| Official Name: | Tvedestrand |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Pushpin Map: | Agder#Norway |
| Pushpin Label Position: | top |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of the town |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Norway |
| Subdivision Name1: | Southern Norway |
| Subdivision Name2: | Agder |
| Subdivision Type3: | District |
| Subdivision Name3: | Østre Agder |
| Subdivision Type4: | Municipality |
| Subdivision Name4: | Tvedestrand |
| Utc Offset1: | +01:00 |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | +02:00 |
| Established Title: | Established as |
| Established Date: | |
| Established Title1: | Town (Norwegian: By) |
| Established Date1: | 1997 |
| Area Total Km2: | 2.04 |
| Population As Of: | 2019 |
| Population Total: | 2582 |
| Population Density Km2: | 1267 |
| Postal Code Type: | Post Code |
| Postal Code: | 4900 Tvedestrand |
| Coordinates: | 58.6227°N 8.9311°W |
| Elevation M: | 1 |
| Elevation Footnotes: | [1] |
Tvedestrand is a town and the administrative centre of Tvedestrand municipality in Agder county, Norway. The town is located at the northern end of the Tvedestrandfjorden at the intersection of the Norwegian County Road 411 and Norwegian County Road 410. The Tvedestrand Church is located in the central part of the town. The 2.04km2 town has a population (2019) of 2,582 and a population density of .[2] In Norway, Tvedestrand is considered a Norwegian: by which can be translated as either a "town" or "city" in English.
Tvedestrand had been a small coastal village with a small amount of industry when it became the main port of departure for the materials from the nearby Næs Jernverk (iron works) starting in 1738. In 1836, the port was declared to be a ladested and then on 1 January 1838, it became a town municipality under the new civil municipality law (see formannskapsdistrikt law). The town status was granted to allow it a special license to export timber and iron from the harbour.[3] On 1 January 1858, there was a boundary adjustment that added 70 more residents to the town of Tvedestrand from the neighboring rural municipality of Holt.[4]
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1960, the neighboring municipalities of Dypvåg (population: 1,805) and Holt (population: 3,759) were merged with the town of Tvedestrand (population: 868) to form a new municipality called Tvedestrand. Due to the merger, however, Tvedestrand lost its town status. A new law was passed in 1996 that allowed municipalities to declare urban areas as towns once again. In 1997, the municipality approved the town status for the former town of Tvedestrand.
The first element is the genitive case of the name of the old Norwegian: Tveite farm (Norse, Old: Þveitar) and the last element is Norse, Old: strond which means "strand" or "beach". The name of the farm is the plural form of Norse, Old: þveit which means "small farm".[5]