Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

share a is long

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

. It is a land and river border between two

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

s. The western tripoint is marked by

Treriksröset The Three-Country Cairn (, , , ) is the tripoint at which the international borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland meet, and the name of the monument that marks the point. It is the northernmost international tripoint in the world.The border betw ...

, a concrete

cairn A cairn is a human-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 (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

where both countries border

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The eastern tripoint is marked by

Treriksrøysa Treriksrøysa () is a cairn which marks the tripoint where the borders between Norway, Finland, and Russia meet. The site is on a hill called Muotkavaara, in the Pasvikdalen valley, west of the Pasvikelva river and southwest of Nyrud just we ...

, a stone cairn where both countries border

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The border was defined in a treaty from 1751, but was then a part of the border between the Kingdom of Sweden, ruling Finland, and Denmark-Norway. In the period 1738–1751 there were field investigations and negotiations on the border, although the Finnish part needed less negotiation. Cairns were erected after that with the last one in

Nesseby Municipality or (also unofficially ''Uuniemi'' in Kven language, Kven and Finnish language, Finnish) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the vi ...

in 1766. After Finland became the

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

, a Grand Duchy of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, and the independent Kingdom of Norway was evoked into but in personal union with Sweden under the Swedish King, a treaty was again negotiated in 1816 with Russia. Defining the easternmost part of the border zone. Between 1920 and 1944, the

Petsamo Petsamo may refer to: * Petsamo Province, a province of Finland from 1921 to 1922 * Petsamo, Tampere, a district in Tampere, Finland * Pechengsky District Pechengsky District (; ; ; ; ) is an administrative district (raion), one of the six in Mur ...

area belonged to Finland, so the Finland–Norway border extended along the present

Norway–Russia border The border between Norway and Russia consists of a land border between Sør-Varanger Municipality, Norway, and Pechengsky District, Russia, and a marine border in the Varangerfjord. It further consists of a border between the two countrie ...

to the ocean. The 1751 treaty also granted the

Sami people Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

the right to cross the border freely, including their

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

, as they always had done. In 1852, the border of Norway–Finland/Russia was closed, causing trouble for the Sami, who needed the Finnish forests for reindeer winter grazing. This rule is still in effect, which means that part of the border are

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...

d to prevent the crossing of reindeer, while there are stairs across the fence in place to allow humans to cross the border, as well as gates for

ATVs ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbo ...

to cross the border. The Finland–Norway border is open as both countries are part of the

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) encompasses European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their common borders. As an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy of the European Union (EU), it ...

. It is legal to cross the border anywhere if no customs declaration or passport check is needed. A treaty gives the customs officers of one country the right to carry out clearance and checks for both countries. There is an wide clear-cut zone along the land border in forest areas. Almost half of the border follows the rivers

Anarjohka Anarjohka (, or ''Anarjohka'', , ) is a tributary of Tana River (Norway), Tana River. It is about long, with a drainage area of about .NVE Atla ...

and Tana. A fairly large share of the western part of the border goes over treeless mountains. There are 57 original cairns north of

from until 1766, numbered 293–342 west of Anarjohka river and 343–349 east of Tana river. Later further cairns numbered 343–353 against Finland were erected east of Nesseby, and cairns in between the originals with a letter after the number. The extreme eastern end of Norway (containing the town of

Kirkenes (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ), (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; , or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsu ...

) actually reaches east of Finland, located between Finland and Russia. Since Norway uses

Central European Time Central European Time (CET) is a standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The UTC offset, time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Eur ...

and Finland uses

Eastern European Time Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03:00 during the summer. A number of African countries use UTC ...

, the time zone on the east side of the border is one hour behind the time zone on the west side. Finland Norway border cairn 307a in Finnmark 01.jpg, Finland–Norway border cairn 307a, dated 1925, near Siđusgohpi in

Reisa National Park Reisa National Park (; ) is a national park in Nordreisa Municipality in Troms county, Norway that was established by royal decree on 28 November 1986. The park has much wildlife. The rough-legged buzzard is the most common bird of prey, but hike ...

. The border reindeer fence is visible on the left. Finland Norway border fence in Sapmi.jpg, Fence with stairs and ATV gate along the Finland–Norway border in Siđusgohpi between

Käsivarsi Wilderness Area The Käsivarsi Wilderness Area () is the second-largest wilderness reserve in Finland. It was established in 1991 like all the other 11 wilderness areas in Lapland. Its area is . It is the most popular wilderness area in Finland, by number of vi ...

and

. Reindeer are prevented from crossing the border, while humans can cross freely. Utsjoki border Sami Bridge.jpg,

Utsjoki Utsjoki (; ; ; ; ) is a municipality in Finland, the northernmost in the country. It is in Lapland and borders Norway as well as the municipality of Inari. The municipality was founded in 1876. It has a population of () and covers an area of ...

, the national border between Finland and Norway, with

Sami Bridge The Sami Bridge (; ; ) is a cable-stayed bridge that carries the European route E75 across the Tana River between Finnmark county in Norway and Utsjoki in Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northe ...

List of road border crossings

From east to west: * Neiden (road 92), N *

Polmak , , or is a village in Tana Municipality in Finnmark county in Norway. The village is located on the south bank of the river Tana, just east of the border with Finland (and the northernmost point of Finland). The village is the site of the ...

(road 970/895), N *

(road E75), F *

Karigasniemi Karigasniemi () is a village in the municipality of Utsjoki in Finland. It lies at the foot of Mount Ailigás. The village is situated on the border between Norway and Finland south-east of the Norwegian village of Karasjok. It lies on the ba ...

(road 92), F * Kivilompolo (road E45), F * Helligskogen (road E8), N :N = customs station on the Norwegian side :F = customs station on the Finnish side All road crossings on this border have customs stations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finland-Norway border European Union external borders 1751 establishments in Finland 1751 establishments in Norway 1751 in international relations

Borders of Norway International borders

List of road border crossings

See also

References