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Farum municipality is a municipality (Danish, kommune) in Frederiksborg County in the north of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 23 km², and has a total population of 18,662 (2005). Its mayor is Lars Carpens, a member of the Venstre (Liberal Party) political party. The main town and the site of its municipal council is the town of Farum. Other villages in the municipality are Bregnerød and Stavnsholt. Neighboring municipalities are Birkerød to the east, Allerød to the north and northwest, Stenløse to the southwest, and Værløse to the south. Neighboring municipality Søllerød to the southeast is separated from the municipality by Furesø ("Lake Furesø") which defines Farum's southeast border. Most of Farum's southern border is defined by Lake Farum (Farum sø), which also helps separate the municipality from Værløse to the south, with the exception of a short isthmus(narrow land connection between bodies of water) at Fiskebæk,which separates Lake Farum to the west from Lake Furesø to the east. Between the two lakes runs a north-south traffic corridor with motorway, road and train tracks. This corridor effectively divides the municipality in two sections, called Farum East and Farum West, which can only be reached via bridges over the motorway. The municipality is according to size the smallest in Frederiksborg County. By January 1, 2007 Farum municipality will cease to exist, as the result of ''Kommunalreformen'' ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007). It will be merged with Værløse municipality to form the new Furesø municipality. This will create a municipality with an area of 57 km² and a total population of 37,311 (2005). The new municipality will belong to the new Region Hovedstaden ("Copenhagen Capital Region").
History Farum has existed for more than a thousand years. The name Farum, comes from the old Norse meaning the place by the passage, referring to the ford located in the community which was an important transportation link. Around 1100 the first stone church was built in the community, of which parts remain today in Farum kirke. In the 1300s a damming project flooded the old ford and redirected much of the traffic bound for Copenhagen toward Fiskebæk. Farum parish was under the bishop of Roskilde during the middle ages. During the wars with Sweden in the 1600s the area suffered enormous damage. In 1800 the town was transferred from Copenhagen rider district to Frederiksborg County. Around this time the economy of the area revived with renewed cultivation of the fertile agricultural land. Throughout the 19th century the community expanded economically. In 1906 the community was linked to by the railway between Copenhagen and Slangerup, which later became the Hareskovbanen radial of Copenhagen's S-train system. In the early 1900s a thorough modernisation occurred, including electricity, telephone attachments and banking infrastructure. In the early 1950s the population was ca. 4000. Through the 1960s and 70s the population expanded past 10,000, largely because it became a suburb of Copenhagen, with people living there and commuting to the city. Copenhagen's S-train was linked in 1977. By 1980 the population was over 16,000. The municipaly's longtime mayor, Peter Brixtofte, was involved in a financial scandal that became the focus of national scrutiny in 2002. He was forced to resign after being implicated in a variety of corruption. He had been mayor since 1985 and had presided over a successful economic revitalization of the community. See also | ||||||||
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