History
Os was established as a formannskapsdistrikt, the predecessor of today's municipalities, on 1 January 1838. Fusa was separated from Os in 1856. Samnanger was separated from Os on 1 January 1907. The municipality is named after the farm of Os, where the first church was built. The name is identical with the Old Norse word "óss" which means "mouth of a river"; referring to the Oselva River.
The coat of arms is quite modern, having been adopted in 1949 after a local competition. The lower part of it shows an Oselvar, a boat design traditionally associated with the village.
The famous violinist Ole Bull built his summerhouse in Os, on an island named Lysøen. The special building was inspired by his travels, especially his travels to the Middle East. Lysøen was originally owned by Lyse Abbey, the ruins of which still stand and are frequently visited.
Read more about this topic: Os, Hordaland
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Systematic philosophical and practical anti-intellectualism such as we are witnessing appears to be something truly novel in the history of human culture.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“The history of literature—take the net result of Tiraboshi, Warton, or Schlegel,—is a sum of a very few ideas, and of very few original tales,—all the rest being variation of these.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)