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Lillehammer

Lillehammer kommune
Municipality
Lillehammer
Lillehammer
Coat of arms of Lillehammer kommune
Coat of arms
Official logo of Lillehammer kommune
Oppland within
Norway
Lillehammer within Oppland
Lillehammer within Oppland
Coordinates: 61°7′N 10°28′E / 61.117°N 10.467°E / 61.117; 10.467Coordinates: 61°7′N 10°28′E / 61.117°N 10.467°E / 61.117; 10.467
Country Norway
County Oppland
District Gudbrandsdal
Administrative centre Lillehammer
Government
 • Mayor (2012) Espen Johnsen
Area
 • Total 477 km2 (184 sq mi)
 • Land 450 km2 (170 sq mi)
Area rank 211 in Norway
Population (2016)
 • Total 27,476
 • Rank 33 in Norway
 • Density 56/km2 (150/sq mi)
 • Change (10 years) 5.0 %
Demonym(s) Lillehamring
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
ISO 3166 code NO-0501
Official language form Bokmål
Website lillehammer.kommune.no
Data from Statistics Norway

Lillehammer (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈlɪl̥əhɔmɔr]) is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was 26,639. The city centre is a late 19th-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. Before Oslo's withdrawal from consideration, it was included as part of a bid to host events in the 2022 Winter Olympics if Oslo were to win the rights to hold the Games.

The municipality (originally the parish) was named after the old Hamar (Norse Hamarr) farm, since the first church was built there. The name is identical with the word hamarr (rocky hill). To distinguish it from the nearby town and bishopric, both called Hamar, it began to be called "little Hamar": Lilþlæ Hamar and Litlihamarr, and finally Lillehammer. It is also mentioned in the Old Norse sagas as Litlikaupangr ("Little Trading Place").

The coat-of-arms was granted in 1898 and shows a birkebeiner, carrying a spear and a shield, who is skiing down a mountainside. It symbolizes the historical importance of when the Birkebeiners carried the to-be-King Haakon from Lillehammer to Rena on skis.


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