Kirkenes

Located in the extreme northeastern part of Norway, Kirkenes is the municipality center of Sør-Varanger in Finnmark County. It is situated by Bøkfjorden, a fjord branch of the Varanger Fjord, which is a vast bay off the Barents Sea, near the Russian-Norwegian border. The town is about 400 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Norway Kirkenes has a population of about 6,000 inhabitants in which majority are of a Norwegian background, and Sami are the minority community. Norway Kirkenes city was one of the most bombed areas during World War II, with 320 air attacks and more than one thousand alarms. Only 13 houses were left in October 1944. The town was liberated by the Red Army on October 25, 1944.

Plethora of museums, national parks, and old churches attract a big number of travelers. Tourist attractions include Grenselandsmuseet (The Border Country Museum), which shows the history of war and peace along the Norwegian-Russian border, Sami art exhibitions by the artist John Savio and a history of the mining industry in the area. Kirkenes is also one end of the route of Hurtigruten, which cruises regularly down the Norway coast to Bergen. Diverse cultural background also makes this city a special place to live or for vacation.

The Frontier Museum is the main building of the Sor-Varanger Museum that includes exhibitions covering nature, culture and history in the frontier regions between Norway, Russia and Finland. The restored Russian dive-bomber is one of the major exhibits. The Savio Museum is the museum of Art built up around the works of Sami artist Johan Savio (1902-1938), together with traveling exhibitions of contemporary art. Information about many other museum departments around the borough can be obtained from here. Just outside of Kirkenes is a military base called Høybuktmoen. Connected to this base are six border stations along the Russian border. This base and these border stations are there to protect against illegal immigrants as well as other illegal activities across the border.