Kabelvåg is a village in Vågan Municipality in

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

county, Norway. It is located on the southern shore of the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago. Kabelvåg lies about to the southwest of the town of Svolvær, the

administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of Vågan municipality. The village has a population (2018) of 1,883 which gives the village a population density of . Kabelvåg Lofotmuseet

The village was founded as ''"Vågan"'' in the early 12th century by King Øystein Magnusson, who built a church and a fishermen's hostel there. According to the Heimskringla, there was something resembling a town there several centuries earlier — the first known town in North Norway, known as ''"Vågar"''. There are several attractions in Kabelvåg: the

Lofoten Museum Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands. There are two towns, Svolvæ ...

Lofoten Aquarium
and

Espolin Gallery The Espolin Gallery ( no, Galleri Espolin) is an art gallery in Storvågan near Kabelvåg in the municipality of Vågan, Norway. The gallery was established in 1992 to display the works of the artist Kaare Espolin Johnson. In addition to Espolin ...

Vågan Church Vågan Church ( no, Vågan kirke; nickname: ''Lofoten Cathedral'') is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Vågan Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located in the village of Kabelvåg on the island of Austvågøya. It is the ...

(also known as the Lofoten Cathedral) is located in Kabelvåg. The European route E10 highway runs through the village. The education sector includes a college for film and other art forms: ''Nordland kunst- og filmhøgskole'' (NKFS).

History

The oldest traces of settlement in Kabelvåg are from the late

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

, with possible traces of human activity going as far back as the early Stone Age. There are only sparse traces of settlements in the area now known as Kabelvåg during the Iron Age. A coupleHer lå Norges viktigste by
/ref> of kilometers west of the present-day center of Kabelvåg,

Vágar Vágar ( da, Vågø) is one of the 18 islands in the archipelago of the Faroe Islands and the most westerly of the ''large islands''. With a size of , it ranks number three, behind Streymoy and Eysturoy. Vágar region also comprises the island ...

existed as a city between 1000 and 1400. It was Northern Norway's first city. During the Middle Ages the settlement known as Vågan experienced a rise in importance. This happens mostly because of the seasonal fishing, "Lofotfisket", which mostly takes part in an area of the sea known as ''Hølla'', located between modern day Kabelvåg, Svolvær, and

Skrova Skrova is a small island group and village area in Vågan Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. Village The fishing village of Skrova lies on the northern part of the island group. It exists mostly on the island of ''Heimskrova'', but also i ...

Lofotfiske

The Lofoten is the spawning grounds for the northern Atlantic cod. When spawning season begins, it creates an extreme increase in the activity of the fishing industry. A result of the "Lofotfiske" event, a great need for storage arises, as the fish is processed and cured in large amounts. This led to the drying and salting of fish. Due to the special weather of the Lofoten islands, it is an ideal place to make the product known as tørrfisk ( en, dried fish). During the Middle Ages, dried fish became a very important commodity in the Catholic countries of Southern Europe, and the backbone of the local economy. According to historians,

dried cod Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage li ...

from Nordland in the 13th century accounted for 80 percent of all of Norway's exports.

Notable residents

Thor Erdahl Thor Erdahl (born 22 May 1951) is a Norwegian painter from Kabelvåg in Lofoten Lofoten () is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open ...

, a Norwegian painter *

Stig Johansen Stig Johansen (born 13 June 1972 in Kabelvåg, Lofoten) is a former Norwegian football striker. He made his debut for Bodø/Glimt in 1993 and played 70 games before he was signed by English Premiership side Southampton, in 1997. His spell at the ...

, a Norwegian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

References

External links

Lofoten Aquarium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabelvaag Villages in Nordland Vågan Populated places of Arctic Norway