Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Bodø Municipality Bodø (; smj, Bådåddjo, sv, Bodö) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland coun ...

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

. The town is the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of Bodø Municipality and of

county. It is located on the Bodø peninsula between the Vestfjorden and the

Saltfjorden Saltfjorden or Saltenfjorden is a fjord in the municipalities of Bodø and Gildeskål in Nordland county, Norway. The long fjord begins around the Fleinvær islands; travels northeast past the islands of Sørarnøya, Sandhornøya, and Straumøya ...

. Bodø is located just north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at ...

. It is the largest urban area and town in Nordland county and it is the second-largest town in

Northern Norway Northern Norway ( nb, Nord-Norge, , nn, Nord-Noreg; se, Davvi-Norga) is a geographical region of Norway, consisting of the two northernmost counties Nordland and Troms og Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the lar ...

. The town has a population (2018) of 41,215 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

of .

History

The village of Bodø was granted

town status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, city status ...

in 1816 and soon after, in 1818, it was known for the

Bodø affair The Bodø affair was a diplomatic scandal involving Sweden-Norway (then a dual monarchy) and the United Kingdom, which lasted from 1818 to 1821. The affair arose over the illegal trading activities of an English company in the Norwegian port of ...

, smuggling by British merchants that later were compensated by Norway. The town of Bodø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () is the name for Norwegian local self-government districts that were legally enacted on 1 January 1838. This system of municipalities was created in a bill approved by the Parliament of Norway and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 Janu ...

law). On 1 January 1938, a part of the neighboring municipality of

Bodin Bodin is a parish and former municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1968. It was a large municipality encompassing all of the mainland area around the town of Bodø and part of the ...

(population: 559) was transferred into the town of Bodø. On 1 January 1959, another part of Bodin (population: 1,303) was transferred into the town Bodø, expanding its size considerably. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee ( no, Schei-komitéen) was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post- World War II. It convened in 1946, and its formal name was (The 1946 Committee on Munici ...

. On 1 January 1968, the town of Bodø (population: 14,252) was merged with the municipality of

(population: 13,323) and this created the much larger

Toponymy

The town is named after the old ''Bodøgård'' farm ( non, Boðvin), since the town was built on its ground. The first element might be ' which means "sunken rock" or "

skerry A skerry is a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low sea stack. A skerry may have vegetative life such as moss and small, hardy grasses. They ar ...

" and the last element is ' which means "

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or arti ...

" or "

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

". The last element may have been misunderstood as ' which means "

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

" (and written with the

Danish language Danish (; , ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the northern German region of Southern Schl ...

form ').

Institutions

The main campus of

Nord University Nord University ( no, Nord universitet; sma, Noerhte universitete; smj, Nuortta universitiehtta) is a state university in the Nordland and Trøndelag counties of Norway. The university has 11,000 students at study locations in Northern and Centr ...

is located outside the city centre. Twelve thousand undergraduate and graduate students study at the university. Bodø is the location of the only police academy in Norway outside

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority is situated in Bodø, as is the

Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Northern Norway The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Northern Norway or JRCC NN ( no, Hovedredningssentralen i Nord-Norge) is a rescue coordination center located in Bodø which is responsible for coordinating major search and rescue (SAR) operations in Norwa ...

. The Norwegian Armed Forces headquarters for North Norway is located at Reitan, east of the city. SB Nordlandsbuss has its headquarters in Bodø, as does Bodø Energi and

Nordlandsbanken Nordlandsbanken was a Norwegian bank serving the County of Nordland. Nordlandsbanken was at the end a wholly owned subsidiary of DnB NOR who bought the bank in 2003. It had total assets of NOK 22 billion and headquarters in Bodø. The bank had ...

. The largest shopping centre in Nordland, City Nord, is located in Bodø.

Climate

Bodø features a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

(''Dfb'') or, if the original Köppen winter threshold is used, an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(''Cfb'') in the 1991-2020 base period. Bodø is one of the northernmost cities in the world and the only inside the Arctic Circle with a temperate four-season climate. The weather in Bodø depends on weather pattern; long lasting weather patterns with Atlantic lows bringing rain and overcast can occur in all seasons, but so can sunny weather with Highs over Northern Scandiniava/Western Russia. Located on a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...

in the Norwegian Sea, Bodø has potential for strong winds both from the west and east. The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 1 June to 14 July (44 days), and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer. The all-time low was recorded in February 1966, which was the coldest month on record with a mean of . The all-time high was set in July 2019, while July 2014 was the warmest month with a 24-hr mean and average daily high . The warmest night recorded was June 29, 1972 with overnight low . The average date for the first overnight freeze (below ) in autumn is October 12 (1981-2010 average). The driest month on record was January 2014 with no precipitation at all, while the wettest was September 2009 with 293 mm. Recent decades have seen warming, and there has been no overnight air frost in June since 1981. ; with its location on the Arctic Circle the city features one of the largest latitudinal temperature anomalies on Earth. Data in table below is from Bodø Airport, summer daily highs are often warmer in the city center. Earlier weather data for Bodø, which then had a subpolar Oceanic Climate (Cfc).

Military

Bodø has a long history with the

Norwegian Armed Forces The Norwegian Armed Forces ( no, Forsvaret, , The Defence) is the military organization responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of five branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Coast Guard, the Royal ...

, and especially the

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) ( no, Luftforsvaret, , The Air Defence) is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximatel ...

(RNoAF). The Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Operational Headquarters are located at Reitan, east of Bodø. Parts of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

air forces attending the annual Cold Response are stationed at

Bodø Main Air Station Bodø Air Station (; no, Bodø hovedflystasjon) is a military air base of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) located in the town of Bodø in Bodø Municipality, Nordland county, Norway. It is home to the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon ...

. Bodø MAS is a major Norwegian military air base, housing two-thirds of Norway's

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successf ...

fighter force and two of RNoAFs SAR Sea Kings. Bodø, competing with

Ørland Ørland is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Fosen region. Ørland is located at the southwestern tip of the Fosen peninsula at the northern shore of the mouth of Trondheimsfjord where the Stjørnfjorden arm begin ...

and

Evenes Evenes ( sme, Evenášši) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Ofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bogen. Other villages in Evenes include Liland, Tårst ...

, is a candidate for the Northern Air Base in the new RNoAF system. Bodin Leir located near the air station was an RNoAF recruit school including Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System personnel and a national response unit. The base was central during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

due to its strategic location and proximity to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. It would have been vital in the build-up of NATO air and land forces to defend Norway, and thus the entire northern flank of NATO, in a war with the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

. It could also have been used as a forward base for American bombers to strike targets in the

. Now Bodin Leir is an camp to house military personnel for the

Norwegian Joint Headquarters The Norwegian Joint Headquarters, NJHQ ( no, Forsvarets operative hovedkvarter, FOH) is the Norwegian Armed Forces operational commando-center. It is located at Reitan outside Bodø, where during the Cold War NATO's Allied Command North Norway w ...

and

. Bodø has a street named ''General Fleischer's Gate'' in honour of Carl Gustav Fleischer. Bodø received international attention during the U-2 Crisis in May 1960, when it became known that the American U-2 pilot

Gary Powers Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 i ...

had been shot down over the Soviet Union on his way from

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

to Bodø.

Culture

Bodø's local newspaper is the ''

Avisa Nordland ''Avisa Nordland'' is a local newspaper published in Bodø, Norway. History and profile ''Avisa Nordland'' was established in February 2002 through a controversial merger of the two competing newspapers '' Nordlandsposten'' and '' Nordlands Framt ...

''. The

Norwegian Aviation Museum The Norwegian Aviation Museum ( no, Norsk luftfartsmuseum) was opened by King Harald V on May 15, 1994. It is the Norwegian national museum of aviation and also the largest aviation museum in the Nordic countries, covering around . Situated in B ...

and Salten Museum are located in Bodø. Salten Museum has four exhibitions: The

Lofoten Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolv� ...

Fisheries, a

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

exhibit, a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

treasure, and an exhibition about Bodø's history from 1816 to 2000. The

Bodø Cathedral Bodø Cathedral ( no, Bodø domkirke) is a cathedral of the Church of Norway in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the town of Bodø. It is the church for the ''Bodø domkirke'' parish which is also the seat of the ...

was built in 1956, representing post-war

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

, whereas the

Bodin Church Bodin Church ( no, Bodin kirke) is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the southeastern part of the town of Bodø. It is one of the churches for the Bodin parish which is p ...

just outside the city centre dates from the 13th century, representing a typical medieval stone church. Other churches in the town include Hunstad Church and Rønvik Church. The new cultural centre "Stormen" (the storm) was opened in 2014. It contains a library, a concert hall and theater. The building is designed by Daniel Rosbottom and

David Howarth David Ross Howarth (born 10 November 1958) is a British academic and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Cambridge from 2005–10. He served as an Electoral Commissioner between 2010 and 2018. He is Professor of ...

. Bodø is host to the cultural festivals Nordland Musikkfestuke and

Parkenfestivalen Parkenfestivalen is an outdoors festival that takes place in Bodø, Norway every year in August. This has been a tradition ever since 2006, and the festival only gets bigger every year. The festival is held in a park called Rensåsparken. In the b ...

every summer, as well as the free and volunteer based Bodø Hardcore Festival in early winter. Fram Kino was the first

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

in Norway. It was started in the year 1908.

Sports

Bodø's main professional team is the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club Bodø/Glimt, playing in

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotio ...

, the top division of football in Norway. In addition to Bodø/Glimt, Bodø has had several teams at national top level, including

Grand Bodø Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and comm ...

(women's football), Junkeren (women's handball) and

Bodø HK Bodø HK is a Norwegian handball team located in Bodø. Their home matches are played at Bodø Spektrum. They compete in GRUNDIGligaen REMA 1000-ligaen is the premier professional men's handball league in Norway. It was established in 1966 ...

(men's handball). The most well-known sporting arena in Bodø is Aspmyra Stadion, which in addition to being the home of Bodø/Glimt has hosted one

international International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

match. Also, the multi-purpose indoor

Bodø Spektrum Bodø Spektrum is an indoor sports complex in Bodø, Norway. In 1990, construction of Nordlandshallen started, which would allow Glimt a winter training ground, It opened on 21 September 1991. The largest hall is Nordlandshallen, an associatio ...

, contains full-size football and handball courts, as well as several swimming and bathing facilities. The town is also home of Bodø Barbarians, a leading

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

team.

References

{{Authority control Bodø Cities and towns in Norway Populated places in Nordland Port cities and towns in Norway Populated places of Arctic Norway 1816 establishments in Norway Populated places established in 1816