Eidsvoll

Eidsvoll the town is really Sundet, a small centre on both banks of the river Vorma, south of where it flows out of Mjøsa. The railway station sits on the west bank, just north of the Sundfossen rapids, and the old bridge, Gamlebrua, takes you over the river to the town hall, the shops and the houses on the east side. Most people know the name from one building, but Eidsvoll Manor, where Norway's constitution was written in 1814, is not here. It's at Eidsvoll Verk, about 5 km to the south-west.

About 7.260 people live in the town. Romerike is one of the fastest growing parts of Norway, and more than half of the people here who work commute out, mostly to Oslo and to Ullensaker with the airport. Around town it's grain fields and forest. The name is old: eid was the path past the Sundfossen rapids, and voll means a meadow.

Local knowledge: for more than 600 years the Eidsivating, the law assembly for much of eastern Norway, met at Tingvoll by Eidsvoll church. But the day that made Sundet what it is came on 1 September 1854, when Norway's first railway opened, Hovedbanen, 67,8 km from Christiania to Eidsvoll. It was built mainly for timber, and Eidsvoll station by the Vorma was the end of the line, where people and goods changed to boats for the trip north. The paddle steamer Skibladner was built in Motala in Sweden and carried in pieces to Eidsvoll, and since 1856 it has sailed on Mjøsa, the next leg of the journey towards Gudbrandsdalen, Østerdalen and even Bergen. The line went on to Hamar in 1880.

Visiting: the pin is in Sundet, by the town hall on Rådhusgata. Cross Gamlebrua to the station side and walk south to Eidsvoll church, a stone church from about 1200, rebuilt after a fire in 1883. On 10 April 1814 the men of the constitutional assembly met here before their work began. By the church are a memorial stone to the poet Henrik Wergeland, who grew up at Eidsvoll vicarage from the age of nine, and a statue of his sister, the writer Camilla Collett. On a rainy day, go out to Eidsvoll Manor. It's open all year and the house can only be seen on a 45-minute guided tour, so book a time. Upstairs is Rikssalen, set up as in 1814 with low benches without backs for the delegates and spruce garlands on the walls. The constitution was passed there on 16 May and dated and signed on 17 May, now Norway's national day. In summer Skibladner still comes down to Eidsvoll twice a week.

Fact sheet

• People: 7.259 in Eidsvoll, 28.739 in Eidsvoll municipality
• County: Akershus
• Typical industries: nursing and care homes, car sales and repair

Population on 1 January 2026, from Statistics Norway. Typical industries are the ones with a much bigger share of the jobs here than in Norway as a whole (Statistics Norway, 2025).