Sommarøy or Sommerøya 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 the western part of
Tromsø Municipality
Tromsø Municipality is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Other notable settlements in the municipality include the vi ...
in
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 ...
. It is located about west of the
city of Tromsø and is a popular tourist destination due to its white sand beaches and scenery. The village has a population (2023) of 304 and a
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
of .
The
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 ...
of Sommarøy covers the island of
Store Sommarøya
Store Sommarøya or Sommarøya is an island in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The island is located about west of the city of Tromsø and is a popular tourist destination due to its white sand beaches and scenery. The island i ...
as well as part of the neighboring island of
Hillesøya and smaller surrounding islands. The village is a typical fishing village with great local fishing fleets and substantial fish processing and other industries. Tourism is also important in Sommarøy. There is a hotel and rental cabins are available.
History
The original settlement site was on the neighboring island of
Hillesøya where the old
Hillesøy Church was located. This site was where successive churches have stood from the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
until the late 1800s when the church was moved to
Brensholmen on the island of
Kvaløya. The main centre of the village moved to
Store Sommarøya
Store Sommarøya or Sommarøya is an island in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The island is located about west of the city of Tromsø and is a popular tourist destination due to its white sand beaches and scenery. The island i ...
island around 1900.
Time
On the island of Sommarøy, the sun does not set from 18 May to 26 July, a full 69 days. This is then followed by long polar nights from November to January, when the sun does not rise at all due to the location north of the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circl ...
.
In June 2019,
Innovation Norway conducted a marketing campaigncalled
fake news
Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person ...
by some claiming that local inhabitants wanted Sommarøy to declare itself as the world's first time-free zone and had petitioned the Norwegian government to abolish
civil time
In modern usage, civil time refers to statutory time as designated by civilian authorities. Modern civil time is generally national standard time in a time zone at a UTC offset, fixed offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), possibly adjusted ...
on the island. The story was covered in more than 1650 articles which potentially reached up to 1.2 billion people. The value of this coverage was estimated at 11.4 million USD, whereas Innovation Norway spent less than US$60,000 on the campaign.
Gallery
sommaroy panorama.jpg, Hillesøya and Sommarøy islands
Guraholmen.jpg, Sandy beach on Sommarøy
Sommarøybrua.jpg, Sommarøy Bridge
Håja Sommarøy.jpg, seen from Sommarøy
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommaroy
Populated places of Arctic Norway
Tromsø
Villages in Troms