Loppa Municipality

Loppa ( and Lappea) is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Øksfjord. Other villages in Loppa include Andsnes, Bergsfjord, Langfjordhamn, Loppa, Nuvsvåg, Øksfjordbotn, Sandland, and Sør-Tverrfjord.

The 689 km2 municipality is the 167th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Loppa is the 343rd most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 864. The municipality's population density is 1.3 PD/km2 and its population has decreased by 15.9% over the previous 10-year period.

Most people live in the village of Øksfjord, but smaller communities are spread out along the shores and islands, notably Nuvsvåg, Sandland, Bergsfjord, Brynilen, and the island of Loppa. This island was previously the administrative centre of the municipality (hence the name). There is no airport, but Øksfjord is a port of call for the Hurtigruten boats.

General information
The municipality of Loppen (later spelled Loppa) was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1858, the northern part of Loppa on the island of Sørøya and most of Loppa on the island of Stjernøya (population: 506) was separated to form the new Hasvik Municipality. This left Loppa with 801 residents. 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 county. Previously, it had been part of the old Finnmark county. On 1 January 2024, the Troms og Finnmark county was divided and the municipality once again became part of Finnmark county.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the island of Loppa (Loppa), since it was the former centre of the municipality and the first church (Loppa Church) was located there. The meaning of the name is uncertain, however it is mentioned to be of Norse origin. Historically, the name of the municiaplity was spelled Loppen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Loppa.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 19 December 1980. The official blazon is "Or a cormorant wings elevated sable" (I gult en svart skarv). This means the arms have a charge that is a great black cormorant in sable. The field (background) has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The cormorant was chosen as a symbol since the municipality has several typical fishing villages which often attract cormorants which are reputed to be good fish-catchers. The yellow color in the field symbolizes the riches from the local fishing industry. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen.

Churches
The Church of Norway has one parish (sokn) within the municipality of Loppa. It is part of the Alta prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland. In the medieval ages Loppa was its own parish, with traces after an old church in the fishing village of Yttervær, on the island Loppa.

Geography
Loppa is the westernmost municipality of Finnmark and it faces the open stretch of the Norwegian Sea called Lopphavet, and it is mostly coastal with fjords and islands under the gigantic snowcap of the Øksfjordjøkelen glacier. The municipality includes most of the peninsula between the Kvænangen and the Altafjorden. There are also several islands in the municipality, notably Loppa, Silda, and part of Stjernøya. The mountains Lopptinden and Svartfjellet both lie in the municipality along with the glaciers Langfjordjøkelen, Øksfjordjøkelen, and Svartfjelljøkelen. The highest point in the municipality is the 1191 m tall mountain Øksfjordjøkelen.

Government
Loppa Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Vestre Finnmark District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Loppa is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Loppa:


 * 1839–1840: Jens Hjort Stuwitz
 * 1841–1847: Christopher A. Lassen
 * 1848–1849: Johan Axel Rask
 * 1849–1857: Marius Meyer
 * 1858–1859: Nils Hjort Stuwitz
 * 1860–1861: Ove Kristian Brock
 * 1861–1862: Georg Peter Ulich
 * 1863–1869: Wilhelm Henrik Klerck Buck
 * 1869–1875: Peder Olsen Megrund
 * 1876–1877: Petter Steffensen Berg
 * 1878–1880: Jens Rasmussen Kiil
 * 1881–1897: Edvard Buck (H)
 * 1897–1908: Arne Fosnes (V)
 * 1909–1911: Reiel Nybø (H)
 * 1912–1916: Arne Fosnes (V)
 * 1916–1942: Ola Berg (V)
 * 1945–1945: Bendix Berg (LL)
 * 1945–1946: Edvin Pettersen (LL)
 * 1947–1947: Ragnar Lyngmoe (Ap)
 * 1948–1955: Nordahl Johansen (Ap)
 * 1956–1959: Ole Grønnum (Ap)
 * 1960–1961: Harald Samuelsberg (Ap)
 * 1962–1967: Einar Fjelldahl (Ap)
 * 1968–1979: Konrad J. Knutsen (Ap)
 * 1980–1981: Edgar Flåten (Ap)
 * 1982–1987: Torleif Gamst (Ap)
 * 1988–1991: Konrad J. Knutsen (Ap)
 * 1992–1995: Arne Gamst (SV)
 * 1995–2007: Arne Dag Isaksen (Ap)
 * 2007–2015: Jan-Eirik Jensen (K)
 * 2015–2019: Steinar Halvorsen (H)
 * 2019–2023: Stein Thomassen (Ap)
 * 2023–present: Cato Kristiansen (SV)

History
The area of Loppa is suggested to have been inhabited since the Mesolithic times with traces after settlement and scattered findings in both Nuvsvåg, Øksfjord, Sandland, Loppa, Silda and Bergsfjord. The activity of fishing and whaling in the municipality seems to have its origins from ancient times.

Roman Age
Little is known of this period historically and archaeologically in this area. However the discovering of a Roman Age longhouse from 120 AD, at the island of Loppa shows the earliest signs of settlement in the Early Iron Age. Perhaps was this the very beginning of Norse taxation of the Sami peoples in the area and the interaction between the two peoples of trade and commerce in fishing and the industry of the hunting of maritime mammals. The longhouse is also one of the oldest one ever discovered in Northern Norway.

Viking Age
In 1962 a rich female Viking Age grave was discovered on the island of Loppa. It contained luxurious personal objects such as tortoise brooches, a round brooch in the Oseberg style, a whalebone plaque, beads, knife, scissor and an arrowhead. The female grave was dubbed "The Queens Grave" due to the manner in which she was buried. However she was most likely not a queen but a very important person indeed on Viking Age Loppa. Perhaps a housewife of a local chieftain? The wealth of the grave reflects that of the Norse elite's presence in the area. The burial was dated to the 9th century AD.

In 1964 a longhouse from Viking Age was also discovered dated to the end of the 8th century AD. Several other buildings and boathouses was also discovered and dated to the same period as the longhouse and the rich female grave. There is also several burials from Iron Age on the island, where the biggest a burial cairn with the size of 13 meters in diameter. The amount of Iron Age burials and houses suggests that of a more permanent Norse settlement.

Middle Ages
In Middle Ages, the hunting and the production of oil from marine mammals seems to stop, and fishing becomes more important. Along the coast of Northern Norway we see so called farm mounds of ancient settlements, and at Loppa there are at least 6 farm mounds spread out on the island of Loppa, Silda and at mainland Andsnes. However, the farm mounds of Northern Norway seem to have their upbringing already in Early Iron Age, suggesting that fishing was already a commercial trade before the Middle Ages. On the island of Loppa one of the farm mounds was dated to the 1100s AD, with a church site close by. This suggests that Loppa was its own parish already in the Middle Ages.



Notable people

 * Hans E. Kinck (1865 in Øksfjord – 1926), an author and philologist who wrote novels, short stories, dramas, and essays
 * Harald Nicolai Samuelsberg (1911 in Loppa – 1986), a politician who was mayor of Loppa
 * Hallgeir Pedersen (born 1973), a jazz guitarist who was raised in Øksfjord
 * Magnus Andersen (born 1986 in Øksfjord), a Norwegian football midfielder with over 300 club caps