Røros kommune (, ) is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Røros. Some of the villages in Røros include Brekken, Glåmos, Feragen, Galåa, and Hitterdalen.
The mining town of Røros (the administrative centre of the municipality) is sometimes called Bergstaden which means "mountain town" due to its historical notoriety for copper mining. It is one of two towns in Norway that were historically designated "mining towns", along with the "silver-town" of Kongsberg. The modern-day inhabitants of Røros still work and live in the characteristic 17th and 18th century buildings which led to its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Røros has about 80 wooden houses, most of them standing around courtyards. Many retain their dark pitch-log facades, giving the town a medieval appearance.
The municipality is the 39th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Røros is the 169th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,572. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 0.6% over the previous 10-year period.
General information
The parish of Røros was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1875, an unpopulated area of the neighbouring municipality of Ålen was transferred to Røros. On 1 January 1926, Røros was split into four municipalities: Røros landsogn (population: 701), Brekken (population: 1,098), Glåmos (population: 983), and the town of Røros (population: 2,284). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the four municipalities of Glåmos (population: 700), Brekken (population: 964), Røros landsogn (population: 482), and the town of Røros (population: 3,063) were all reunited under the name Røros. On 21 April 1989, an unpopulated part of Røros was transferred to the neighbouring Holtålen municipality. On 1 January 2018, the municipality switched from the old Sør-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county.
Name
The municipality (originally the parish and town) is named after the old Røros farm () since this was the site of the mining town of Røros. The first element comes from the local river name Røa () which has an unknown meaning. The last element comes from which means "mouth of a river" (the small river Røa runs into the great river Glåma here). The municipality is also named Plaassja, the official name in the Southern Sami language (the meaning of which is unknown).
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 29 October 1992. The blazon is "Gules, a venus symbol over a crossed hammer and chisel Or" (). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a venus symbol over a crossed hammer and chisel. The charge has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The design symbolizes the copper mining industry in Røros. The venus symbol is the old symbol for copper, which was heavily mined in Røros for centuries. The arms were designed by Sverre Ødegaard. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.
Churches
The Church of Norway has four parishes () within the municipality of Røros. It is part of the Gauldal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.
History
Røros municipality has historically been used by the Southern Sami people for reindeer herding. Known for its copper mines, Røros is one of Norway's two nationally significant mining towns with activity starting in the 17th century (the other one being the "silver-town" Kongsberg, see Kongsberg Silver Mines).
Røros was burned to the ground in 1678 and 1679 by the Swedish Army during the Scanian War. In 1718, during the Great Northern War, the town was once again taken by the Swedish Army, led by General De la Barre, who made up the southern arm of the main Swedish Army under Carl Gustaf Armfeldt. De la Barre took the city and all their mined copper at gunpoint.
When King Carl XII was killed near Fredriksten on 30 November 1718, De la Barre retreated north to join the bulk of the army. However, this ended in tragedy, when over 3,000 rather unprepared soldiers perished in the harsh weather conditions in the mountains northwest of Røros.
Røros and its people were made famous to Norwegians at the turn of the 20th century by semi-fictional author Johan Falkberget, who told the story of the mining community from the perspective of the hard-tested miners at the bottom of the social ladder.