or is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

(and former

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

Karlsøy Municipality Karlsøy () is an island List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hansnes. Other villages include Dåfjord, Hessfjord, Karlsøya ( ...

Troms Troms (; ; ; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. It borders Finnmark county to the northeast and Nordland county in the southwest. Norrbotten Län in Sweden is located to the south and further southeast is a shorter border with ...

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 surrounded by a number of islands: Vannøya to the northeast; Karlsøya and Reinøya to the southeast; Ringvassøya to the south; and Nordkvaløya to the west. Historically, the island was an active hub for Helgøy Municipality and the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

parish of Helgøy. It was a large

and the home of the historic

Helgøy Church Helgøy Church () is a historic parish church of the Church of Norway in Karlsøy Municipality in Troms county, Norway. It is located on the small unpopulated island of Helgøya. It is a little-used annex church for the Karlsøy parish which is p ...

. The church has been located on Helgøya since the 13th century, but has not been regularly used for some time. No one has permanently lived on Helgøya since 1999 when the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was closed and regular ferry service was ended. The island can only be reached when services are celebrated in the church and

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

rides are organized. The island of Helgøya is now more or less an

abandoned village An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, ...

of picturesque wooden houses with a historic church that is used on special occasions. Some of the houses are still used as summer vacation homes.

Name

The island is named ''Helgøya'' () since it is the location of the main church for the parish,

. The first element is which means "

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

" or "

holy Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

". The last element is which means "

". Thus the name means or "the holy island".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helgoya (Troms) Karlsøy Islands of Troms

Name

See also

References