Lillesand

Lillesand (ˈlɪ̂lːəsɑn) is municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of Lillesand. Some of the larger villages in Lillesand municipality include Åkerøyhamn, Brekkestø, Gamle Hellesund, Helldal, Høvåg, Ribe, Skottevik, Trøe, Ulvøysund, and Vesterhus. The municipality is the 306th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Lillesand is the 101st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 11,279. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 14.2% over the previous 10-year period. The town of Lillesand was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, the following areas were merged into a new, larger municipality of Lillesand: the town of Lillesand (population: 1,041) the rural municipality of Høvåg (population: 1,330) the rural municipality of Vestre Moland (population: 2,454) the Gitmarkgårdene area of Eide municipality (population: 22) The municipality was named after the town of Lillesand, originally just Sand (Sandr). The name is identical to the word sandr which means "sand" or "sandy beach". The prefix is lille, which means "little", was added after the founding of Christianssand in 1641 to distinguish it from the greater and more important town nearby. The coat of arms was granted on 11 September 1987. The official blazon is "Azure, three anchors argent in pall annulets conjoined" (I blått tre sølv ankere forent i trepass). This means the arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is three anchors. The anchors have a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The blue color in the field and the anchors were chosen to symbolize the connection that the municipality has with the sea.