Asker kommune | |||
---|---|---|---|
Municipality | |||
|
|||
Asker within Akershus |
|||
Coordinates: 59°50′7″N 10°26′6″E / 59.83528°N 10.43500°ECoordinates: 59°50′7″N 10°26′6″E / 59.83528°N 10.43500°E | |||
Country | Norway | ||
County | Akershus | ||
District | Viken, Norway | ||
Administrative centre | Asker | ||
Government | |||
• Mayor (2016) | Lene Conradi (H) | ||
Area | |||
• Total | 101 km2 (39 sq mi) | ||
• Land | 97 km2 (37 sq mi) | ||
Area rank | 385 in Norway | ||
Population (2014) | |||
• Total | 59,037 | ||
• Rank | 11 in Norway | ||
• Density | 585/km2 (1,520/sq mi) | ||
• Change (10 years) | 15.7 % | ||
Demonym(s) | Askerbøring | ||
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
ISO 3166 code | NO-0220 | ||
Official language form | Bokmål | ||
Website | www |
||
|
Asker is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Greater Oslo Region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Asker. The municipality was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Asker farm, since the first church was built here. The name (Old Norse: Askar) is the plural form of ask which means "ash tree".
The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 7 October 1975. The arms show a green background with three silver-colored tree trunks (Norwegian: askekaller) and are thus canting arms. The trees are ashes, which were cropped every year to provide food for the animals. The trees thus developed after many years a very typical shape, which was characteristic for the area.
In 1998, just before the millennium, the 'Askerbøringer' (the inhabitants of Asker) elected the beautiful area of Semsvannet including the mountain ridge Skaugumsåsen – to be their Place of the Millennium.
Its main parts are Asker, Gullhella, Vollen, Vettre, Blakstad, Bleiker, Borgen, Drengsrud, Dikemark, Vardåsen, Engelsrud, Holmen, Høn, Hvalstad, Billingstad, Nesøya, Nesbru, and Heggedal. Asker is a coastal place with many beaches, but also contains hills and woods. The district is known for many important businesses. It is also known for gardening. The Skaugum estate, where Crown Prince Haakon of Norway lives with his family, is situated here. The first IKEA store outside of Sweden opened in Asker in 1963 .