Sør-Varanger (; ; ) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

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 A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

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

administrative centre An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

of the municipality is the town of

Kirkenes (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ), (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; , or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsu ...

. Other settlements in the municipality include the villages of Bjørnevatn, Bugøynes, Elvenes, Grense Jakobselv, Hesseng,

Jakobsnes , , , or is a village in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. Its population in 2005 was 271. The village lies on the coast of the Bøkfjorden, across the fjord from the town of Kirkenes, about north of the village of Elvenes, ...

, Neiden, and

Sandnes Sandnes () is a city and municipality in Rogaland, Norway. It lies immediately south of Stavanger, the 4th largest municipality in Norway, and together the Stavanger/Sandnes area is the third-largest urban area in Norway. The urban city of Sand ...

. Located west of the

Norway–Russia border The border between Norway and Russia consists of a land border between Sør-Varanger Municipality, Norway, and Pechengsky District, Russia, and a marine border in the Varangerfjord. It further consists of a border between the two countrie ...

, Sør-Varanger is the only Norwegian municipality that shares a land border with

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, with the only legal border crossing at Storskog. The municipality is the 6th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Sør-Varanger is the 112th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 10,063. The municipality's

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 ...

is and its population has decreased by 0.3% over the previous 10-year period. There is a Dark-sky park in Pasvik.

Name

The municipality (originally the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

) is named after the large Varangerfjorden ( or ), located along the northern shore of the municipality (a neighboring municipality on the north side of the same fjord was Nord-Varanger). The first element is which is the plural

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

of the word which means "

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 ...

". The last element is which means "

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

" or "small

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

". It was first probably used for the narrow fjord on the inside of Angsnes which now is called "Meskfjorden" and leads into Varangerbotn. Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled ''Sørvaranger'' or ''Sydvaranger''. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Sør-Varanger''.

History

Prehistoric

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

constructions at Holmengrå, were possibly used for religious purposes. The original inhabitants of the area are the Skolt Sami. This Sami group migrated between coast and inland in present Norwegian, Finnish, and Russian territory long before any borders existed. In the 16th century, they were converted to the

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

faith, and still today the chapel of Saint George at Neiden, dating from 1565, is a reminder of eastern influence. Sør-Varanger became Norwegian in 1826, after having been art ofa Russian-Norwegian ''fellesdistrikt'' - a district shared between two countries - that had a small Eastern Sami population group that was under Russian jurisdiction. In 1826, the previously disputed areas were divided between Norway and

, causing great difficulties for the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

. The Norwegian state also invited Norwegian settlers to come to the area, building

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

churches to counterbalance the Orthodox heritage, notably the King Oscar II Chapel, located immediately west of the Russian border. The historic border crossing station was at Skafferhullet (which was replaced with the present day station at Storskog). Kong Oscar IIs kapell-2012-07-06-15-45-09

Kong Oscar IIs kapell-2012-07-06-15-45-09

The King Oscar II Chapel in Grense Jakobselv on the Russian border was built in 1869 to mark the border. During the 19th century, Finnish settlers (

Kven KVEN (1520 AM, "") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language talk/sports format. By day ...

) arrived to the valleys, and since 1906, Norwegians came in large numbers because of the

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

mining starting up near Kirkenes. After the Treaty of Tartu the area of Petsamo was ceded to Finland, and Sør-Varanger (and Norway) no longer bordered Russia, until Finland had to cede it back to the Soviet Union in 1944. In 1906, the Sydvaranger company opened the Bjørnevatn Mine at Bjørnevatn and four years later the mine was connected to the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

in Kirkenes by Kirkenes–Bjørnevatn Line, the world's most northern

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. The mine was closed in 1996, but re-opened in 2009. In October 1944, Soviet forces chased Nazi-Germany's forces out of the municipality; some inhabitants were living in tunnels (outside Kirkenes) used for the mining industry, when the Soviet forces arrived; at the time Kirkenes was under intense bombing from aircraft. In a 1944 report to Norway's prime minister in exile, a Norwegian government official (''embedsmann '') in Finnmark—Thore Boye—said that Norwegian soldiers had rop-cut (''snauklippet'') "25 young girls—some of them married" who had been pointed out by local men, as having had relations with German soldiers".

Establishment of municipality

The municipality of Sør-Varanger was established on 1 July 1858 when the large

Vadsø Municipality Vadsø (; ; ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, County, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Vadsø (town), town of Vadsø, which is also the administrative centre of Fi ...

(population: 1,171) was divided and the part located south of the Varangerfjorden became the new Sør-Varanger municipality. The borders of the municipality have not changed since that time. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly formed

Troms og Finnmark Troms og Finnmark (; ; ; ) was a county in northern Norway that existed from 2020 to 2023. The county was established on 1 January 2020 as the result of a regional reform. It was the largest county by area in Norway, encompassing about , and w ...

county. Previously, it had been part of the old

county. On 1 January 2024, the

county was divided and the municipality once again became part of

county.

Coat of arms

The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

was granted on 16 April 1982. The official

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

is ''" Per bend rayonny Or and

gules In heraldry, gules () is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple). Gules is portrayed in heraldic hatch ...

"'' (). This means the arms have a field (background) with a diagonal line in the shape of flames. Above the line, the field has a

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. Below the line, the field has a tincture of

(red). The arms show three

flame A flame () is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction made in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density, they are then considered plasm ...

s along the

division of the field In heraldry, the field (heraldry), field (background) of a escutcheon (heraldry), shield can be divided into more than one area, or subdivision, of different tincture (heraldry), tinctures, usually following the lines of one of the ordinary (heral ...

. The division of the shield symbolizes the importance of the number three: The three main sources of income are

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

, and

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, ...

; the municipality also has three main

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s ( Neiden, Pasvikelva, and Jakobselva) that form the borders of Norway,

, and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

; and there are three cultures in the municipality:

Norwegians Norwegians () are an ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the Norsemen, Norse of the Early ...

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

, and

. The arms were designed by Sissel Sildnes.

Geography

Sør-Varanger is a vast area of about , situated between Finland and Russia. Most of the area is low-lying

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

, with barren sections facing the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

. The highest point in the municipality is the tall mountain Báhttervárri. The Varangerfjorden runs along the northern part of the municipality and the Bøkfjorden runs north–south cutting into the municipality and flowing into the Varangerfjorden. The large island of Skogerøya lies on the west side of the Bøkfjorden. Skogerøytoppen is the tallest mountain on Skogerøya. The Bøkfjord Lighthouse lies along the mouth of the Bøkfjorden. The municipal centre of Sør-Varanger is the town of Kirkenes, located on a peninsula in the Bøkfjorden. Other settlements include Bugøynes, Neiden, and little hamlets along the river of Pasvikelva. The local airport is called Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen which is also a military camp. The Garrison of Sør-Varanger (GSV) is based at Høybuktmoen. Barents_Spetakkel_2018

The flora of the area is a part of the Russian and

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

, including a few hundred

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

trees of the Russian variety.

Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

s also inhabit the upper valley, notably in the

Øvre Pasvik National Park Øvre Pasvik National Park (, , ) is located in the southeastern part of the Pasvikdalen valley in southern Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. Covering an area of , the national park is dominated by Siberian-like taiga consis ...

, Øvre Pasvik Landscape Protection Area, and Pasvik Nature Reserve. Lakes include Ellenvatnet, Gardsjøen, Garsjøen, Klistervatnet, and Ødevatnet. The fjords include Korsfjorden.

Climate

Sør-Varanger has a boreal climate (subarctic) with long, cold winters. Summers are short, but can sometimes see warm temperatures.

Economy

The

service sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

is one of the two most important industries related to the city of Kirkenes. Kimek, a company for repair of boats and ships, has 66 employees (as of Q4 2024); the company is one of the largest employers in the municipality - alongside the municipality itself. As of 2013, 2.8% of the work force in Sør-Varanger are employed in the primary sector. Cruise ships have in 2022, stopped using the port at Kirkenes; ship owners consider the port to be too close to the ussian border orRussia; in 2022 the war between Russia and Ukraine escalated. The mining company Sydvaranger went bankrupt in 2015 and its mining operations in the municipality does not have a timeframe for a restart (as of 2022), however there are 30 employees preparing for a possible restart; the company was acquired by Tacora Resources Inc (an American corporation) in 2021. In Q2 2024, Grangex completed the purchase of Sydvaranger Mining; case work by the authorities shows planning for 400-500 employees split between the mining complex at Bjørnevatn and the complex in Kirkenes (for processing and moving products onto freighting ships). A research station at Svanvik (which is part of Norsk institutt for bioøkonomi), has employees of the national government.

Government

All municipalities in Norway are responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

senior citizen Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

services,

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s and utilities. The municipality is governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

indirectly elected An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Indre og Østre Finnmark District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The

of Sør-Varanger is made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Mayors

The

mayors In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

() of Sør-Varanger: *1858-1860: Hans Kirkgaard *1861-1864: Christian Taftezon *1865-1868: Hans Figenschau *1869-1872: Johannes Belsheim *1873-1886: Anders Tokle *1887-1890: Edvard Bakken *1891-1894: Anders Tokle ( V) *1895-1900: Emil Stang Lund ( H) *1900-1904: Johannes Haaheim ( V) *1905-1910: Andreas Bredal Wessel ( Ap) *1911-1916: Mads Le Maire ( LL) *1917-1919: Andreas Bergerud ( LL) *1920-1922: Johan Hølvold ( Ap) *1923-1925: Bjarne Sårheim ( V) *1926-1928: Johan Hølvold ( Ap) *1929-1931: Axel Borgen ( V) *1923-1937: Sigurd Dørum ( V) *1938-1940: Sverre Dølvik ( Ap) *1944-1945: Sverre Dølvik ( Ap) *1946-1947: Gotfred Johan Hølvold ( NKP) *1948-1955: Harry Klippenvåg ( Ap) *1950-1955: Hilmar Isaksen ( Ap) *1956-1962: William Mikkelsen ( Ap) *1962-1980: Arnt Isaksen ( Ap) *1980-1982: Alfon Jerijärvi ( Ap) *1982-1989: Nils-Edvard Olsen ( Ap) *1990-1991: Halvard Kvamsdal ( Ap) *1991-2003: Alfon Jerijärvi ( Ap) *2003-2007: Tone Hatle ( H) *2007-2011: Linda Beate Randal ( Ap) *2011-2015: Cecilie Hansen ( Sp) *2015-2021: Rune Rafaelsen ( Ap) *2021-2023: Lena Norum Bergeng ( Ap) *2023-present: Magnus Mæland ( H)

Transportation

Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen is operated by the state-owned

Avinor Avinor AS is a state-owned aksjeselskap, limited company that operates most of the civil airports in Norway. The Norwegian state, via the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, controls 100 percent of the share capital. Avinor wa ...

and serves as the main primary airport for eastern Finnmark county. Located west of Kirkenes, at Høybuktmoen, the airport has a long runway which allows

Scandinavian Airlines The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden. Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...

and

Norwegian Air Shuttle Norwegian Air Shuttle Aksjeselskap, ASA, trading as Norwegian, is a Norway, Norwegian Low-cost carrier, low-cost airline and Scandinavia's second-largest airline, behind Scandinavian Airlines. It is the fourth largest low-cost carrier in Europe ...

to operate direct flights to

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. In addition Widerøe uses the airport as a hub to regional airports throughout Finnmark. The Kirkenes–Bjørnevatn Line is a

, until 2010 the world's northernmost, which runs between Kirkenes and Bjørnevatn; The

European route E6 European route E6 (, , or simply E6) is the main north–south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the countr ...

highway has its northern endpoint in the town of

. This highway heads west and then south to the rest of Norway. The

European route E105 E105 is part of the International E-road network, which is a series of main roads in Europe. It is a north–south reference road, meaning it crosses Europe from north to south, and other E-road numbers have been calculated based on these referen ...

highway has its northern endpoint in the village of Hesseng, just south of Kirkenes. That highway heads south into Russia through the Storskog border crossing, the only legal public crossing on the Norway-Russia border.

Religion

Churches

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 ...

has one parish () within the municipality of Sør-Varanger. It is part of the Varanger prosti (

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland.

Archaeology

In 2015 rock carvings, estimatedly dated to 4200–5200 B.C. were found at Tømmerneset on Gamneset, several kilometers outside Kirkenes. The carvings were discovered along an old path used by reindeers—between two crags—by an archaeologist traveling between existing excavation sites at Gamneset. (A planned oil terminal will expectedly shut out the general public, from the site of the carvings.)

Leisure

Popular leisure activities include salmon

in one of the numerous rivers, hunting for

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

and

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order (biology), order Galliformes, in the family (biology), family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the Tribe (biology), tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetr ...

, and

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...

driving. Many inhabitants also own and frequently use a cabin located in more remote parts of the municipality.

Notable people

* Kathrine Bugge (1877–1951), an educator, cultural worker, and politician who was brought up in Jarfjord * John Savio (1902 in Bugøyfjord - 1938), an artist of Sami and Kven descent who made woodcuts * Osvald Harjo (1910–1993), a resistance member in WWII and a prisoner in Soviet Gulag camps for over a decade * Alfred Henningsen (1918 in Sør-Varanger – 2012), a military officer, spy, and politician * Gudmund Grytøyr (born 1920 in Sør-Varanger - 2001), a sailor, laborer in industry and forestry, a farmer, and politician *

Annemarie Lorentzen Annemarie Røstvik Lorentzen (23 September 1921 – 30 June 2008) was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She was the first female Norwegian Minister of Transport and Communications, in addition to being Minister of Consumer Affairs and ...

(1921 in Sør-Varanger – 2008), a politician and Norwegian ambassador to Iceland from 1978 to 1985 * Aino Hivand (born 1947 in Bugøyfjord), a Norwegian-Sami visual artist and children's book writer * Helga Pedersen (born 1973 in Sør-Varanger), a politician, former Minister, and member of the Storting who was brought up in Vestertana * Pavel Zakharov (born 2001 in Sør-Varanger), a Russian college basketball player

Gallery

File:Bøkfjord lighthouse in Sør Varanger.tif, Bøkfjord lighthouse in Sør Varanger File:N886-Jarfjord-2012-07-06-12-00-23.jpg, Jarfjord, seen from N886, Sør-Varanger File:Svanhovd miljøsenter, Nasjonalparksenter,Bioforsk - panoramio.jpg, Svanhovd miljøsenter, Nasjonalparksenter, Bioforsk File:Hilde Kristin i vinteropplag..jpg, Hilde Kristin i vinteropplag

References

External links

Municipal fact sheet
from

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All rele ...

Weather information for Sør-Varanger
*Tourist information
www.visitkirkenes.noVideo of 2015 rock carvings find, ''Helleristningene i Varanger''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sor-Varanger Municipalities of Finnmark 1858 establishments in Norway Populated places established in 1858

Name

History

Establishment of municipality

Coat of arms

Geography

Climate

Economy

Government

Municipal council

Mayors

Transportation

Religion

Churches

Archaeology

Leisure

Notable people

Gallery

See also

References

External links