The 6.45-square-kilometre (1,590-acre) town has a population (2018) of 9,024 and a population density of 1,399 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,620/sq mi).[1]
The town encompasses the entire island of Florelandet and the western half of the island of Brandsøya. The Norwegian national road Rv 5 is the main road connecting Florø to the rest of Norway. The nearby villages of Brandsøy and Grov lie several kilometers to the east of Florø. The islands of Reksta, Kinn, Skorpa lie several kilometers to the west of the town. Florø is also home to Florø Airport and Florø Church.
Florø is also a former municipality that existed as an independent town-municipality for just over 100 years (1860-1964) before being merged into the municipality of Flora. On 1 January 2020, the town became part of the new Kinn Municipality after another municipal merger.
Name
The town (and municipality) was named after the old Flora farm (Old Norse: Flóra), near where the town of Florø was built in 1860. The meaning of the name is somewhat uncertain with a couple of different likely possibilities. The old name, is the accusative case/genitive case of the word flórr which means "floor", from which the names Flora and Florelandet are derived. This Old Norse word is probably derived from a Germanic root word, flōraz, meaning "flat ground". Another possibility for the meaning of the name is that it is derived from the word flóð which means "flood" or "deluge".[5] A common misunderstanding is that the name Florø includes the Danish word ø which means "island" as a suffix that was attached to the farm name Flora. Although not true, it nearly led to the town being renamed Florøy in the 1930s.[6][7]
Florø was founded as a town(ladested) in 1860. Shortly after its founding, on 3 January 1861, it was removed from the (now) former municipality of Kinn and made into a municipality of its own with a population of 846. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, a large municipal merger took place, merging the following places to form the newly created municipality of Flora.[8]
the town-municipality of Florø (population: 2,040)
the parts of the municipality of Bru located north of the Førde Fjord (population: 1,155)
the Husefest and Breivik areas of the municipality of Bremanger (population: 9)
the Steindal area of the municipality of Vevring (population: 25)
On 1 January 2020, Flora was one of the municipalities that merged into a newly re-created Kinn municipality, much larger than the Kinn that existed until 1964.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms for the town of Florø was granted on 19 February 1960 and they were in use until 1 January 1964, when the new Flora Municipality was created and it included the town of Florø. (On 6 October 1967, the old arms of Florø were granted as the arms for Flora Municipality. These arms were in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality of Flora was dissolved.) The official blazon is "Gules, three herringsbendwiseargent" (Norwegian: På raud botn tre sølv sildar i skrå-stilling). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a set of three diagonal herring. The charge has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The three herrings are a symbol for the great local importance of herring fishing for the development and economy of Flora. The arms were designed by Hallvard Trætteberg. The municipal flag had the same design as the coat of arms.[9][10][11]
The municipal council(Bystyre) of Florø was made up of 21 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows:
^Helland, Amund (1901). "Florø ladested". Norges land og folk: Nordre Bergenhus amt (in Norwegian). Vol. XIV. Kristiania, Norway: H. Aschehoug & Company. p. 482. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
