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or is an old
fishing village A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000  ...
in
Nordkapp Municipality Nordkapp (; or ; or ) is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Honningsvåg, where most residents live. Other settlements in Nordkapp include the villages of Gjesvær, Kåfjor ...
in
Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...
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 ...
. It is the only place in Finnmark known from the
Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...
and is mentioned in the
Heimskringla () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland. While authorship of ''Heimskringla'' is nowhere attributed, some scholars assume it is written by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson (117 ...
saga as ''Geirsver''. The name comes from the name of a bird called .


History

The location was used by
Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
on the way to
Bjarmaland Bjarmaland (also spelled ''Bjarmland'' and ''Bjarmia'') was a territory mentioned in sagas from the Viking Age and in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually understood to have referred to the southern shores of the Whit ...
(see Ottar from Hålogaland), and probably also for gathering food on the nearby Gjesværstappan islands which contain one of the largest seabird colonies in Norway. Like most other places in Finnmark, all buildings in the village were burned down in 1944 by the German occupying forces.
Gjesvær Chapel Gjesvær Chapel () is a chapel of the Church of Norway in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. It is located in the village of Gjesvær on the western end of the island of Magerøya. It is an annex chapel for the Nordkapp parish whi ...
, built in 1960, is considered a cultural monument. Gjesvær now has approximately 100 inhabitants, but at the beginning of the 1970s, it had about 350 people. It has a fish processing plant, local shop, post office, and primary school. The main industry is
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...
, but in recent years there has been increased emphasis on
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...
, activities including fishing and bird watching trips to the Gjesværstappan nature reserve. Gjesvær was historically a part of Måsøy Municipality, along with the sparsely populated western part of
Magerøya or is a large island in Finnmark county, in the extreme northern part of Norway. The island lies along the Barents Sea in Nordkapp Municipality, just north of the Porsanger Peninsula. The mouth of Porsangerfjorden lies off the east coast of t ...
island. There were no road connections across the island, so residents traveled by boat whenever they left the village and by boat, they are closer to Måsøy. In 1977, the long Norwegian County Road 156 was completed, connecting Gjesvær by a
causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...
to
Magerøya or is a large island in Finnmark county, in the extreme northern part of Norway. The island lies along the Barents Sea in Nordkapp Municipality, just north of the Porsanger Peninsula. The mouth of Porsangerfjorden lies off the east coast of t ...
island and then continuing on to
Honningsvåg Honningsvåg is the northernmost cities and towns, northernmost city/town in mainland Norway. It is located in Nordkapp Municipality in Finnmark county. Honningsvåg was declared a city in 1996, despite its small population. The town has a po ...
. For this reason, the municipal boundary was moved. On 1 January 1984, Gjesvær and the western part of Magerøya were transferred from Måsøy municipality to
Nordkapp Municipality Nordkapp (; or ; or ) is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Honningsvåg, where most residents live. Other settlements in Nordkapp include the villages of Gjesvær, Kåfjor ...
.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gjesvaer Magerøya Nordkapp Villages in Finnmark