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Ås kommune
Ås kommune
	— Municipality —
; Coat of arms	; Akershus within; Norway
	Ås within Akershus
	Coordinates (city): 59°39′37″N 10°47′1″E / 59.66028°N 10.78361°ECoordinates: 59°39′37″N 10°47′1″E / 59.66028°N 10.78361°E
Country	Norway
County	Akershus
District	Follo
Municipality ID	NO-0214
Administrative centre	Ås
	Government
- Mayor (2007)	Johan Alnes (Ap)
	Area (Nr. 383 in Norway)
- Total	103 km2 (39.8 sq mi)
- Land	101.3 km2 (39.1 sq mi)
	Population (2009)
- Total	15,863
- Density	156.6/km2 (405.6/sq mi)
- Change (10 years)	17.5 %
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Official language form	Neutral
Norwegian demonym	Åssokning
Website	www.as.kommune.no
	Data from Statistics Norway

This article is about the municipality in Akershus, Norway. For other uses, see Ås (disambiguation).

Ås is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Follo traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ås. The parish of Aas was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt).

Ås is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Akershus, with a population growth of 539 in 2008.^[2] Ås is the largest agricultural municipality of Akershus, and home to the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the amusement park Tusenfryd.

[edit] General information

[edit] Name

The parish was named after the old Ås farm (Old Norse: Áss), since the first church was built there. The name is identical with the word áss meaning "mountain ridge". Prior to 1921, the name was spelled Aas.

[edit] Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 23 July 1982. The three silver diamonds are a symbol for the many archaeological findings in the area. The diamond (rhombus) shape was taken as it resembled many of the axes found in the area (Nøstvet ax). The silver colour resembles the flint, of which the tools were made of. The number of three diamonds was chosen to represent the three parishes in the municipality: Ås, Kroer and Nordby.^[3]^[4]

[edit] Economy

The most important source of income is agriculture. Ås is the largest agricultural municipality of Akershus: providing the region with grain, vegetables, and dairy products. Of the 101 square kilometres (39.0 sq mi) of land in the municipality, about 39 square kilometres (15.1 sq mi) are farmed and about 46 square kilometres (17.8 sq mi) are forested.^[3]

[edit] Transportation

Two of Norway's largest highways, European route E6 and European route E18, run through the municipality, and many of the inhabitants commute to Oslo.

The da Vinci bridge

A 240 metres (787.4 ft) long bridge, which is a smaller scale recreation of a bridge that Leonardo da Vinci proposed in 1502 for the crossing of the Golden Horn is located in the municipality. It was created by Norwegian painter and artist Vebjørn Sand as part of his Da Vinci project. The bridge serves as a pedestrian crossing over European route E18. This bridge is famous among Japanese tourists, as they are often seen walking across.

[edit] Population

As of 1 January 2009, Ås municipality covers 101.3 square kilometres (39 sq mi) and has 15,863 inhabitants.^[2] In 2007, the Ås urban area had a population of 8,095.^[5] The municipality also contains one additional urban area, Togrenda, with a population of 2,783. Also, 1,566 inhabitants live in the Ski urban area.