Marker is a municipality in Østfoldcounty, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ørje. Marker was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1964 following the merger of the two former municipalities of Rødenes and Øymark.
The municipality's biggest attractions are the fortresses at Basmo and Ørje. Basmo Fortress lies on an isolated mountain outcrop between lakes Rødenessjøen and Hemnessjøen in the northwestern part of the municipality.
General information
Name
The Norse form of the name was Markir, which is the plural form of mǫrk f 'woodland, borderland' (see > March).
Coat-of-arms
Marker's coat-of-arms dates from modern times, having been granted on 16 April 1982. The arms show two white-colored trunk-hooks on a blue background. They are a type of hook, normally on a long pole, used to drive tree trunks through the rivers. The main economic activity in the municipality is forestry, hence the use of the hooks. The two hooks also represent the two villages (and former municipalities) of Rødenes and Øymark.[4]
Rødenes church (Rødenes kirke) is a medieval-era church in the Rødenes parish of Marker. It belongs to Østre Borgesyssel deanery in the Church of Norway's Borg Diocese. The building, which is of Romanesque architectural style and dates from 1230, has a rectangular nave and a lower and narrower choir. The oaken pulpit dates from the 1600s and the altarpiece from the 1720s. The edifice is of stone and brick. The floorplan is long and has room for 240 seats. The church underwent extensive reconstruction in the years 1703–1709 and again in 1949–1952.[5][6]
Minorities
Number of minorities (1st and 2nd generation) in Marker by country of origin in 2020[7]