Archeological finds suggest that there were settlements in the area more than 7,000 years ago and continuously through the
Iron Age,
Viking Age, through to modern times. During the Viking era, the place was known as
Varna (from the Old Norse , or protection) and was the site of a cooperative for battleships held by local warlords on behalf of the king. The first literary reference to the name
Mo(u)ſs(ß) is from Bishop Eystein Aslaksson's
Red book (NRA AM fol. 328) from 1396, and by then the town had become a commercial center with craftsmen and mills. By the 16th century, the town's port was significant enough to warrant its own customs official. Liquor
distilleries became one of the dominant industries, and it was not until 1607, after the
Reformation, that the town got its own church. By 1700, Moss had become a hub for both ship and land traffic between
Copenhagen and
Christiania, and in 1704
Moss Jernverk (Moss Ironworks) was established just north of the city center. By 1720 it received its charter as a merchant town, with its own official. This may have had background in an important battle in 1716 that was fought in the town square in Moss in which Norwegian troops commanded by
Vincent Budde prevailed over invading Swedish forces, sent by
Charles XII to capture
Akershus Fortress. In 1767 a local resident built a "pleasure pavilion" near the town, which survives as the Hotel
Refsnes Gods. In 1814, Moss became the site for the signing of the
Convention of Moss, which effectively put an end to the
Dano-Norwegian kingdom. This set the stage for economic development that has persisted to this day. On the morning of 14 July 2006, a
bolide exploded above the nearby town of Rygge - moments later, several stony
meteorites fell over Moss. A number of meteorites were recovered by local residents and visiting meteorite hunters, which after analysis and classification, were found to be a rare type of
carbonaceous chondrite.
Seal and coat-of-arms Moss became a separate city in 1786 and received its first seal the same year. The seal showed a church under some clouds, placed within a circle. Above the circle were
fasces, the late 19th century symbol of freedom. A later seal, dating from around 1829, shows the same composition, but with six birds flying around the church. In the 1930s the city wanted to adopt a
coat-of-arms and the birds were chosen as a possible symbol. The original birds were likely
doves, a symbol of peace. In 1934, the idea of the
crow was launched. The residents of Moss have long been referred to as crows. The coat-of-arms was granted on 2 April 1954 and shows a yellow crow on a red background. It was designed by Christian Stenersen.
Norwegian lady statues Moss and
Virginia Beach, Virginia in the United States are
sister cities. On Good Friday, 27 March 1891, the Norwegian bark
Dictator, whose home port was Moss, was lost in the treacherous waters of the
Graveyard of the Atlantic. The ship had been en route to England from
Pensacola, Florida with a cargo of Georgia Pine
lumber. After being caught and disabled in a storm, she was headed for port at
Hampton Roads,
Virginia to make repairs when she encountered another storm just off Virginia Beach. Working in the high winds and seas, lifesaving crews from shore were able to save some of the 17 persons aboard. However, Captain J. M. Jorgensen's pregnant wife, Johanne, and their 4-year-old son Carl were among the 7 persons who drowned. The ship's wooden female
figurehead had washed ashore. It was placed in a vertical position facing the ocean near the
boardwalk as a memorial to those who died in the
shipwreck. It was a landmark there for more than 60 years, but gradually became weathered and eroded. In 1962, Norwegian sculptor
Ørnulf Bast was commissioned to create two nine-foot bronze replicas of the original figurehead by the City of Moss. The
Norwegian Lady Statues were unveiled on 22 September 1962. One was presented as a gift to Virginia Beach, and an exact duplicate was erected in Moss to unite the two sister cities. Each statue gives the appearance of facing the other across the
Atlantic Ocean. On 13 October 1995,
Queen Sonja of Norway visited the Norwegian Lady statue in Virginia Beach, and placed memorial flowers. ==Geography==