Hammerfest (town)

or Hámmárfeasta is a town/city that is also the administrative centre of Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. It is located on the northwestern coast of the island of Kvaløya, just north of the village of Rypefjord and southwest of the village of Forsøl. The 3.02 km2 city has a population (2023) of 7,882 which gives the city a population density of 2610 PD/km2.

The town has an ice-free harbor, including the nearby island of Melkøya which is home to a natural gas processing station. It processes gas from the Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea. Rypefjord is a suburb to the south of the coty. The main church for the city and municipality is Hammerfest Church. The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 15 May to 31 July, and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer. Polar night, on the other hand, lasts from 23 November to 19 January. The town is visited by cruise ships from all over the world each summer. In 2016, there were about 19,000 tourists who visited the city of Hammerfest.

Northernmost city
Hammerfest claims to be the northernmost city in the world, although the title is disputed by the nearby Norwegian town of Honningsvåg (achieved town status 1996). The validity of the claim depends upon one's definition of a town/city. It may help to know that the Norwegian language does not distinguish between city and town. The closest translation for either term is the word by, meaning the translation from Norwegian to English is ambiguous. Although Hammerfest is further south than Honningsvåg, the town of Hammerfest has a population of nearly 8,000 people (and over 11,000 people living in the municipality). A Norwegian law from 1997 says a municipality must have over 5,000 residents in order for it to declare town status to one of its settlements. Parliament, however, did not make this provision retroactive. Honningsvåg was given town status prior to the 1997 law, so it is a town under current Norwegian law, making Honningsvåg the northernmost town in Norway. Thus, Hammerfest is the northernmost town with over 5,000 residents. This is a point of contention between the two towns who both claim to be the northernmost town in Norway. Utqiagvik, Alaska, population c. 4,000–5,000, is further north than both the Norwegian towns, but does not lay claim to the title of northernmost town. There are many other smaller "northernmost settlements" in the world.

Overview
Many grave sites dating back to the Stone Age can be found here. This location was an important fishing and Arctic hunting settlement for a long time before it was given market town rights by royal decree of Christian VII of Denmark–Norway in 1789.


 * 1684: Hammerfest gets its first church: Hammerfest Church. The population is around 60 people.
 * 1764: Russia begins to send ships with grain to Hammerfest, the so-called Pomor trade.
 * 17 July 1789: Hammerfest receives "town status" as a kjøpstad.
 * 1792: The first doctor arrives in Hammerfest.
 * 1807–1814: The city is ravaged by plague and wars. The blockade by the British vessels during the Napoleonic Wars lead to major food shortages.
 * 1809: The city is looted by two British brigs.
 * 1839: Hammerfest's first firefighter is employed.
 * 1859: The first lighthouse in Finnmark is constructed: Fuglenes Lighthouse.
 * 1868: The first water plant in the town is built.
 * 1870: A telegraph station, which is used by all of Finnmark, is built.
 * 1890: Two-thirds of the city is destroyed by fire.
 * 1891: Reconstruction of the city begins. A Methodist chapel is opened.
 * 1891: Hammerfest becomes the first town in Norway and Northern Europe with electric streetlights.
 * 1940: After the German occupation of Norway the German Navy used the harbor of the city as a base.
 * 14 February 1944: A Soviet aircraft bombed the city for the first time, but the damage was small.
 * 29 August 1944: A similar, but far more powerful air assault, a number of buildings and streets in the city and ships on the harbour were destroyed. When the Germans retreated, they finalized the destruction.
 * November 1944: the Germans began systematically burning all the settlements in Finnmark, including Hammerfest.
 * February 1945: citizens are forcibly evacuated by the German authorities. Only one building was left standing, a burial chapel. This was built in 1937 and is the oldest house still existing in the town.
 * 1989: Hammerfest celebrates its 200th anniversary as a city.
 * 2003: Melkøysund Tunnel is completed connecting the town to the island of Melkøya.
 * 2007: The Snøhvit plant on Melkøya becomes operational in September. It is the biggest industrial development in Northern Norway.

Napoleonic Wars
During the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway broke its neutrality after a Royal Navy fleet launched a pre-emptive attack on Copenhagen, allying with France against the Coalition. As one of the main centres of commerce and transportation in western Finnmark, Hammerfest became a target of the Royal Navy's naval blockade. Thus, upon the request of local merchants, the town received four six-pound cannons from the central armoury in Trondheim. Subsequently, a fifty-man strong coastal defence militia was formed to defend Hammerfest from a possible naval assault. A number of merchants formed the officer corps of the militia, while Sea Samis and Kvens were mobilized as gun crews and soldiers.

British attack
On 22 July 1809, the expected British attack came when the brigs HMS Snake and HMS Fancy approached the town. Before reaching Hammerfest, the two vessels had successfully attacked the village of Hasvik. The following battle between Hammerfest's two two-cannon batteries and the Royal Navy warships with a combined number of thirty-two cannon between them was unusually intense and did not end before the Norwegian cannons had run out of gunpowder after about 90 minutes of combat. Both warships had suffered a number of cannonball hits and had at least one fatal casualty; a sailor who was buried at the local cemetery. During the battle, the local populace evacuated the town, and the Snake and Fancy remained in the town for eight days after the Norwegian defenders withdrew. The crews sacked the empty town before withdrawing.

Improved fortifications
After the raid, Hammerfest became a garrison town with some regular troops and much improved and expanded fortifications. A small flotilla of cannon-armed rowing boats also operated out of Hammerfest for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars.

Fire of 1890
Hammerfest was struck by a fire in 1890 which started in a bakery and wiped out almost half the town's houses. After the fire Hammerfest received donations and humanitarian assistance from across the world, with the biggest single donor being Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The Kaiser had personally visited the town several times on his yacht and had great affection for the small northern settlement.

Electric street lighting
In 1891, Hammerfest became the first urban settlement in Northern Europe to get electrical street lights. The invention was brought to Hammerfest by two of the town's merchants who had seen it demonstrated at a fair in Paris.

Destruction in World War II
After their victory in the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War, the Germans soon fortified Hammerfest and used it as a major base. The importance of Hammerfest to the Germans increased dramatically after their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The occupiers installed three coastal batteries in and around Hammerfest, one with four 10.5 cm guns on Melkøya island near the town, one with three 10.5 cm guns on a hill right outside the town and a final battery with casemated 13 cm pieces on the Rypklubben peninsula near Rypefjord.

The main German U-boat base in Finnmark was in Hammerfest, serving as a central supply base for the vessels attacking the allied supply convoys to Russia. Luftwaffe seaplanes were based at an improvised naval air station in nearby Rypefjord. The garrison in Hammerfest was also protected by around 4,000 mines and numerous anti-aircraft guns.

During their long retreat following the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation, the Germans no longer managed to transport troops by sea further east due to intensive Red Air Force raids. Thus Hammerfest became their main shipping port in Finnmark in the autumn of 1944.

The town of Hammerfest was bombed twice by the Soviet Air Forces. The first time, on 14 February 1944, the town was hit by explosive and incendiary devices, but little damage was done. On 29 August 1944 Soviet bombers launched a second airstrike, inflicting significantly more damage to buildings and infrastructure in downtown Hammerfest. Two ships were sunk in the harbour. The ships lost were the local transports Tanahorn and Brynilen.

The population was forcibly evacuated by the occupying German troops in the autumn of 1944 after a Soviet offensive at the northern extremity of the Eastern Front pushed into eastern Finnmark. All of Finnmark including the town was looted and burned to the ground by the Germans when they retreated in 1945, the last of the town having been destroyed by the time the Germans finally left on 10 February 1945. Only the town's small funeral chapel, built in 1937, was left standing. The Museum of Reconstruction in Hammerfest tells the story of these events and the recovery of the region. The Soviet troops in eastern Finnmark were withdrawn in September 1945.

Mines and munitions left over from the Second World War were found and destroyed as late as 2008.

Municipal history
The municipality called Hammerfest by og landdistrikt was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). It included the town of Hammerfest and the vast rural district surrounding it. The law required that all towns should be separated from their rural districts, but because of low population, and very few voters, this was impossible to carry out for Hammerfest in 1838. (This was also the case in the other towns in Finnmark: Vadsø and Vardø.) In 1839, the northern district (population: 498) was separated to become the new Maasø Municipality. This left Hammerfest by og landdistrikt with 2,024 residents. On 1 January 1852, Hammerfest was divided. The rural district outside of the town (population: 1,256) became the new municipality of Hammerfest landdistrikt. This left just the town remaining in what was once a vast municipality of Hammerfest. The town at this time had 1,125 residents. (The rural district was later divided into Sørøysund Municipality in the north and Kvalsund Municipality in the south.) On 1 January 1992, the town of Hammerfest (population: 6,909) was merged with the neighboring Sørøysund Municipality (population: 2,341) to form a new, larger Hammerfest Municipality.

Climate
The climate is Dfc (subarctic), just above tundra, but with daily means in July and August above 10 C (50 F).