KIRKENES NORWAY AND SURROUNDINGS
6,000 inhabitants
Kirkenes - A Brief City History
Kirkenes, the municipal center of Sor-Varanger, is the terminus for the Coastal Voyage ships. The town of Kirkenes was built up around the mining company AS Sydvaranger that mined iron ore up until 1996. Export began in 1910, providing some 1,800 people with work. Today, around 6 million tons of ore are mined every year. The government is the majority shareholder and wishes to maintain the mining because the local community heavily depends on it. Today, the most important enterprises include service industries, ship repairs, and various initiatives directed toward northwestern Russia.
TOURIST INFORMATION IN KIRKENES
Tel: +47 78 99 25 44
Fax: +47 78 99 60 87
MUSEUMS AND SIGHTS
The Frontier Museum
The main building of the Sor-Varanger Museum includes exhibitions covering nature, culture and history in the frontier regions between Norway, Russia and Finland. The restored Russian dive-bomber, Iljusjin IL 3M, is one of the major exhibits. Information about many other museum departments around the borough can be obtained from here.
Opening Hours:
June 15-August 15: Daily 10am-6pm
Rest of the year: Daily 10am-3.30pm
The Savio Museum
Museum of Art built up around the works of Sami artist Johan Savio (1902-1938), together with traveling exhibitions of contemporary art.
Opening Hours:
June 15-August 15: Daily 10am-6pm
Rest of the year: Monday-Friday 10am-4pm
Andersgrotta Cave
Kirkenes was bombed over 300 times during World War II. Andersgrotta Cave was blasted out of the mountainside for use as a refuge in case of attack
Season: There are scheduled guided tours of the cave every summer, and a 9-minute long film about the war is shown. Book at the Kirkenes Tourist Information Center.
The Russian - Norwegian Border
Despite the unstable conditions on the eastern side, the Russian-Norwegian border hasn’t changed. When Finland became independent in 1919, it was allowed free access to the coast at the port of
Petsamo. The port is located some 20 km from the border, to the east of Grense
Jakobselv. Finland lost Petsamo during the battles of the 1939/40 winter campaign, at which point Norway gained a 196 kom border with Russia. When Germany attacked Russia in June of 1941, the Austrian general,
Dietl, advanced with its army of occupation from Kirkenes in Norway towards
Murmansk. Their advance was halted effectively, however, when the Russians stopped them a few miles from the border. The front remained there until autumn 1944, when the Soviet army attacked and entered Kirkenes on October 25. They then withdrew, passing administration over to the Norwegian authorities. During the Cold War the border was strongly guarded, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to relatively normal border relations between Norway and Russia. The old roads have now been reopened and boat routes to Murmansk have been established.
