Gjøvik sits on the western shore of Mjøsa, Norway's largest lake. The town grew as a commercial hub for the Toten farming district and a stop on the Gjøvikbanen railway from Oslo, which arrived in 1902.
The town's most remarkable feature is hidden inside a mountain. For the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, engineers carved Gjøvik Olympiske Fjellhall out of solid rock, creating the world's largest cavern hall for public use. The ice hockey arena sits 120 metres inside the mountain with 55 metres of bedrock above it, seats 5,500 spectators, and hosted 16 Olympic matches. The idea came from a dinner conversation in 1988 between two local engineers who reasoned that building underground would avoid taking up valuable downtown land and provide natural cooling for the ice.
Gjøvik was also home to O. Mustad & Søn, once the world's largest fishhook manufacturer. Founded in 1877, the factory produced hooks that were exported to every fishing nation on earth. The Mustad name is still well known among anglers worldwide. Part of the old Mustad industrial grounds now houses a very different kind of operation: NTNU Gjøvik, one of three campuses of Norway's largest university. The campus is the country's leading centre for cybersecurity research, home to the Norwegian Information Security Laboratory. Its graduates are in high demand with Norway's defence and intelligence agencies, giving this small inland town of 30,000 an unlikely role in national security.
The town's most remarkable feature is hidden inside a mountain. For the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, engineers carved Gjøvik Olympiske Fjellhall out of solid rock, creating the world's largest cavern hall for public use. The ice hockey arena sits 120 metres inside the mountain with 55 metres of bedrock above it, seats 5,500 spectators, and hosted 16 Olympic matches. The idea came from a dinner conversation in 1988 between two local engineers who reasoned that building underground would avoid taking up valuable downtown land and provide natural cooling for the ice.
Gjøvik was also home to O. Mustad & Søn, once the world's largest fishhook manufacturer. Founded in 1877, the factory produced hooks that were exported to every fishing nation on earth. The Mustad name is still well known among anglers worldwide. Part of the old Mustad industrial grounds now houses a very different kind of operation: NTNU Gjøvik, one of three campuses of Norway's largest university. The campus is the country's leading centre for cybersecurity research, home to the Norwegian Information Security Laboratory. Its graduates are in high demand with Norway's defence and intelligence agencies, giving this small inland town of 30,000 an unlikely role in national security.