Misplaced Pages

#473526

27-539: The town has an ice-free harbor, including the nearby island of Melkøya which is home to a natural gas processing station. It processes gas from the Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea . Rypefjord is a suburb to the south of the city. The main church for the city and municipality is Hammerfest Church . The " midnight sun " is above the horizon from 15 May to 31 July, and the period with continuous daylight lasts

54-424: A bit longer. Polar night , on the other hand, lasts from 23 November to 19 January. The town is visited by cruise ships from all over the world each summer. In 2016, there were about 19,000 tourists who visited the city of Hammerfest. Hammerfest claims to be the northernmost city in the world, although the title is disputed by the nearby Norwegian town of Honningsvåg (achieved town status 1996). The validity of

81-608: A new, larger Hammerfest Municipality . The climate is Dfc ( subarctic ), just above tundra , but with daily means in July and August above 10 C (50 F). Melk%C3%B8ya Melkøya   ( Norwegian ) or Muolkkut   ( Northern Sami ) is an island in Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway . The 0.69-square-kilometre (170-acre) island is connected to the town of Hammerfest (on

108-576: Is a point of contention between the two towns who both claim to be the northernmost town in Norway. Utqiagvik, Alaska , population c. 4,000–5,000, is further north than both the Norwegian towns, but does not lay claim to the title of northernmost town. There are many other smaller " northernmost settlements " in the world. Many grave sites dating back to the Stone Age can be found here. This location

135-468: Is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters . A garrison is usually in a city , town , fort , castle , ship , or similar site. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby. "Garrison towns" ( Arabic : أمصار , romanized :  amsar ) were used during

162-497: Is converted into liquefied natural gas . The plant opened in 2007 and is operated by Equinor . After a fire closed the plant in 2020, it re-opened in 2022. Liquefied natural gas is then exported from Melkøya to world markets by a LNG gas carrier or tanker . The island was previously used for farming, and rental houses for seasonal fishermen were also built on the island. In 2001 and 2002, major archaeological investigations on Melkøya were undertaken before Statoil's development of

189-545: The Arab Islamic conquests of Middle Eastern lands by Arab - Muslim armies to increase their dominance over indigenous populations. In order to occupy non-Arab, non-Islamic areas, nomadic Arab tribesmen were taken from the desert by the ruling Arab elite, conscripted into Islamic armies, and settled into garrison towns as well as given a share in the spoils of war . The primary utility of the Arab-Islamic garrisons

216-549: The Sami and Kven peoples served as enlisted members of the unit. On 22 July 1809, the British brigs HMS Snake and HMS Fancy approached the town. Before reaching Hammerfest, the two vessels had successfully attacked the village of Hasvik . The following battle between Hammerfest's militia, who had established two artillery batteries , and Snake and Fancy , which mounted a combined number of thirty-two cannon between them,

243-642: The Islamic state established in their midst. In the United Kingdom , "Garrison" also specifically refers to any of the major military stations such as Aldershot , Catterick , Colchester , Tidworth , Bulford , and London , which have more than one barracks or camp and their own military headquarters , usually commanded by a colonel , brigadier or major-general , assisted by a garrison sergeant major . In Ireland , Association football (as distinct from Gaelic football ) has historically been termed

270-639: The autumn of 1944 after a Soviet offensive at the northern extremity of the Eastern Front pushed into eastern Finnmark. All of Finnmark including the town was looted and burned to the ground by the Germans when they retreated in 1945, the last of the town having been destroyed by the time the Germans finally left on 10 February 1945. Only the town's small funeral chapel, built in 1937, was left standing. The Museum of Reconstruction in Hammerfest tells

297-431: The claim depends upon one's definition of a town/city. It may help to know that the Norwegian language does not distinguish between city and town . The closest translation for either term is the word by , meaning the translation from Norwegian to English is ambiguous. Although Hammerfest is further south than Honningsvåg, the town of Hammerfest has a population of nearly 8,000 people (and over 11,000 people living in

SECTION 10

#1732766041474

324-466: The empty town before withdrawing. After the raid, Hammerfest became a garrison town with some regular troops and much improved and expanded fortifications. A small flotilla of cannon-armed rowing boats also operated out of Hammerfest for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars. Hammerfest was struck by a fire in 1890 which started in a bakery and wiped out almost half the town's houses. After

351-478: The fire Hammerfest received donations and humanitarian assistance from across the world, with the biggest single donor being Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany . The Kaiser had personally visited the town several times on his yacht and had great affection for the small northern settlement. In 1891, Hammerfest became the first urban settlement in Northern Europe to get electrical street lights . The invention

378-533: The island began. The development of the island has changed Melkøya completely. On 21 August 2007, the gas from the Snøhvit field began flowing to Melkøya. The endangered black-legged kittiwake adopted a man-made cliff at the facility for nesting, making it one of the largest kittiwake colonies in the world. Garrison A garrison (from the French garnison , itself from the verb garnir , "to equip")

405-476: The main centres of commerce and transportation in western Finnmark , Hammerfest was subject to a British naval blockade . Thus, upon the request of local merchants, the town received four 6-pounder guns from the government armoury in Trondheim . Subsequently, a 50-strong militia unit was formed to defend Hammerfest from a possible British naval attack. Local merchants formed the militia's officer corps, while

432-451: The municipality). A Norwegian law from 1997 says a municipality must have over 5,000 residents in order for it to declare town status to one of its settlements. Parliament, however, did not make this provision retroactive. Honningsvåg was given town status prior to the 1997 law, so it is a town under current Norwegian law, making Honningsvåg the northernmost town in Norway. Thus, Hammerfest is the northernmost town with over 5,000 residents. This

459-438: The neighboring island of Kvaløya to the west) by the 2,316 meters long Melkøysund Tunnel , which was completed in 2003. The industrial island is the endpoint of the undersea pipeline that transports natural gas from the Snøhvit natural gas fields in the Barents Sea . The gas goes through the 168-kilometre (104 mi) long pipeline to the processing plant Hammerfest LNG on Melkøya where 18 million cubic meters per day

486-450: The new municipality of Hammerfest landdistrikt . This left just the town remaining in what was once a vast municipality of Hammerfest. The town at this time had 1,125 residents. (The rural district was later divided into Sørøysund Municipality in the north and Kvalsund Municipality in the south.) On 1 January 1992, the town of Hammerfest (population: 6,909) was merged with the neighboring Sørøysund Municipality (population: 2,341) to form

513-698: The story of these events and the recovery of the region. The Soviet troops in eastern Finnmark were withdrawn in September 1945. Mines and munitions left over from the Second World War were found and destroyed as late as 2008. The municipality called Hammerfest by og landdistrikt was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). It included the town of Hammerfest and the vast rural district surrounding it. The law required that all towns should be separated from their rural districts, but because of low population, and very few voters, this

540-420: The town was hit by explosive and incendiary devices, but little damage was done. On 29 August 1944 Soviet bombers launched a second airstrike, inflicting significantly more damage to buildings and infrastructure in downtown Hammerfest. Two ships were sunk in the harbour. The ships lost were the local transports Tanahorn and Brynilen . The population was forcibly evacuated by the occupying German troops in

567-590: The town, one with three 10.5 cm guns on a hill right outside the town and a final battery with casemated 13 cm (5.1 in) pieces on the Rypklubben peninsula near Rypefjord . The main German U-boat base in Finnmark was in Hammerfest, serving as a central supply base for the vessels attacking the allied supply convoys to Russia . Luftwaffe seaplanes were based at an improvised naval air station in nearby Rypefjord. The garrison in Hammerfest

SECTION 20

#1732766041474

594-651: Was also protected by around 4,000 mines and numerous anti-aircraft guns . During their long retreat following the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation , the Germans no longer managed to transport troops by sea further east due to intensive Red Air Force raids. Thus Hammerfest became their main shipping port in Finnmark in the autumn of 1944. The town of Hammerfest was bombed twice by the Soviet Air Forces . The first time, on 14 February 1944,

621-520: Was an important fishing and Arctic hunting settlement for a long time before it was given market town rights by royal decree of Christian VII of Denmark–Norway in 1789. During the Napoleonic Wars , Denmark–Norway abandoned its neutrality after a British Royal Navy fleet launched a pre-emptive attack on Copenhagen in 1807, allying with France against the Coalition . As one of

648-817: Was brought to Hammerfest by two of the town's merchants who had seen it demonstrated at a fair in Paris . After their victory in the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War , the Germans soon fortified Hammerfest and used it as a major base. The importance of Hammerfest to the Germans increased dramatically after their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The occupiers installed three coastal batteries in and around Hammerfest, one with four 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns on Melkøya island near

675-469: Was impossible to carry out for Hammerfest in 1838. (This was also the case in the other towns in Finnmark: Vadsø and Vardø .) In 1839, the northern district (population: 498) was separated to become the new Maasø Municipality . This left Hammerfest by og landdistrikt with 2,024 residents. On 1 January 1852, Hammerfest was divided. The rural district outside of the town (population: 1,256) became

702-543: Was to control the indigenous non-Arab peoples of these conquered and occupied territories, and to serve as garrison bases to launch further Islamic military campaigns into yet-undominated lands. A secondary aspect of the Arab-Islamic garrisons was the uprooting of the aforementioned nomadic Arab tribesmen from their original home regions in the Arabian Peninsula in order to proactively avert these tribal peoples, and particularly their young men, from revolting against

729-498: Was unusually intense and ended after the Norwegians ran out of gunpowder after about 90 minutes of combat and withdrew. Both Snake and Fancy had suffered a number of cannon hits and lost one man killed, a sailor who was buried at a local cemetery. During the battle, the town's populace evacuated elsewhere, and the crews of Snake and Fancy remained in Hammerfest for eight days after the Norwegian withdrawal. The crews sacked

#473526