Langesund

is the administrative centre of Bamble Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The town is located on a peninsula along the Langesundsfjorden near the Skaggerak coast. The town of Stathelle lies about 4 km to the northwest. The 0.88 km2 town was established as a ladested in 1765 and on 1 January 1838 it became a self-governing municipality. In 1964, it became part of Bamble Municipality.

For a long time, Langesund and neighboring Stathelle have been grouped together as part of the Porsgrunn/Skien metropolitan area and because of this, the population and area data for this town has not been separately tracked by Statistics Norway. What is tracked, is the portion of the metropolitan area located in Bamble Municipality. In 2022, the Langesund/Stathelle area in Bamble measured 6.34 km2 and together they had a population of 10,276 with a population density of 1622 PD/km2.

It is possible to visit the remains of the old Coastal Fortress on Langesundstangen on the extreme end of the Langesund peninsula. The fort was established during the Second World War by Nazi Germany and later used by the Norwegian Coastal Artillery and Home Guard until 1993.

Langesund is one of the most celebrated summer towns in Norway because of the large number of sunny days. It is also well known for Wrightegaarden, a building that hosts outdoor concerts every weekend the whole summer. Artists like Bob Dylan, A-ha, Elton John and Little Richard have played in Wrightegaarden. Langesund marks the border between Ytre Oslofjord and Skagerrak.

History
Langesund became its own customs center in 1570, and in the 1580s was considered the country's largest export port for timber, with a lot of shipping traffic particularly from Dutch schooners. The Dutch also worked on a large salt factory that King Christian IV had built on Langøya in 1602 to refine imported salt. In the early days, Langesund was one of the most important shipping towns in Norway. In 1765, the growing village was granted rights as a ladested (town status). At the end of the 17th century, large shipbuilding was started. As the timber trade fell away, shipbuilding and shipping became the town's main industries. Peter Wessel Tordenskiold had one of his ships built in Langesund, the Løvendals Gallej. It was known as Longsound in English during the 1800s.

Name
The town is Langesund which means "the long strait". The first element is which means "long". The last element is which means "strait" or "sound".

Municipal self-government (1838–1964)
The town of Langesund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1878, the island of Langøya, just off shore from the town (population: 22) was transferred from the neighboring rural municipality of Bamble to the town of Langesund. In 1949, the town was enlarged by annexing an adjacent area of Bamble Municipality (population: 127). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the town of Langesund (population: 2,281) was merged with the nearby town of Stathelle (population: 724) and the surrounding rural municipality of Bamble (population: 5,237) to form a new, larger Bamble Municipality.

While it existed, this municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, unemployment, social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. During its existence, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Bystyre) of Langesund was made up of representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.

Attractions
The best-known landmark in Langesund is the Langøytangen Lighthouse, a lighthouse placed on the peak of Langøya, a kilometre-long island right outside of Langesund. The island group east of the town are called Arøya.

A short walk outside of the town centre, facing the Skagerrak strait, lies the decommissioned military fort known as Tangen Fortress.

Mathematician Atle Selberg, musician Vidar Busk, Norwegian-American Lutheran theologian Marcus Olaus Bockman and Instagram influencer Jens Kulås were all born in Langesund.

Artists like Vidar Busk and Stephen Ackels are originally from Langesund. The concertplace Wrightegaarden is famous for its intimate concerts and is hosting big Norwegian bands like Postgirobygget every year. Langesund is mentioned in the opening lyrics of Postgirobygget's song Sommer på jorda (Summer on Earth).