A BRIEF HISTORY OF SVELVIK

Svelvik: The old town

Although our local history goes back several centuries, Svelvik became a separate municipality with city privileges through a law enacted by the Norwegian Parliament on August 19th, 1845.
Originally, there were two villages - Svelvik in the north and Strømmen in the south - which emerged on the banks of the fjord right opposite the Svelvik Moraine. This moraine divides the fjord except for the narrow passage of Svelvikstrømmen.

Galliot

In earlier days, these waters caused great distress to the ships passing through. In winter, the fjord froze so that Svelvik had to serve as a winter port for Drammen, which at the time was the largest timber exporting city in Norway.

Svelvikstrømmen has always been the main transport line to Drammen, and this brought economic growth and prosperity to Svelvik for a long period. Svelvik's growth accelerated through the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century.

Kreyert

In 1854, more than 26 merchant vessels were registered in Svelvik, three times as many as only 9 years earlier.
The timber transport and the general expansion of Norwegian shipping created a demand for sea captains and crew, pilots, craftsmen and shipyard workers. Svelvik had its fair share of both shipping and ship-building. The great period of the sailing ships in the 19th century reached its peak around 1870.

By 1875 Svelvik had a population of 1.677. There were numerous liquor dealers, dance halls and hotels. The shipping trade was the main pillar of business life i Svelvik. 183 seamen had their homes here, among them 45 captains.

In 1887 a great fire blazed through the southern part of Svelvik, destroying 52 houses. More than 80 families lost their homes. Many were poor and had no insurance.

The old church of St Nicolai:
Drawing from a prescription envelope used at the local pharmacy

The old church of St. Nicolai, built before 1396, became too small to serve the rapidly growing population, and was demolished in 1856. By 1859 it had been replaced by the church which is in service today.

In 1964 Svelvik and Strømm merged into one single administrative unit, Svelvik kommune. At this point Svelvik had a population of 1.178, and Strømm had 2.607 inhabitants. The population of Svelvik had grown to approx. 6.500 by the end of 2005.

Today, Svelvik has become an industrial town, but although many people are employed locally, quite a number of people also travel to Drammen and even Oslo to get work.