Overview , inspired by the
Aurora Borealis in Hammerfest Many grave sites dating back to the
Stone Age can be found here. This location was an important fishing and Arctic hunting settlement for a long time before it was given
market town rights by
royal decree of
Christian VII of
Denmark–Norway in 1789. • 1684: Hammerfest gets its first church,
Hammerfest Church. The population is around 60 people. • 1764: Russia begins to send ships with grain to Hammerfest as part of the
Pomor trade. • 17 July 1789: Hammerfest receives "
town status" as a
kjøpstad. • 1792: The first doctor arrives in Hammerfest. • 1807–1814: Hammerfest is affected by disease
epidemics and food shortages, the latter as a result of the
Royal Navy blockade during the
Gunboat War. • 1809: The city is attacked and captured by two British
brigs, which proceed to sack it before withdrawing. • 1839: Hammerfest's first firefighter is employed. • 1859: The first lighthouse in Finnmark is constructed:
Fuglenes Lighthouse. • 1868: The first water plant in the town is built. • 1870: A
telegraph station, which is used by all of Finnmark, is built. • 1890: Two-thirds of the city is destroyed by fire. • 1891: Reconstruction of the city begins. A
Methodist chapel is opened. • 1891: Hammerfest becomes the first town in Norway and Northern Europe with electric
streetlights. • 1940: After the
German occupation of Norway the German Navy used the harbor of the city as a base. • 14 February 1944: A Soviet aircraft bombed the city for the first time, but the damage was small. • 29 August 1944: A similar, but far more powerful air assault, a number of buildings and streets in the city and ships on the harbour were destroyed. When the
Germans retreated, they finalized the destruction. • November 1944: the Germans began systematically burning all the settlements in Finnmark, including Hammerfest. • February 1945: citizens are forcibly evacuated by the German authorities. Only one building was left standing, a burial chapel. This was built in 1937 and is the oldest house still existing in the town. • 1989: Hammerfest celebrates its 200th anniversary as a city. • 2003:
Melkøysund Tunnel is completed connecting the town to the island of
Melkøya. • 2007: The Snøhvit plant on
Melkøya becomes operational in September. It is the biggest industrial development in Northern Norway.
Napoleonic Wars Denmark–Norway became involved in the
Napoleonic Wars in 1807. As one of the main centres of commerce and transportation in western
Finnmark, Hammerfest was subject to a
Royal Navy blockade. Upon the request of local merchants, the town received four
6-pounder guns from the government armoury in
Trondheim. Subsequently, a 50-strong
militia unit was formed to defend Hammerfest from potential British attacks. Local merchants formed the militia's officer corps, and
Sámi and
Kvens served as enlisted members of the unit. On 22 July 1809, the British brigs
HMS Snake and
HMS Fancy approached the town. Before reaching Hammerfest, the two vessels had briefly occupied
Hasvik. The following battle between Hammerfest's militia, who had built two
artillery batteries, and
Snake and
Fancy was unusually intense and ended after the Norwegians ran out of
gunpowder after about 90 minutes of combat and fled. Both
Snake and
Fancy had suffered a number of cannon hits and lost one man killed, a sailor who was buried at a local cemetery. During the battle, the town's populace evacuated elsewhere, and the crews of
Snake and
Fancy remained in Hammerfest for eight days after the Norwegian withdrawal, sacking the empty town before leaving. After the raid, Hammerfest became a
garrison town with a detachment of regular troops and improved and expanded fortifications. A small
flotilla of
gunboats also operated out of Hammerfest for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars. in 1923
Fire of 1890 Hammerfest was struck by a fire in 1890 which started in a bakery and wiped out almost half the town's houses. After the fire Hammerfest received donations and humanitarian assistance from across the world, with the biggest single donor being
Kaiser Wilhelm II of
Germany. The Kaiser had personally visited the town several times on his yacht and had great affection for the small northern settlement.
Electric street lighting In 1891, Hammerfest became the first urban settlement in
Northern Europe to get electrical
street lights. The invention was brought to Hammerfest by two of the town's merchants who had seen it demonstrated at a fair in
Paris.
Destruction in World War II After their victory in the
Norwegian Campaign of the
Second World War, the
Germans soon fortified Hammerfest and used it as a major base. The importance of Hammerfest to the Germans increased dramatically after their
invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The occupiers installed three coastal batteries in and around Hammerfest, one with four guns on
Melkøya island near the town, one with three 10.5 cm guns on a hill right outside the town and a final battery with
casemated pieces on the Rypklubben peninsula near
Rypefjord. The main
German U-boat base in
Finnmark was in Hammerfest, serving as a central supply base for the vessels attacking the
allied supply convoys to Russia. Luftwaffe
seaplanes were based at an improvised naval air station in nearby Rypefjord. The garrison in Hammerfest was also protected by around 4,000
mines and numerous
anti-aircraft guns. During their long retreat following the
Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation, the Germans no longer managed to transport troops by sea further east due to intensive
Red Air Force raids. Thus Hammerfest became their main shipping port in Finnmark in the autumn of 1944. The town of Hammerfest was bombed twice by the
Soviet Air Forces. The first time, on 14 February 1944, the town was hit by explosive and incendiary devices, but little damage was done. On 29 August 1944 Soviet bombers launched a second airstrike, inflicting significantly more damage to buildings and infrastructure in downtown Hammerfest. Two ships were sunk in the harbour. The ships lost were the local transports
Tanahorn and
Brynilen. The population was forcibly evacuated by the
occupying German troops in the autumn of 1944 after
a Soviet offensive at the northern extremity of the
Eastern Front pushed into eastern Finnmark. All of Finnmark including the town was looted and burned to the ground by the Germans when they retreated in 1945, the last of the town having been destroyed by the time the Germans finally left on 10 February 1945. Only the town's small funeral chapel, built in 1937, was left standing.
Municipal history The municipality called
Hammerfest by og landdistrikt was established on 1 January 1838 (see
formannskapsdistrikt law). 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 other towns in Finnmark:
Vadsø and
Vardø.) In 1839, the northern district (population: 498) was separated to become the new
Maasø Municipality. 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
Sørøysund Municipality in the north and
Kvalsund Municipality in the south.) On 1 January 1992, the town of Hammerfest (population: 6,909) was merged with the neighboring
Sørøysund Municipality (population: 2,341) to form a new, larger
Hammerfest Municipality. ==Climate==