The town originated as a centre for trade in connection with the building of Kongsvinger fortress in the 17th century. The fortress was finished in 1682. Today the well preserved fortress is a landmark, looking over the town and the river Glomma which runs through the town centre.

Kongsvinger is situated centrally in the eastern part of the municipality, with travelling distances under 1 hour to Gardermoen and just over 1 hour to Oslo.  Kongsvinger is a border municipality to Sweden and a communication junction with classified road, bus and railway connections to Oslo, Stockholm, and Trondheim to the north. We are also ideally placed with regard to IT communication with a greatly developed infrastructure in this field.

Official statistics about Kongsvinger: Statistics Norway - SSB