Rygge (40 m) started recording temperature in 1955. The all-time high 34.2 °C (93.6 °F) was recorded August 1982, and the all-time low −31.5 °C (−24.7 °F) in February 1985. 10 of the record lows are from before 1990, and only the December record low is from after 2000. Rygge airport is located more inland and will have colder lows in winter and autumn than the town. The average date for first overnight freeze (below 0 °C (32 °F)) in autumn is 7 October (1981-2010 average) at Rygge.[13]
Climate data forMoss Airport, Rygge 1991-2020 (40 m, extremes 1955-2024, sunhrs from Oslo)
The town is known forpaper mills, as well asmetalworks and other factories. Dillingøy is known as a place for alternative non-militarycivil service. Moss is mentioned since theRenaissance and was the site of the signing of the Convention of Moss in 1814, which solidified the union with Sweden. The headquarters of textile producerHelly Hansen were located in Moss until 2009. The maker of international hotel keycards, Trio Ving, also has their headquarters here.AquaFence, a manufacturer of reusable temporary flood and hurricane barriers, is headquartered here.[16]
Together with Østfold Kalnes Hospital, Østfold Moss Hospital covers general health care services for the municipality. The hospital is a modern unit for planned operations. There is a large outpatient and inpatient activity in a number of disciplines, in the field ofsomatics and mental health care as well as an operation department for both inpatient and day surgery. There is an eye department, imaging services, blood sampling and blood bank and more.[17] The municipality also has three health stations - City center, Bredsand and Kambo health stations.
A traditional expression, [the hay scale at Moss]høyvekta på Moss, means "something that you can not trust".[24]
Moss is known throughout Norway for the local "dish" "Pølse i Vaffel" - sausage in waffle. The dish consists of aVienna Sausage served in a Scandinavian style waffle with ketchup and mustard. The dish was most likely created in the 1960s, but this is widely discussed.Eyvind Hellstrøm - who later became a Michelin-star chef - and his brother Jan are often referred to as the creators. Eyvind Hellstrøm has not denied this in interviews.[25][26]
^abcAasen, Oddvar, ed. (2019).Moss som den er - og var: 300 sider om Moss til 300-årsjubileet i 2020 (in Norwegian). Moss: Moss Historical Society.ISBN9788269169904.
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