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Facts about Tromsų and Lyngen
Welcome to Tromsų and Lyngen!
At a latitude of nearly 70 degrees north, four days’ sailing from
Bergen and barely a two-hour flight from Oslo, Murmansk or
Longyearbyen, at the same latitude as Alaska and Siberia, between the
island landscape, fiords and mountain peaks, you find Tromsų – Gateway
to the Arctic and capital
of Northern Norway. As far back as a
century ago, visitors were surprised to find culture, intellectual life
and the current fashions so far north, and the city derived the name
Paris of the North. That reputation lives on today visitors to Tromsų
are charmed by the city’s patriotic, loud and obliging residents, by a
historical, compact and characteristic city centre, by a live and
active cultural life all year round, by the Northern Lights, Polar
Nights, Midnight Sun, by the exciting attractions, good possibilities
for excursions and widely varying weather.
The experience will be complete as soon as you leave the city and visit the 1800m high Lyngen
Alps to the east, go on a voyage of
discovery out towards the Atlantic Ocean, experience fertile
agricultural villages beneath steep mountains and learn more about
Norwegian and Saami culture and that of the residents of Finnish origin.
Key Facts
Tromsų is the largest city in the Nordic countries north of the Arctic Circle and is home to the
world’s northernmost university, brewery
and cathedral. The city lives on education, research, administration,
fishing exports and satellite technology. The centre of the north has
64492 residents and the Municipality of Tromsų covers an area of 2558
km². Around 50,000 live in the centre of Tromsų, while the remainder is
scattered throughout the whole municipality.
The Municipality of Lyngen has around
3200 residents, and covers an area of 810 km² on the mountain-rich
Lyngen Peninsula. The outermost villages survive on fishing, while
agriculture is important throughout the entire municipality.
Successful, modern industry is located at Furuflaten
at the very end of the Lyngen Fiord. The population has Norwegian, Saami and Finnish origins.
History
Human settlement in Tromsų and Lyngen dates
back around 10,000 years, while the Saami culture here goes back at
least 2000 years. Scandinavian language and culture could be found here
from 300-400 AD, and Lyngen experienced immigration from Finland as
early as the 1700s. A strong Norwegianising of the formerly Saami and
Finnish areas of Tromsų and Lyngen started around 1900, and from the
1960s a high level of moving from the districts began.
Tromsų
was founded in 1794, although the first church was built here back in
1252. In the 1850s, Tromsų became the centre for Polar sea catches in
the Arctic region, while in the early 1900s the city was the starting
point for a host of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions,
something
that gave the city the nickname Gateway to
the Arctic. In 1940, Tromsų was capital of the non-occupied Norway for
a few weeks, but totally avoided war damage as the only city in
Northern Norway. In the years after 1960, Tromsų has experienced an
exceptional growth in population, which is in part due to the
establishment of institutions like the University of Tromsų and the
Norwegian Polar Institute.
Climate, Midnight Sun and the Polar Nights
In
spite of their location so far north, Tromsų and Lyngen both enjoy a
moderate insular climate. Summer weather ranges from five degrees
Celsius and rain to 28 degrees and fantastic
swimming conditions for the undaunted.
Winter in Tromsų is not especially cold. The record low temperature in
Tromsų is minus18 degrees Celsius, while the average January
temperature is minus four, but in return there is often a lot of snow.
The Midnight Sun is visible from around May 21 to around July 21.
Between November 21 and January 21, the sun disappears under the
horizon and we experience the Polar Nights. It is not completely dark
during the middle of the day, and the light and colour in the sky is
amazing when the weather is favourable.
Northern Lights
The
Northern Lights are particles that are hurled into space after storms
on the sun’s surface. They are attracted by the magnetic North Pole,
and enter the atmosphere in a ring-like zone around the pole. In a
process that is identical to that inside a light tube, the energy is
released as light.
Tromsų is situated right in the centre
of the Northern Lights zone and is, therefore, together with the
interior ice in Greenland the tundra in northern Canada, among the best
places on earth to observe this phenomenon. Most of the Northern Lights
outbursts visible from Tromsų are green, but large outbursts can also
include other colours.
In order to see the Northern
Lights, it must be dark and clear – the reason that we never see the
Northern Lights between May and August. The greatest frequency is
between 6pm and 2am. Some visitors prefer to see the performance from a
mountain top shielded from the city’s lights, while others are just as
impressed right in the city centre.
Student City Tromsų
"Studentbyen Tromsų" (Student City Tromsų), with its 10,000 students, is an
exciting place to study. The University of Tromsų and Tromsų University College
offer a wide variety of study options in a number of different subject areas.
But student activity does not just comprise lectures, study groups, studying
and examinations. You need a place to live, food, recreational activities and
opportunities to get to know fellow students. The Student Welfare Association
offers housing, operates cafés at the educational Institutes, childcare
facilities, bookshops, a student centre (Driv), a student sports hall (Kraft) and
its own counselling service. "Studentbyen Tromsų" offers much more, including
a teeming cultural and nightlife.
Tromsų on www.visitnorway.com - the official travel guide to Norway
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