Nord-Varanger

Nord-Varanger herred
previously "Vadsø landsogn"
Former Municipality

Village of Kiby
Nord-Varanger

Location in Finnmark

Coordinates: 70°04′49″N 29°43′53″E / 70.08028°N 29.73139°E / 70.08028; 29.73139Coordinates: 70°04′49″N 29°43′53″E / 70.08028°N 29.73139°E / 70.08028; 29.73139
Country Norway
Region Northern Norway
County Finnmark
District Øst-Finnmark
Municipality ID NO-2029
Area[1]
  Total 1,253 km2 (484 sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+01:00)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+02:00)
Created from Vadsø in 1894
Merged into Vadsø in 1964

Nord-Varanger is a former municipality in Finnmark county in Norway. It is located in the present-day Vadsø Municipality on the southern half of the Varanger Peninsula, east of the Jakobselva river, along the Varangerfjorden.[1]

Name

The meaning of the name Nord-Varanger is originally the name of the Varangerfjorden, (Old Norse: Ver(j)angr). The first part is ver meaning "fishing village" and the last part is angr which means "fjord". It was first probably used for the narrow fjord on the inside of Angsnes which now is called "Meskfjorden" and leads in to Varangerbotn. Nord means "north", therefore it is the north side of the Varangerfjord.

History

The kjøpstad (market town) of Vadsø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). Because of the low population in the rural area around the town, the municipality originally included the rural area around it. That rural area was known as the Vadsø landsogn. On 1 January 1894, Vadsø landsogn was separated from the town of Vadsø and became the new municipality called Nord-Varanger. Nord-Varanger had an initial population of 1,296. On 1 January 1964 during a time of many municipal mergers nationwide, Nord-Varanger (population: 1,587) was merged back together with the town of Vadsø to create the present-day Vadsø Municipality.[2]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/23/2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.