Vardø

Vardø (in Finnish Vuorea ) is a Norwegian Kommune located in the county of Finnmark, in the extreme North-East of the country. It is located on the Mer of Barents.

History

The Norwegian name for the city was Vargøy . The first element of the name is vargr (wolf), and the second øy (island). The first element was replaced by varða (Cairn).

The blazon was created in 1895. It presents two fishing vessels, a cod and a sunset. In lower part one finds Latin: Vardøensis insignia urbis. Yielding tenebrae soli. ( The blazon of the town of Vardø. Darkness will yield in front of the sun. ).

Geography

Vardø is to the extreme is of Norway, and the last Norwegian establishment in this direction; it is thus in the east of Saint-Pétersbourg, Kiev and Istanbul. Is county of Finnmark is in same the Time zone that the remainder of the country even if the difference is marked.

The port, on the Sea of Barents, is free of ice during all the year thanks to the Atlantic northern Dérive.

Vardø is often known as being the only Norwegian continental city in the Arctic zone of climate, but this is incorrect because the city are located on an island which is itself to 2 km in the North-East of the Péninsule Varanger. In July the average Température is of 9,1ºC and in January it is of -5,1ºC. However, the average temperature in July over the period 1996-2005 is of 11ºC, therefore it appears that the Climate warming moves away little by little the city from the Arctic zone of climate.

The island on which the city is located is connected to the continent via a tunnel (the first underwater tunnel of Norway). The airport of the city, and the village in the neighborhoods are located on the continent, beside the mouth of the tunnel. Vardø is a port used by the ferries Hurtigruten . It is also the northern point of the European Route E75, which starts with Sitía in Crete.

Economy

The fishing and treatment of the products halieutics (seafood, fish…) are very important for the economy of the city, but the importance of tourism is growing.

One of principal attractions of the city is the Vardøhus Festning, a Forteresse dating from the end of the 13th century, though the structures which one sees today were built in 1734. The city has also several colonies of birds of sea, two museums (one on the trade of the Pomors, people of the north of the Russia, and the other on the local history and the colonies of birds). There remain also ruins of the fortifications built by the German during the Second world war. There is also a Yukigassen (war of snow) annual, single in Norway, and a festival dedicated to Pomors which takes place each summer. The city has a Cinéma.

Vardøhus Festning shelters two sorbs of the bird-catchers who are very supervised and heated in winter to allow them to survive in the cold climate of Vardø, which is above the Arctic Limite of the trees. In the beginning there were seven trees planted in 1960; that which survives could flower twice, in 1974 and 1981. This tree succumbed in 2002, but two small trees were planted in its place.

The city shelters an installation of Radar S since 1998, Globus II. It is used to supervise the space remains, but its proximity in Russia and of the allegations of collaboration in the anti-missile system of the the United States created a controversy in the diplomatic circles and of intelligence.

See too

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