Berlevåg (Northern Sami: Bearlaváhki, Kven: Päärlyvooki) is a
municipality located on the northwestern part of the Varanger
Peninsula in Finnmark. The municipality borders Tana in the south
and Båtsfjord in the east, and meets Vadsø at one point in the
southeast.
Most of the settlement in the municipality is
concentrated in the fishing port and the municipal center Berlevåg
and in the fishing village Kongsfjord. The settlement Berlevåg has
909 inhabitants as of 1 January 2020 and is the northernmost
settlement on the mainland in Norway.
Society
The most important industries are fishing, fish
processing, trade, as well as public and private services.
Communications
The place is called by Hurtigruten. Berlevåg
Airport has daily departures to Hammerfest and Tromsø, as well as
Vadsø and Kirkenes.
Municipal coat of arms
The municipal
coat of arms (also called landscape coat of arms) was approved in
1988 and has a division of gold and blue by flame cutting. This will
symbolize the municipality's dependence on the sea. The motif itself
shows the sea and waves towards the beach. The five waves will
symbolize the five places that at different times have had permanent
settlements within the municipality. These places are Berlevåg,
Kongsfjord, Gulgo, Kvitnes and Store Molvik.
Natural
conditions
In the municipality, there are two rivers that carry
salmon. Storelva is located in Berlevåg and mainly has sea urchins.
Kongsfjordelva has a 12 km salmon-carrying stretch and also has an
upswing of sea trout. The river is leased by Berlevåg Jeger and
Fiskeforening.
History
Berlevåg became its own
municipality in 1914, when it was separated from Tana.
From
1913 to 1975, four jetties were built to protect the harbor from the
waves from the North Sea. After a major storm in 1959 that destroyed
half of the Svartoksen pier, tetrapods were used as an outer cover
on the two outermost long piers.
During World War II, a
German coastal battery was built in Berlevåg. The battery, Heeres
Küsten Batterie Berlevaag 3/480, was set up with five 14.5 cm
cannons with a firing range of 19,000 m, in May 1942.
When
the Germans withdrew at the end of World War II (from September 1944
to February 1945), they used the scorched earth tactics and all
buildings in Berlevåg were burned down.
The scorched earth
tactic
When it became clear to the Germans that the Red Army was
on its way to Norway, they initiated a forced evacuation of the
inhabitants and used burnt earth tactics. Berlevåg was the first
place in Finnmark where the Germans used this tactic and thus they
took a very good time and did a thorough job. After the burning,
very few buildings remained. Virtually everything that existed of
houses, barns and barns, fish farms, quays and other buildings were
set on fire by Germans in retreat.
The forced evacuation led
to many Berlevågings being sent away from Berlevåg by boat, but
there were many who managed to escape and stay hidden from the
Germans. After the burning was a fact and the Germans had left, most
came out of their caves and other hiding places in Storelvdalen,
among other places. The sight that met them was cruel, burnt down
ruins and hardly a single place they could seek refuge. An
alternative many used was to turn boats, which had not been burned,
upside down and use these as a temporary crawl space.