�lesund is a town and municipality in M�re og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnm�re, and the center of the �lesund Region. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Art Nouveau architecture.
�lesund town is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the principal shipping town of the Sunnm�re district. �lesund municipality has a population of 42,982 as of 2010, while the greater �lesund area has a population of 47,772 (this also includes most of neighboring Sula as well).The port of �lesund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskaps distrikt) and it received town rights in 1848. On 1 January 1875, part of Borgund (population: 902) was transferred to the town of �lesund. In 1922, another part of Borgund (population: 1,148) was transferred to the town of �lesund. On 1 January 1968, most of the neighboring municipality of Borgund (population: 20,132) was merged into �lesund. This merger more than doubled the population of �lesund, for a new total population of 38,589. On 1 January 1977, the island of Sula and some small surrounding islets (population: 6,302) were separated from �lesund to form a separate municipality.A part of the town was originally known as Kaupangen Borgund. The Old Norse word kaupang means "marketplace"or "town", thus the market town for Borgund. The Old Norse form of the current name was �lasund. The first element of that (probably) is the plural genitive case of �ll which means "eel" and the last element is sund which means "strait" or "sound". Before 1921, the name was written Aalesund.
The coat-of-arms was granted on 1 April 1898. The arms symbolize the importance of fishing for the town. The type of ship was typical for the ships used in the 18th and 19th century and is taken from a drawing made in 1762. The waves and fish were added to the drawing in the arms.
The arms are shown in the Kaffe Hag album with the boat sailing
