Trondheim - City of Norway

Trondheim is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. The city of Trondheim was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. The rural municipalities of Byneset, Leinstrand, Strinda, and Tiller were merged with Trondheim on 1 January 1964.

Trondheim was named Kaupangen by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997. Fairly soon, it came to be called Nidaros. In the beginning it was frequently used as a military retainer of King Olav. It was frequently used as the seat of the king, and was capital of Norway until 1217.

Trondheim was the seat of the Archdiocese of Nidaros for Norway from 1152. Due to the introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in 1537, the last Archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, had to flee from the city to the Netherlands, where he died in present-day Lier, Belgium.

During World War II, Trondheim was occupied by Nazi Germany from 9 April 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway, until the end of the war in Europe, 8 May 1945. The home of the most notorious Norwegian Gestapo agents, Henry Rinnan, it was also subject to harsh treatment by the occupying powers, including imposition of martial law in October 1942.

The city was originally given the name by Olav Tryggvason. It was for a long time called Nidaros, or Niðaróss in the Old Norse spelling. In the late Middle Ages the name was changed to Trondheim. In the Dano-Norwegian period, during the years as a provincial town in the united kingdoms of Denmark-Norway, the city name was spelled Trondhjem. The words heim and hjem all mean "home", the word "Trond" means "A good place" or alternative, i.e "A good place to live", or "A good home".

The coat-of-arms dates back to the 13th century. To the left, there is an archbishop with his staff and mitre in a church archway. On the right, a crowned king holding scales in a castle archway. These two pictures rest on a base which forms an arch. Underneath that arch, are three male heads which symbolize the city's rank as Norway's first capital and the archbishop's place of residence. The scales symbolize justice and the motif is based on the political philosophy of the 1200s, where the balance of power between king and church was an important issue. The three heads at the bottom may symbolize the city council. The motif is unique in Norwegian municipal heraldry, but similar motifs are found in bishopric cities on the continent. The design of the coat-of-arms that was adopted in 1897, and is still used today, was made by Håkon Thorsen.

Trondheim has a predominantly maritime climate, but is mostly sheltered from the more windy conditions on the coast. Trondheim experiences moderate snowfall from November to March,but mixed with mild weather and rainfall. There is often substantially more snow in suburban areas at somewhat higher elevation, such as Byåsen and Heimdal, with good skiing conditions in Bymarka.

There are 11 high schools in the city. Trondheim katedralskole was founded in 1152 and is the oldest gymnasium-level school of Norway, while Brundalen videregående skole is the largest in Sør-Trøndelag with its 1100 students and 275 employees.

Trondheim is home to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology students, as well as Sør-Trøndelag University College with 7,000 registered students. Both NTNU and HiST receive thousands of students from all over the country, which means that the actual population of the city is somewhat higher than the official number.

The regional hospital, St. Olavs University Hospital, is located in Trondheim. The university hospital, cooperates closely with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. A new hospital is currently being built,with a projected cost of 12 billion NOK.

SINTEF, the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia, has 1800 employees with 1300 of these located in Trondheim. The Air Force Academy of the Royal Norwegian Air Force is located at Kuhaugen in Trondheim.

The main regional theatre, Trøndelag Teater, is situated in Trondheim. The theatre is the oldest theatre in Northern Europe still in use from 1816. Adresseavisen is the largest regional newspaper and the oldest active newspaper in Norway, having been established in 1767. The newspaper owns the regional television channel TVAdressa and the radio channel RadioAdressa. The two Headquarters of The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation are located at Tyholt in Trondheim and Oslo.

With students comprising almost a fifth of the population, the city of Trondheim is heavily influenced by student culture. Most noticeable is Studentersamfundet i Trondhjem, the city's student society. It's characteristic round, red building from 1929 sits at the head of the bridge crossing the river southwards from the city centre.

In an effort to bring attention to the strong student culture of Trondheim, the organization StudiebyEN in 2004, launched a "love guarantee" that attracted worldwide attention. The notion of Trondheim as a romantic city appears to have stuck with its image.