Holmestrand, County of Vestfold og Telemark, Norway

🇳🇴 Holmestrand is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Holmestrand. The town was established as a municipality in 1838. The neighbouring rural municipality of Botne was merged into the municipality of Holmestrand in 1964. Sande municipality merged into Holmestrand in 2020. The municipality of Hof was merged into Holmestrand in 2018.

The town lies by the Oslofjord and is built beside the water. It was granted municipal status in 1752, but had been a harbour for exporting of timber/lumber since around 1550. It borders the Oslo Fjord in the east, Tønsberg in the south, and it shares a short border with Larvik in the south-west. It is bordered by Viken in the west and north.

Holmestrand is home to Vestfold County's largest lake, Eikeren. It is also Vestfjellet, which is the highest peak in the county.

Name The Old Norse form of the name was Holmastrand. The first element is the genitive case of holmi which means "(rocky) hill" and the last element is strand which means "shore", "beach", or "strand".

Coat-of-arms The coat-of-arms is relatively modern, granted on 14 November 1898. The arms show a silver eagle holding a gold anchor in its left claw and a gold Rod of Asclepius in its right claw all on a red background. The eagle in the arms is derived from the arms of the merchant Johan Heinrich Tordenskiold, who, in 1819, donated all his fortune to build a school in Holmestrand. The eagle also gave its name to the main ship of the merchant, which is shown on the breast-shield, the White Eagle. The anchor symbolises the importance of Holmestrand as a harbour town. The snake on the Rod of Asclepius is the symbol of medicine and symbolises the former health spa in Holmestrand that existed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Geography Its islands include Langøya.

Transport The European route E18 through Vestfold goes to the west around downtown Holmestrand and secondary roads connect the city to this highway.

The railway line Vestfoldbanen runs through the centre of Holmestrand, and the city is served by the station Holmestrand Station.