Kristiansand is the largest city in southern Norway and the administrative centre of Agder, with around 120,000 people in the municipality. It was founded by King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway in 1641 and laid out according to a Renaissance grid plan that survives in the central district of Kvadraturen. Much of the old wooden city was repeatedly damaged by fires, but Posebyen preserves one of Northern Europe’s largest collections of low, white wooden houses. Other landmarks include Christiansholm Fortress, completed in 1672, the waterfront around Fiskebrygga, Bystranda and the former military island of Odderøya. Kristiansand is also an important transport hub for southern Norway, with ferry connections to Denmark as well as rail, road and air links. The city has a notable heavy metal history, particularly through Green Carnation, formed in Kristiansand in 1990, and the related progressive and avant-garde metal band In the Woods…, which emerged from the same local scene in the early 1990s.

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