Narvik

Narvik - darkometer rating : 3 - A town in northern Norway with a short but quite significant historical record, including that of having been one of the most contested places in WWII , due to its strategic location and its ice-free iron-ore port. Today it's a comparatively untouristy spot but quite rewarding from a dark tourism perspective, especially for its excellent war museum. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Narvik is a young town. It owes its existence almost solely to the iron-ore mines of Kiruna in Sweden (cf. Boden ), where some of the world's most substantial and highest quality reserves of iron ore are being exploited. However, transport to the markets in the rest of the world posed a major problem initially. The only seaport within Sweden that would be in fairly easy reach is at Lulea on the Baltic coast – but it is not suitable for larger vessels and remains frozen in pack ice for long periods in winter. Narvik, on the other hand, is situated at an ideal point: on the edge of a deep fjord that allows practically any size of ship easy access, and it is ice-free year-round thanks to the warm North Atlantic Current (the last vestiges of the Gulf Stream – cf. Murmansk ). Narvik is actually closer to Kiruna than the latter is to the Swedish coast. The only problem was: there are mountains in the way. Still, at the end of the 19th century it was decided to construct a railway line from Kiruna to Narvik. It was a great engineering feat, involving an army of workers that are still held in high esteem in Narvik (as the local museum testifies). The line is called "Malmbanen" in Sweden (literally 'iron-ore railway'), and "Ofotbanen" in Norway (after the Ofotfjord that Narvik is located on).