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The white
town on the coast of the Skagerrak |
 There is no exact dating of when Risør was developed into a town. But it is presumed that it happened around the 1560is. The merchant navy founded the town and gave it a rapid growth. The first time Risør was mentioned as a town was in 1601. But only in 1723 did King Frederic the forth give the town its town status. To have this right to town status the town had to pay 250 riksdaler (sovereign coins) a year for the next 120 years. Before the event of getting the town status the government in 1688 tried to make the people of Risør move to Kristiansand. This in spite of the fact that there were a grater ships trade in Risør than in Kristiansand at the time. The inhabitants of Risør defied the order and for that had to pay a penalty of 4000 riskdaler!
To days town centre reflects the town structure that was laid after the great fire of 1861. In the fire all of 248 buildings burnt to the ground, while just 81 were salvaged. The church was saved by the towns women making a water bucket chain from the harbour. The remaining buildings were situated on the outskirts of the town, on Vollen, Kamperhaug og Tangen. But this wasn’t the first time the towns population had been struck by such misfortune. In 1716 70 houses had burnt down. But not till 1880 did the town get et watchtower in hope to prevent more disasters of this kind.
The name Risør derives from the description of the vegetation on the islands surrounding the town. “Ris” in Norwegian means shrub, “ø” was an island. The original name of the town, “Østre-Riisøer”, was officially in use up till 1905 and meant Eastern shrub islands. But amongst the locals, the name Risøer had been in use through the 19th century. When the to municipalities Risør and Søndeled was unified the name Risør was chosen for the new municipality.
The population of Risør today is approximately 7000. But as early as in 1875 the population counted close to 2500 and this without Søndeled. This gives evidence of the town as a bustling shipping and trading centre.
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