Vestby

Infobox_Kommune
name=Vestby
idnumber=0211
county=Akershus
landscape=Follo
capital=Vestby
governor=John Ødbehr (H)
governor_as_of=2007
arearank=367
area=134
arealand=134
areapercent=0.04
population_as_of=2006
populationrank=84
population=13 159
populationpercent=0.28
populationdensity=96
populationincrease=13.9
language=Bokmål
lat_deg=59| lat_min=34| lat_sec=30| lon_deg=10| lon_min=43| lon_sec=55
utm_zone=32V| utm_northing=6605385 |utm_easting=0597834| geo_cat=adm2nd

munwebpage=www.vestby.kommune.no

Vestby is a municipality in the county of Akershus, Norway.

Vestby was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The municipality and lading place of Hølen was merged with Vestby July 1, 1943 - and the municipality and lading place of Son was merged with Vestby January 1, 1964. (The lading place of Hvitsten in Vestby has never been a municipality of its own.)

The main villages in Vestby are Vestby, Sole skog, Pepperstad Skog, Hølen, Hvitsten, Garder, and Son. Son was, from the Renaissance until the 1700s, an important harbour. On some Dutch maps from that time, the Oslofjord is called "Zoon Water". Vestby Town has 5424 inhabitants (2006).All the small towns togheter have over 13.000 inhabitans.

History

Archaeological research in Hølen has confirmed that the area has been populated since about 2400 BC.

Many Norwegian emigrants went to America during the 1840s and later settled in the area of the present city of Westby, Wisconsin (named after general store owner and civil war Union soldier Ole T. Westby); a city which still has a mostly Norwegian-American population.Vestby is also known for an infamous urban legend called Schtoopen from the Schtoopenraut family.

The name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Vestby (Norse "Vestbýr"), since the first church was built here. The first element is "vestr" 'west', the last element is "býr" 'farm'. The neighbouring farms have the names Østby ('eastern farm'), Sunnby ('southern farm') and Nordby ('northern farm') - and they must all four be the parts of a bigger an older farm, which name is now unknown.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1982). It shows three crosses. The number of three is meant to represent the three parishes of the municipality: Vestby, Garder and Såner.

Famous residents

* Johan Herman Wessel, 1742-1785, poet
* Caspar Wessel, 1745-1818, mathematician
* Erik Bodom, 1829-1879, painter
* Ola Abrahamsson, (1883-1980), painter