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( fi, Vuoreija, fkv, Vuorea, se, Várggát) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county in the extreme northeastern part of Norway. Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway, more to the east than Saint Petersburg or Istanbul. 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 the municipality is the town of Vardø. Two of the larger villages in the municipality are Kiberg and Svartnes. The municipality is the 189th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Vardø is the 284th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,897. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 10.6% over the previous 10-year period.


General information

The town of Vardø and the rural district around it 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 January ...
law). The law required that all towns be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was impossible to carry out for Vardø in 1838. (See also Hammerfest and Vadsø.) The rural district of Vardø (''Vardø landdistrikt'', which was renamed Båtsfjord in 1957) was officially separated from the town of Vardø in 1868. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the eastern part of Båtsfjord merged with the town of Vardø to create Vardø Municipality. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly formed Troms og Finnmark county. Previously, it had been part of the old Finnmark county.


Name

The Old Norse form of the name was ''Vargøy''. The first element is ''vargr'' which means " wolf" and the last element is ''øy'' which means " island". The first element was later replaced (around 1500) with ''varða'' which means "
cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...
". Historically, the name was spelled ''Vardöe''.


Coat of arms

The coat of arms dates to 1898. Its borders are drawn using the national colours: red, white, and blue. The border frames the shield, and the centre field shows a complex scene incorporating a sunrise with rays, two
fishing boats A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...
with crews, the
sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
with waves, and a large
cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...
. In the
chief Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...
is the year of the town's foundation, 1789, together with the words ''"Vardöensis Insignia Urbis"'', meaning "the seal of the town of Vardø". In the lower part of the arms is the town motto: ''"Cedant Tenebræ Soli"'', meaning "Darkness shall give way to the sun." This is
high resolution version
of the coat of arms.


Churches

The
Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...
has one parish () within the municipality of Vardø. It is part of the
Varanger prosti Varanger may refer to: *Varanger Peninsula of Norway *Cryogenian The Cryogenian (from grc, κρύος, krýos, meaning "cold" and , romanized: , meaning "birth") is a geologic period that lasted from . It forms the second geologic period of the ...
(
deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...
) in the
Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland Nord-Hålogaland ( no, Nord-Hålogaland bispedømme) is a diocese in the Church of Norway. It covers the Church of Norway churches in Troms og Finnmark county as well as in the territory of Svalbard. The diocese is seated in the city of Tromsø ...
.


History

Vardø has a long settlement history before it was granted status as a town in 1789. Several stone-age sites as well as sites dating from the Sami Iron Age are known on the island. In the Medieval period, Vardø's importance grew as a result of it being the easternmost stronghold of the then-expanding Norwegian royal power. A church was built in Vardø in 1307, and the first fortress was established at about the same time. Thick cultural layers in the southeastern part of the town, Østervågen, document continuous habitation in this area reaching back at least some 800 years. Even if the presence of the fortress and king's bailiff gave Vardø a certain degree of permanence and stability not experienced by other fishing communities in Finnmark, the town's size and importance waxed and waned with the changing fortunes of the fisheries. In the mid-16th century Vardø had a population of 400 to 500 people. By 1789, however, it had reduced to about 100. In the 17th century, Vardø was the center of a great number of
witchcraft trials A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...
. More than 90 persons, Norwegian and Sami, were given death sentences. They are commemorated in the
Steilneset Memorial The Steilneset Memorial is a monument in Vardø, Norway, commemorating the trial and execution in 1621 of 91 people for witchcraft. The memorial was designed by artist Louise Bourgeois and architect Peter Zumthor and was opened in 2011. It was Bo ...
. In 1769, the Hungarian astronomer Maximilian Hell and his assistant János Sajnovics, delegated by Christian VII of Denmark, traveled to Vardø to observe the Transit of Venus. After 1850, the town saw a marked expansion. The fisheries grew in importance, and so did the
Pomor trade Pomor trade (from rus, Поморье, r=pomorje, p=pɐˈmorʲjɪ; ''po'' «by» and ''more'' «ocean»; «area by the ocean», the same word is the basis for Pomerania), is the trade carried out between the Pomors of Northwest Russia and the p ...
with Russia's White Sea region. In 1850 the population reached 400, and in 1910 it passed 3 000. During World War II, with Norway occupied by the German ''Wehrmacht'', Vardø was heavily bombed by Allied, mostly Russian forces. Most of the town center was destroyed, and the population was evacuated. After the war, the city center was completely reconstructed, but older, traditional houses survived in the periphery, such as in the old town in Østervågen. As of 2017, the fishing industry had collapsed. From 1995 to 2017, the population shrank by 50 percent to 2,100 people. In May 2017 work to lay a new electric cable from the Norwegian mainland to the island began. The additional electricity is needed to power the American-funded GLOBUS space surveillance system, located about 40 miles from Russia's Kola Peninsula, a territory studded with high-security naval bases and restricted military zones. The secrecy surrounding the radar systems has spawned fears that officials are covering up health hazards and other possible dangers. The electromagnetic pulses the current radar system emits interfere with television and radio reception, and some residents have blamed them for a rash of miscarriages and cancer cases in a civilian district next to the fenced-in security zone. The town was selected as the
millennium site A millennium site ( no, tusenårssted) is a site selected by a Norwegian municipality or county municipality to mark the transition to the 2000s. In Norway it was decided that the counties and municipalities would choose one millennium site for ...
for Finnmark county.


Government

All municipalities in Norway, including Vardø, are responsible for
primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
(through 10th grade), outpatient
health services Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wiktionary:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physical and menta ...
, senior citizen services, unemployment and other
social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administe ...
, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of elected representatives, who in turn elect a mayor. The municipality falls under the
Øst-Finnmark District Court Øst-Finnmark District Court ( no, Øst-Finnmark tingrett) was a district court (Norway), district court located in the Vadsø (town), town of Vadsø in Finnmark county, Norway. The court served the eastern part of the county which includes the m ...
and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.


Municipal council

The municipal council of Vardø is made up of 19 representatives elected to four-year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:


Mayors

The mayors of Vardø (incomplete list): *2019–present: Ørjan Jensen ( MDG) *2015-2019: Robert Jensen ( Ap) *2007-2015: Lasse Haughom ( FrP) *1995-2000 : TPV PHAN


Geography

Vardø is the easternmost town in Norway and the
Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...
, located at 31°E, which is east of Saint Petersburg, Kyiv and Istanbul. The eastern part of Finnmark is in the same time zone as the rest of the country, despite daylight shifted by more than an hour. The town is on the island of
Vardøya Vardøya is an island in Vardø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The island is the location of the town of Vardø. The island sits about east of the mainland Varanger Peninsula. The island is connected to the mainland by the V ...
, but the municipality includes significant area on the mainland of the Varanger Peninsula, including part of the
Varangerhalvøya National Park Varangerhalvøya National Park ( no, Varangerhalvøya nasjonalpark) lies on the Varanger Peninsula in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is located in the municipalities of Båtsfjord, Nesseby, Vadsø, and Vardø, in the northeasternmost part o ...
in the southwest. The mountain Domen lies on the shore of the Varanger Peninsula. South of it lies the small
Kibergsneset Kibergsneset (also spelled ''Kibergneset'') is a peninsula in Vardø Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The small peninsula is located on the larger Varanger Peninsula along the Barents Sea. The village of Kiberg sits on the southwestern ...
peninsula, where the village of Kiberg is. The town lies on the island of
Vardøya Vardøya is an island in Vardø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The island is the location of the town of Vardø. The island sits about east of the mainland Varanger Peninsula. The island is connected to the mainland by the V ...
, which is surrounded by a few smaller islands. Hornøya is one of them. It is northeast of Vardøya and is the site of
Vardø Lighthouse Vardø Lighthouse ( no, Vardø fyr) is a coastal lighthouse located on the island of Hornøya, just off the coast of the town of Vardø in Vardø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is the easternmost lighthouse in Norway. Descr ...
. The mouth of the Varangerfjorden lies along the municipality's eastern coast.


Climate

The port of Vardø, on the Barents Sea, remains ice-free all year round thanks to the warm North Atlantic drift. Vardø earlier had a tundra climate ( Köppen: ''ET''), but as a result of warming, Vardø now has a
subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
( Köppen: ''Dfc'') using the official 1991-2020 period, because the monthly mean temperatures in July and August has passed the threshold. Excluding high mountain areas, it was earlier the only town in Norway proper (excluding
Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...
and Jan Mayen) with a polar climate. The town is on an unsheltered island in the Barents Sea and treeless. The " midnight sun" is above the horizon from 16 May to 29 July, and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer, polar night from 24 November to 19 January. The average date for first overnight freeze (below ) in autumn is October 12. The weather station Vardø Radio (10 m) started recording in June 1829.


Fauna and flora

The municipality of Vardø with its seabird colonies of Hornøya and Reinøya are among the most interesting on this part of the coast. There is a small breeding population of
Brunnich's guillemot The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' ...
as well as larger numbers of razorbill and common guillemot. The climate is too cold in summer and too windy in winter for trees, but a few planted trees exist in wind-sheltered locations, generally rowans.


Transportation

The island is connected to the mainland via the undersea
Vardø Tunnel The Vardø Tunnel ( no, Vardøtunnelen) is a subsea road tunnel in Vardø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The long two-lane tunnel under the Bussesundet strait connects the island of Vardøya to the village of Svartnes on th ...
(Norway's first such structure).
Vardø Airport Vardø Airport ( no, Vardø Lufthavn; ) is a short take-off and landing airport located at Svartnes in Vardø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. Owned and operated by the state-owned Avinor, it served 14,664 passengers in 2012. The ...
and the settlement of Svartnes are on the mainland opposite the tunnel entrance. Vardø is a port of call on Norway's Hurtigruten ferry service. The town is the northern termination of European route E75, which starts in Sitia, Crete.


Media

The newspaper '' Østhavet'' has been published in Vardø since 1997.


Economy and tourism

Fishing and
seafood processing The term fish processing refers to the processes associated with fish and fish products between the time fish are caught or harvested, and the time the final product is delivered to the customer. Although the term refers specifically to fish, in ...
remain Vardø's major sources of income, although tourism is starting to become an important economic factor. Vardø's tourist attractions include the Vardøhus Festning, a fortress dating back to the 14th century (although the present structure dates from 1734); the witchcraft trials memorial; severa
sea bird colonies
two museums: the
Pomor Museum Pomors or Pomory ( rus, помо́ры, p=pɐˈmorɨ, ''seasiders'') are an ethnographic group descended from Russians, Russian settlers, primarily from Veliky Novgorod, living on the White Sea coasts and the territory whose southern border li ...
and the Partisan Museum; and remnants of German fortifications from World War II. The
Yukigassen is a snowball fighting-competition from Japan. Today there are annual tournaments in Sōbetsu, Hokkaidō in Japan, Kemijärvi in Finland, Vardø in Norway, Murmansk in Russia, Mount Buller, Victoria in Australia, Luleå in Sweden, Anchora ...
competition in Vardø is unique in Norway. Vardøhus Festning is home to two
rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...
trees that are diligently nurtured and warmed in winter since they cannot normally survive in Vardø's climate, north of the Arctic tree line. Seven trees were planted in 1960; the one that survived managed to blossom twice, in 1974 and 1981. It finally succumbed to the cold in 2002, but two new saplings have been planted in its place. In the summer of 2012, Vardø hosted the urban art event
Komafest Komafest was an urban art and graffiti event organized in Vardø, Norway. Tens of mostly abandoned buildings were decorated by international artists in the period 5–21 July 2012, culminating in a grand opening and a guided town tour attended by h ...
, where 12 international artists painted tens of the town's abandoned houses in a three-week period.


River fishing

Fishing permit A fishing license ( US), fishing licence ( UK), or fishing permit is an administrative or legal mechanism employed by local governments to regulate fishing. Licensing is one mechanism of fisheries management commonly used in Western countries ...
s (for salmon fishing) are sold for use on specific rivers, including Komag-elva.


Globus II Radar

Since 1998, the town has housed a radar installation called
Globus II Globus is Latin for ''sphere'' or ''globe''. It may also refer to: Business * Globus Medical, a medical device company in Audubon, PA * Globus (clothing retailer), an Indian clothing retail store * Globus (company), a Swiss department store chai ...
. Its official purpose is the tracking of space junk, but due to the site's proximity to Russia and an alleged connection between the Globus II system and US anti-missile systems, the site has been the basis for heated controversy in diplomatic and intelligence circles. In March 2017 and again in February 2018 Russia executed mock air strikes aimed at Vardø, presumably because of the radar site. Both times military aircraft took off from the Kola Peninsula in attack formations, but stopped short of Norwegian airspace.


Sister cities

* Kemijärvi, Finland


Notable people

* Viktor Esbensen (1881 in Vardø – 1942) a Norwegian mariner, explored the Antarctic region *
Jon Andrå Jon Andrå (12 January 1888 – 15 October 1966) was a Norwegian politician for the Norwegian Labour Party, Labour Party. He was born in Drøbak. He was elected to the Storting, Norwegian Parliament from the Market towns of Nordland, Troms a ...
(1888–1966) a Norwegian politician, Mayor of Vardø 1925 to 1930 *
Peder Ragnar Holt Peder Ragnar Holt (25 January 1899–24 March 1963) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was the first person from Finnmark county to be the Governor of Finnmark, a position he held from 1948 until his death in 1963. He was ...
(1899 in Vardø – 1963) a Norwegian politician, the first person from Finnmark county to be the Governor of Finnmark *
Ada Kramm Ada Kramm (née Egede-Nissen, 14 March 1899 – 17 December 1981) was a Norwegians, Norwegian stage and film actress whose career spanned more than six decades. IMDb Database
retrieved 02 October 2020
*
Haakon Bugge Mahrt Haakon Bugge Mahrt (1901–1990) was a Norwegian writer and attaché. He was born in Vardø and took the ''licencié ès lettres'' degree in Paris in 1928. He worked at the Norwegian embassy in Paris as a press attaché from 1946 to 1971. Books i ...
(1901 in Vardø – 1990) a writer and press attaché at the Norwegian embassy in Paris 1946 to 1971 * Alfred Næss (1927 in Vardø – 1997) a Norwegian playwright and songwriter *
Trond Øyen Trond Øyen (December 26, 1929 – July 12, 1999) was a Norwegian violinist from Vardø. He was recognized as one of Norway's leading violinists of his time. After growing up in Mosjøen, Øyen studied in Oslo under Alf Sjøen and Bjarne Brusta ...
(1929 in Vardø – 1999) a Norwegian violinist, first violinist with the
Oslo Philharmonic The Oslo Philharmonic (Oslo-Filharmonien) is a Norwegian symphony orchestra based in Oslo, Norway. The orchestra traces its roots to the Philharmonic Society founded in 1847 and the Christiania Musical Association co-founded by Edvard Grieg in 18 ...
*
Hans Kristian Eriksen Hans Kristian Eriksen (2 April 1933 – 8 June 2014) was a Norwegian non-fiction writer, magazine editor, novelist and short story writer. Personal life Eriksen was born in Kiberg to fisherman Reidar Kristoffer Eriksen and Elida Helene Malin ...
(1933 in Kiberg – 2014) a non-fiction writer, magazine editor, novelist and short story writer * John Norum (born 1964 in Vardø) a Norwegian/Swedish rock guitarist, co-founder of the Swedish rock band Europe *
Stefan Johansen Stefan Marius Johansen (born 8 January 1991) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder and captains EFL Championship club Queens Park Rangers. In 2021 he announced that he had retired from international duty with ...
(born 1991 in Vardø) a Norwegian professional footballer with over 300 club caps and 55 for Norway


References


External links

*
Municipal fact sheet
from
Statistics Norway Statistics Norway ( no, Statistisk sentralbyrå, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every yea ...

Varanger MuseumVaranger.com
tourist information about Varanger area
Vardø – Finnmark's millennium town
includes pictures {{DEFAULTSORT:Vardo Municipalities of Troms og Finnmark Populated places of Arctic Norway 1838 establishments in Norway Barents Sea Populated coastal places in Norway