Administrative centre Svelvik Demonym(s) Svelviking Area 58 km² Local time Saturday 11:20 PM Team Strømm IL | Area rank 419 in Norway Time zone CET (UTC+1) Population 6,445 (2004) Official language form Bokmål | |
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Weather 7°C, Wind S at 8 km/h, 79% Humidity | ||
Svelvik [ˈsvæɽviːk] is a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Svelvik.
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Map of 3060 Svelvik, Norway
The town of Svelvik was separated from the rural municipality of Strømm to become a municipality of its own in 1845. The two municipalities were merged back together on 1 January 1964.
Name
The Old Norse form of the name was Sverðvík. The first element is sverð n 'sword', the last element is vík f 'cove, wick'. A neighbouring farm has the name Sverstad (Norse Sverðstaðir). The word sverð probably refers to the promontory ridge Ryggen ('the back') in Hurum: This ridge lies right opposite Svelvik and Sverstad, and is almost (like a sword) cutting the Drammensfjord in two parts.
Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 4 September 1964. The arms show a gold-colored trident on a red background, as a symbol for the sea.
Geography
The narrow Svelvikstrømmen sound separates Svelvik from the municipality of Hurum, and the county of Buskerud. This sound is served by a ferry, which has the shortest line in Norway.
The village is quite characteristic, with small winding streets and traditional, white-painted houses. Svelvik is a summer paradise with many possibilities for swimming and sunbathing.