In the shadow of the Arctic circle and its big brooding neighbour Russia, and with a dark but fascinating history, the little Norweigan town of Kirkenes has the polar night for almost two months in winter.
This means from November 27th to January 15th the sun does not rise above the horizon. Even in the darkest period in December, we have some hours with daylight (from 10 am to 1 pm, depends on the weather).
The weather though is not always as chilly as you might imagine. The climate of Kirkenes in Norway is ‘cold continental’, with freezing winters and mild summers more akin to other countries in Northern Europe like Scotland or Denmark.
The all-time high in Kirkenes was 32.7 °C (91 °F) recorded in July 1972 and the record low −41.8 °C (−43 °F) in January 1999. (−40 degrees shows the same on Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.) Whichever way you choose to measure it, it’s undoubtably very cold!
The town is located in the extreme north-east of Norway, near the border with Russia and Finland, on the coast, but inside a fjord. The distance from the open sea, 18 km (11 miles), is already enough to make the climate colder than on the northern coast, where the last branch of the Gulf Stream arrives.
But there is much more to this European outpost than its weather and isolated position.
As the last outpost town of north-eastern Norway before the border with Russia, it was a particularly sensitive place during the Cold War and given the current situation with Putin, it could be again.
It’s gateway position, ice-free harbour and proximity to various coal and nickel mines made it a hotly contested target in WW2 between occupying Nazi Germany and the former USSR. History buffs will be glad to learn local museums cover both of these aspects today.
During the war years it saw an unusually large number of air raids. It was also the first place to be recaptured by the Red Army in 1944 – at a time when the Germans were retreating, leaving behind “scorched earth” as they went. Almost all of Kirkenes was destroyed.
During the subsequent Cold War era, this was one of the only areas in Europe where the Soviet Union and a NATO country shared a direct Iron Curtain border.
Today, with the Cold War over, Kirkenes also serves as the gateway to north-western Russia, in particular Murmansk. The proximity of Russia is reflected in Kirkenes street names which are given in both Norwegian and Russian.
There’s a weekly Russian market and lots of Russian boats, both fishing vessels and icebreakers use the ice-free harbour of Kirkenes. Thus there are also many Russian sailors in Kirkenes.
And while the little town itself isn’t much to look at in terms of its architecture, it is a plesant place to spend a couple of nights as a base for explorations of the area and for excursions beyond.
In Kirkenes itself, there are a number of WW2 memorials as well as underground bunkers built like caves by the Germans. A museum about the area covers the war years quite extensively, as well as the role of Kirkenes as a border region town:
And of course its border with Russia makes it a dark attraction. But one of the most popular tourist attractions is the King Crab Safari. The red king crab is not only the biggest, but also the most delicious shellfish you will ever have the chance of tasting according to those in the know at www.dark-tourism.com
Some of the safaris go as near to the Russian border as is legally possible. While you wait for the king crabs to be prepared you can stand just metres away from Russian soil – only crossing that line is absolutely illegal. The many watchtowers you can see on the hillsides are manned so any wrong step can potentially be observed by border security. And the fines for misbehaviour at this border are hefty!
If you actually want to cross that border you have to have a Russian visa and must use the proper border crossing points. One of them is just a few miles east of Kirkenes. Otherwise you have to be content with just seeing the border.
The red-and-green striped border poles on the Russian side (the Norwegian ones are yellow) are in some places just metres away from touching distance.
At the end of the road, Western Europe also ends. You can look out over the Barents Sea … next stop north from here is the Arctic proper. If you sailed straight up you’d pass between Svalbardand (Russian) Franz-Josef-Land and would get to the North Pole!
To the east, at the very north-western end of mainland Russia on the other side of the border river’s mouth, you can see the Russian border post with radar equipment and aerials. The Norwegian equivalent towers high up on a rocky hill.
Up on a hill you will find the Kong Oscar II chapel – a stone church specifically erected here by the Norwegians as a kind of border claim marker in its own right, always good to have God on your side in a border dispute perhaps!
To the south of Kirkenes there’s the Lapland wilderness of the Pasvik region which also straddles the border with Russia, as well as with Finland. In fact this is Sami country, and a couple of rural museums take that aspect of Sami culture in too.
Kirkenes airport is located 12 km from Kirkenes. Daily flight connections from Oslo, Tromsø, Alta. If you travel from other countries in Europe or oversea you travel normally via Oslo. 3 times a week you can also travel via Helsinki with Finnair.
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