Moskenesøya () is an island at the southern end of the

Lofoten Lofoten ( , ; ; ) is an archipelago and a Districts of Norway, 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. T ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

county,

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 ...

. The island is shared between

Moskenes Municipality Moskenes is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality comprises the southern part of the island of Moskenesøya in the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Reine. O ...

and Flakstad Municipality. The tidal whirlpool system known as Moskstraumen, one of the strongest in the world, is located between Moskenesøya's Lofoten Point and the island of Mosken.

Geography

The island consists of an agglomeration of glaciated hills with the highest peak being the Hermannsdalstinden mountain. It is elongated from southwest to northeast and it is about long and wide. It also has a very uneven shoreline. The island is connected to the nearby island of Flakstadøya by the Kåkern Bridge which is part of the

European route E10 European route E10 is the second shortest Class A road which is part of the International E-road network. It begins in Å, Norway, and ends in Luleå, Sweden. The road is about in length. The Norwegian part of the road is also named Kong Ol ...

which ends on the Moskenesøya island at the village of Å.

Population

There are many villages on the island. Flakstad Municipality, on the northern part of the island, has several small villages including Fredvang, Selfjord, and Krystad. Moskenes Municipality, on the southern part of the island, has the villages of Å, Hamnøya,

Moskenes Moskenes may refer to: Places *Moskenes Municipality, a municipality in Nordland county, Norway *Moskenes (village), a village within Moskenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway *Moskenes Church, a church in Moskenes Municipality in Nordland c ...

, Reine, Sakrisøy, Sørvågen, and Tind, all located on the eastern side of the island. There were settlements on the western coast, but the last ones were abandoned in 1950s owing to severe storms.

Attractions

Most villages are frequently visited by tourists and have designed small exhibits of local peculiarities. So Sakrisøy has a museum of 2,500 dolls from all over Europe. Sørvågen contains a local department of Norsk Telemuseum (Norwegian Telecom Museum) which reflects the local history of

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

. In 1861, the island became part of the Lofoten telegraph line with a station in Sørvågen (which became the Sørvågen museum in 1914), and in 1867 the line was connected with

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. In 1906, a wireless

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

system was installed in Sørvågen – the second in Europe after Italy – connecting Sørvågen with Røst island. The village of Å is a traditional fishing place and nearly its entire territory is the 150 years old Norwegian Fishing Village Museum, which includes the Lofoten Stockfish Museum, a forge, a bakery, and a cod liver oil factory.

History

In the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the island was occupied by the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

. In December 1941, it was the venue of the Operation Anklet – a

British Commando The Commandos, also known as the British Commandos, were formed during the World War II, Second World War in June 1940, following a request from Winston Churchill, for special forces that could carry out Raid (military), raids against German-occ ...

raid carried out by 300 men from No. 12 Commando and the Norwegian Independent Company 1. The landing party was supported by 22 ships from three navies – British, Norwegian and Polish. As a result, two German radio transmitters were destroyed and several small boats were captured or sunk. Importantly an operational Enigma coding machine was obtained from one of the sunken German patrol ships. Also, about 200 local Norwegians volunteered to serve in the

Free Norwegian Forces The Norwegian armed forces in exile () were remnants of the armed forces of Norway that continued to fight the Axis Powers, Axis powers from Allies of World War II, Allied countries, such as United Kingdom, Britain and Canada, after they had escap ...

Media gallery

Reine i Lofoten LC0148.jpg, Reine Reine-3.jpg, Reine Reine i Lofoten.jpg, Reine Lofoten Hamnoy.jpg, Hamnøy Norwegian Telecom Museum Sorvagen 2009.JPG, Norwegian Telecom Museum in Sørvågen A view 2009.JPG, Village of Å Djupfjorden, 2010 09.jpg, Djupfjorden, toward the northwest, in autumn

References