Norway
Vadso
Vadsø: An Arctic Town of Three Languages and an Airship Mast
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Good to know
Where Ships Tie Up
Coastal voyage ships tie up at the pier on Vadsøya, the small island that gave the town its name, joined to the center on the mainland by a bridge. Your cruise line will tell you how long your ship stays.
- Vadsø, on the southern shore of the Varanger Peninsula, is the administrative center of Finnmark county. The town had 4,654 people in 2023.
- The midnight sun is above the horizon from May 17 to July 28, and the polar night lasts from November 26 to January 17.
- The town's names are Vadsø in Norwegian, Čáhcesuolu in Northern Sámi and Vesisaari in Kven.
Tipping in Norway
Tipping is not expected in Norway, because waiters are well paid. In restaurants, rounding up the bill is normal, and around 10 percent is seen as generous.
- Taxis: Practice varies. Some people tip on a long fare, many do not, and a driver will not mind either way.
- Currency: The currency is the Norwegian krone. Shops generally do not accept euros.
Culture and Local Life
Vadsø is often called the Kven capital, after the Finnish-speaking settlers whose descendants still carry Finnish surnames here. The town's modern church was built after the Second World War.
- Kven heritage: Finns, mostly from Ostrobothnia, began settling here in the 1700s and kept coming in the 1800s. In some homes Finnish is still spoken.
- Old farmsteads: Tuomainen farm, a Kven homestead, still has a working old bakery. Esbensen farm has the only surviving merchant's house from the 1840s in Finnmark.
- The immigrant monument: A monument to the Finnish immigrants by the Finnish sculptor Ensio Seppänen stands in the town.
- An Arctic church: Vadsø Church, completed in 1958, was designed by Magnus Poulsson, who said he had built the town an Arctic Ocean church. That remark has led some to see an iceberg in its tall tower.
- King crab: The Varanger Fjord is rich in cod, saithe, haddock, wolffish, salmon and king crab.
History
Vadsø began as a fishing village with its own church on the island of Vadsøya and later moved to the mainland. It became a town in 1833, grew with Finnish immigration, and has the mast where the airships Norge and Italia moored in 1926 and 1928.
- The 16th century: A large fishing village with its own church stood on Vadsøya. The remains of this first town are in the cultural park on the island.
- The move to the mainland: The settlement later moved across to the mainland, and a new church was built there in the early 1700s.
- 1833: Vadsø was granted town status, and settlers soon came from Finland and northern Sweden, which were suffering famine.
- 1873 to 1875: Muitalægje, the first newspaper in a Sámi language, was published in Vadsø.
- 1926 and 1928: Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile moored the airship Norge at the mast on Vadsøya before their flight over the North Pole, and Nobile used it again for the airship Italia.
- 1944: Soviet air raids struck the German-occupied town, and its church was lost on the night of October 28 to 29. Unlike most of Finnmark, a number of 19th-century wooden houses survived.
- 1958: The new church was completed as part of the town's rebuilding.
- To learn more ashore: Vadsø museum – Ruija kvenmuseum, at Grensen 1, tells the story of the Kven and Norwegian-Finnish migration to the Arctic coast in a building that opened in 2021.
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