Finnmark » The Museums for Coastal Heritage and Reconstruction of Finnmark

The Museums of Coastal Heritage and Reconstruction of Finnmark IKS consists of the five museums on the coast of Finnmark:

• The Reconstruction Museum of Finnmark and Nord-Troms in Hammerfest
• Måsøy Museum in Havsøysund
• Nordkappmuseet in Honningsvåg
• Gamvik Museum 71o Nord in Gamvik
• Berlevåg Harbour Museum in Berlevåg

The field of responsibility of the museums covers coastal culture in Finnmark, focusing particularly on the fishery history, evacuation and reconstruction history, contemporary documentation, and multi-cultural Finnmark. The management office of the museums is in Honningsvåg. 

Måsøy Museum

Måsøy Museum is situated in the local centre of Havøysund. The museum was originally built as a vicarage in 1950.

Until the 1960s most families in the community had animal husbandry. Since then specialization has been prevalent, and fishing is now the primary industry.

For a large part, the objects consist of technical facilities which the fishermen have used during the first part of the 1900s. Additionally, the museum has permanent exhibitions of the interiors of kitchen, sitting-room, bedroom, shoemaker’s shop, and classroom from around 1920/30.

Måsøy Museum has a comprehensive collection of pictures open to the public.

Berlevåg Harbour Museum

Berlevåg Harbour Museum is situated in buildings from the national coastal facilities from the 1950s, stressing the construction of the harbour, the fishing industry, and freight. The Museum offers an insight into the development of the area through diffferent periods of times. The film about the construction of the piers through the last 70 years tells the story of a the battle of a village community against the powers of nature. The battle that was eventually won is illustrated through photographs, film and tools.

Berlevåg is a society of fishing industry which has developed quickly, and the exhibition displays fishing tackle, types of boats, breeding improvement of fish, and the small communities from before the Second World War. Berlevåg was not connected to the national network of roads until 1959, so the connection by water was vital. Service barges took care of all the freight to and from the major boats and ships. The oldest specially made freight ship and the characteristic freighting environment, where people and goods alike were transported to and from the ships and hoisted on board, are on display in the barge house.

Gamvik Museum 71°N

The Gamvik Museum is a local museum of the municipality of Gamvik, and we focus on local coastal culture and fishing industry in our exhibition.

The museum is situated in the fish merchant building Brodtkorb in Gamvik. The exhibition contains the history of the local settlement from 8000 B. C. until today, the life of fishermen who were both fishermen and farmers, and we also tell the story of the local women and document the important part the women played in the struggle to survive.

Additionally, we demonstrate the use of natural resources in Gamvik through the times. The Museum has a zoological collection, which shows the most common birds and mammals of Nordkyn.

The work procedures of the dried fish production is demonstrated, and the course of the year in the coastal community is shown in a slide show.

The Museum of Reconstruction for Finnmark and North-Troms

During the last months of the Second World War most of Finnmark and northern Troms was totally destroyed and the population forced to evacuate. The museum is a monument to man’s ability to overcome the destruction of war and to create a new future. The museum utilises modern effects in its exhibition.

Through pictures, film, sound and text we give you an insight into culture in Finnmark and northern Troms before and after the Second World War. We want to give you an impression of how life was for some of the evacuees and refugees, and how optimism characterised the rebuilding phase.

Visitors can walk in to an authentic refugee cave, a barrack kitchen and a post-war permanent house.We have written exhibition guides in Norwegian, Sami, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Finnish languages. In our cafe we can offer hot and cold drinks, cakes, sweets and freshly made waffles. You can also buy souvenirs in our old style museum shop.

Nordkappmuseet

Nordkappmuseet is a small museum which exhibits Arctic fisheries and aspects of everyday life on the outer coast of the county of Finnmark, as well as the municipality of Nordkapp.

Nordkappmuseet commemorates the fishing heritage of the most fishery dependent county of Norway. Our exhibitions focus on fisheries, king crabs, whaling, the exploitation of seabirds, the history of the formation and the growth of North Cape tourism, and local history.

The museum offers personal service in a friendly atmosphere. The museum staff speaks Norwegian, English, German, and French. Written information is offered in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Finnish. Aguided tour of 30 minutes of the museum is included in the admission fee.

The museum is located by the harbour in the centre of Honningsvåg, only a few minutes’ walk from the Coastal Liner and the coach station.