Lillehammer (town)

Lillehammer (ˈlɪ̂lːəˌhɑmːər) is a town which is the administrative centre of Lillehammer Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The town is located along the river Gudbrandsdalslågen at the northern end of the lake Mjøsa in the southern Gudbrandsdal valley. Prior to the county merger on 1 January 2020, Lillehammer was the administrative centre of Oppland county. The town has a population (2021) of 21,111 and a population density of . The European route E6 highway and the Dovrebanen railway line both pass through the town, and the railway stops at the Lillehammer Station. The city centre is a late nineteenth-century concentration of wooden houses, which enjoys a picturesque location overlooking the northern part of lake Mjøsa and the river Lågen, surrounded by mountains. Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics and 2016 Winter Youth Olympics. The village of Lillehammer is located at the northern end of Norway's largest lake, Mjøsa. There has likely been settlements here since the Iron Age and the market here was mentioned in Håkon Håkonson's saga in 1390. Tradition states that it was here in Lillehammer where the birkebeiners Torstein Skjevla and Skjervald Skrukka joined up with the King's son (and future King), Haakon, in 1205 before they traveled to Østerdalen (an event which is commemorated in March every year to this day). Since medieval times, the Lillehammer Church has been located here. The village was granted market town rights on 7 August 1827. At that time, 50 people lived within the boundaries of the newly established town. This site was chosen because there were no other towns in all of Christians amt (county) and this site was located along the Gudbrandsdalslågen river and the whole Gudbrandsdal valley was a major transportation route from the capital to northern Norway. Within two years of the establishment of the town, the population had risen to 360 people. The merchant Ludvig Wiese has been counted as the founder of the town (a statue of him was erected in the town in connection with the town's 100th anniversary in 1927).