page_title: Lyngen
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lyngen / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Lyngseidet and Lyngen church
context_page_description: Lyngen is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lyngseidet. Other villages include Furuflaten, Lattervika, Nord-Lenangen, and Svensby.
  The 813-square-kilometre municipality is the 141st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Lyngen is the 239th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 2,794. The municipality's population density is 3.5 inhabitants per square kilometre and its population has decreased by 11.4% over the previous 10-year period.
context_section_description: The Lyngen Church was built at Karnes in 1731, and was moved to its present location at Lyngseidet in 1740. In 1775, the church was rebuilt in its current cruciform shape, with the material from the old church used for a boathouse in Oldervik. Finally in 1840–1845, the church was renovated with a new tower, galleries, windows and panelling.
  Other interesting buildings include the large wooden school in Solhov, which was built in 1924 to strengthen the Norwegian influence in this area which was largely populated by the Sami and Kven people.
  During the Cold War the Norwegian Army planned to abandon Finnmark and halt the Soviets along the European route E6 highway at the choke point between the Lyngen fjord and the mountains. However, there were always great worries that the Soviets would also advance through Finland and the very sparsely defended extreme north of Sweden (north of Kiruna, south of Treriksröset) and attack the Lyngen position from the rear via Signaldalen.
caption: Lyngseidet as it looked around 1890
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