Hammerfest (town)
Hammerfest or Hámmárfeasta is a town that is also the administrative centre of Hammerfest Municipality in Troms og 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 town has a population (2017) of 8,052 which gives the town a population density of . 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 town. The main church for the town 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 town of Hammerfest. The town is the northernmost "town" in Norway (with a population above 5,000 people). Towns in Norway  must have a population above 5,000 for that legal distinction. The nearby town of Honningsvåg in Norway is further north, but (due to a technicality in the law at the time it was declared to be a town) it has less than 5,000 people. This is a point of contention between the two towns who both claim to be the northernmost town in Norway. Hammerfest also claims to the world's northernmost "town" over 5,000 people, although there are many smaller "northernmost settlements" in the world. History. Municipal history. The municipality called "Hammerfest by og landdistrikt" was established on 1  January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). 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 nearby towns of Vadsø and Vardø.) In 1839, the northern district (population: 498) was separated to become the new municipality of Maasø. 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 two municipalities with Sørøysund in the north and Kvalsund in the south.) On 1 January 1992, the town of Hammerfest (population: 6,909) was merged with the neighboring municipality of Sørøysund (population: 2,341) to form a new, larger Hammerfest Municipality.