Patrimoine

Vadsø

www.varanger.com

Vadsø municipality is located by the Varanger Fjord in the eastern part of Finnmark, in the middle of the National Tourist route Varanger (E75). The municipality has 6100 inhabitants and is the capital of Finnmark County. The city has airport and departures daily by Hurtigruten.

Varanger is known for its beautiful and distinctive nature with cliffs, plateaus, swamps and birch forests in an arctic climate. It's all about the landscape, the light and the story. The horizon is great and the light is special. Varanger is one of Northern Europe's richest bird areas and the Steller's Eider overwinters in Varanger when it gets too cold in Siberia. Varanger's history goes from Sami and sea Sami cultural history, to witch hunt, Finnish immigration and war history. There has been continuous settlement in Varanger from the stone age until today, and there are house sites, tombs and sacrificial sites there. At the end of the 19th century large numbers of Finnish immigrants, who the Norwegians dubbed “Kven”, settled in Eastern Finnmark, and Vadsø became known as the Kven capital. The city has cafes, night clubs, concerts, festivals and exhibitions. Nature with many hiking opportunities are right outside the livingroom door and the city outside the porch door. Do you want to visit us, check out www.visitvaranger.com.

Kirkenes

Welcome to Sør-Varanger, a municipality with many opportunities!

We border to Russia and Finland, and are an exciting border country in most senses of the word; political, cultural, botanical, geological and zoological. Sør-Varanger has always been an international municipality, and amongst the 10 000 inhabitants of today, approximately 65 nationalities are represented, with about 5% of the population being Russian. Sør-Varanger is also part of the Sami area.

The borders to Russia and Finland give the municipality a central location for both business, authorities and the population. Mining was the main business in Sør-Varanger until the bankruptcy in 2015, only paused from 1995 to 2005. Tourism, particularly during the winter season, has escalated, and is today the biggest business in the municipality.

The administrative centre Kirkenes, with its 3 600 inhabitants, is the turning point for Hurtigruten (the Coastal Express) and E6. There are several daily airport departures to Oslo, Tromsø and the main routes in Finnmark. Sør-Varanger has a diversified nature and many beautiful places to exhibit, from the fishing village Bugøynes in the west to Grense Jakobselv in the east, both with beautiful beaches. In the south you find Pasvikdalen with its border river, national park, large pine forests and farms. The king crab, cloudberry marshes, polar nights, Northern Lights and midnight sun are also a few of our trademarks.

Sør-Varanger – a border breaking municipality with Kirkenes as its heart and capital of the Barents region.