Kirkenes
Kirkenes - or Kirkkoniemi in Finnish and Kven (officially Kainu) languages - is the centre of the municipality of Sør-Varanger in Finnmark county, Norway.
Geography and climate
Kirkenes (or Kirkkoniemi) is a town of about 6000 inhabitants in the extreme northeastern part of Norway, in the province of Finnmark, situated by Bøkfjorden, a fjord branch of the Varanger Fjord, which is a vast bay off the Barents Sea, near the border with Russia. The town is situated some 240 miles (approximately 400 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle.
The Midnight sun shines from May 17th to July 21st. The corresponding winter darkness extends from November 21st to January 21st. In spite of being a port, Kirkenes has a more continental climate than most of Norway, and winters are cold; the coldest temperature ever recorded is –41°C, and the Pasvik valley can be even colder. The brief summer is nice, however, and the warmest temperature ever recorded is 32.7°C. July 2004 was the warmest month on record, with a mean temperature of 16.9°C ([1]).
People
Of the approximately 6,000 inhabitants of Kirkenes a majority is of a Norwegian background, and a minority is Sami. Others are originally from Finland, either members of the ancent and indigenous Finnic Kveen (a.k.a. Cwen or Quen) population or of a newer influx of more or less recent Finnish immigrants. Also, some 500 are relatively recent Russian immigrants.
Economy and Tourism
The secretariat of the Barents Region is located in Kirkenes. One of its tasks is to create cross-border cultural, educational and business relations in the Barents Region. There is now substantial optimism in the town as a consequence of the increased petroleum drilling activity in the Barents Sea (including the Russian activity).
Bøkfjorden, an excellent harbour, has attracted interest from several large companies. Tourist attractions include Grenselandsmuseet (The Border Country Museum), which shows the history of war and peace along the Norwegian-Russian border, Sami art exhibitions by the artist John Savio and a history of the mining industry in the area. Kirkenes is also one end of the route of Hurtigruten, which cruises regularly down the Norway coast to Bergen. Kirkenes is served by Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen. There are non-stop flights to Oslo and Tromsø.
Just outside of Kirkenes is a military base called "Høybuktmoen". Connected to this base are six border stations along the Russian border. This base and these border stations are there to protect against illegal immigrants as well as other illegal activities across the border.
History
Kirkenes was one of the most bombed towns during World War II (reportedly, second after Malta), with 320 air attacks and more than one thousand alarms. Only 13 houses were left in October 1944. The town was liberated by the Red Army on October 25 1944.
The Russian-Norwegian border was an extremely tense place during the Cold War. There was never any actual gunfire between the Norwegian and the Russian border control, but there were on several occasions a line up of soldiers and tanks from both sides. The US military was on one occasion on high alert to assist Norwegian border soldiers. The situation is, of course, more relaxed these days. But the Schengen union has ordered that soldiers on the border are to be highly trained and ready around the clock to shoot. The training program is very similar to that of the US Army Rangers.
The area is a part of the historic Kvenland, i.e. the land of the Finnic Kvens. The Kven residents of Kirkenes are descendants of the Kvens who have inhabited parts of Northern Norway historically, or descendants of Finnish immigrants who arrived to the area during or anytime before the 19th century from Finland.
As the post- 19th century migration from Finland to Northern Norway did not originate from the area of the historic (Northern Scandinavian) Kvenland, the later Finnish immigrants to the area are not referred to as Kvens, but Finns instead.
Although historically Kirkenes has been inhabited largely by the Finnic Kven population, more recently also newcomers from the more southern parts of Norway and Finland have settled to the area. Up to the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the population in and around Kirkenes spoke the Kven dialect of Finnish, which in 2005 received a legal language status in Norway. The official name of the language is Kainu.
Trivia
Unlike the vast majority of Norway, Kirkenes is located east of the neighbouring country of Finland. Because of this, travelling directly west from Kirkenes actually changes the timezone forward instead of backward, like it usually does. Travelling directly east from Kirkenes (into Russia) changes the timezone forward by two hours instead of one.
One can drive 100 km south, and walk 10 km, into the Øvre Pasvik National Park, reaching the border point of the three countries, where the three timezones meet. There are only a few such places in the world.
External links
- Kirkenesinfo (Norwegian, English, German)
- Grenselandsmuseet: http://museumsnett.no/sor-varangermuseum/engelsk.htm
- Local hotel in listed building: http://www.dirboligen.no
- Courses and education: http://www.kirkeneskompetanse.org
- Tour operator Kirkenes/barentsregion/Russia: http://www.grenseland.no
- Sør Varanger municipality: http://www.sor-varanger.kommune.no/
- Avinor: Kirkenes Airport
- Sør-Varanger climate statistics from met.no.
- Oil export from Russia via Kirkenes