{"id":1259,"date":"2019-05-08T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T21:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2026-02-09T00:35:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T00:35:54","slug":"bosetning-pa-aroya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/bosetning-pa-aroya\/","title":{"rendered":"Settlement on \u00c5r\u00f8ya"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c5r\u00f8ya lies in the Lyngenfjord. The island has probably been inhabited or visited since the Iron Age. On the island there are several foundation walls and remains of earlier settlements. These bear witness to several centuries of farming, trade and defence activities. In the 1950s, the island was acquired by the defence forces. Until 1 July 2006, there was a traffic ban for civilians on the whole of \u00c5r\u00f8ya.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text: Tania Lopez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that Iron Age people landed on Bunkholmen in connection with the ceremonial burial of bears, and it is therefore assumed that \u00c5r\u00f8ya must have been inhabited or visited already in the Iron Age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Settlement on \u00c5r\u00f8ya is recorded from the beginning of the 17th century, when the lieutenant of the time collected taxes for the Swedish king. The goods handed in were eiderdown, cod liver oil, fur and stockfish. Later in the 17th century, it was the parish priest of Karls\u00f8y who had the rights to use the island, and the island then had several users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stopping point for bartering<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In the 18th century, during the Russian Pomor trade, \u00c5r\u00f8ya became a stopping point for barter between people in the northern regions. The Russian traders brought grain products with them, which they exchanged for fish. V\u00e5gen had become a trading centre and inn. A family with a large household (including maids and servants) now lived here, running the trading centre and farming for their own use.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Remains of the foundation wall. Photo: Tania Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Plenty of natural resources<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Just like today, there were plenty of natural resources on \u00c5r\u00f8ya. In 1805, the owner of the island was fed up with others going ashore and exploiting the natural resources. He had the area gazetted and protected for his own use. It was forbidden for others to collect firewood, leaves, grass, cloudberries, eggs, down, feathers and to hunt birds, and otherwise to collect \u00abanything else that can be mentioned\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1867, scheduled traffic to \u00c5r\u00f8yholmen was established and the island got a post office. Gradually, more households were added, with families living from fishing and animal husbandry. Sommersetet on the north-west side was registered as a settlement in 1877, and Storbukta and Holmenden in 1880. In the censuses carried out at this time, the people living on \u00c5r\u00f8ya are registered as Norwegian, Sami and Kven. Some people are registered with mixed ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to a shortage of fuel (coal) during the First World War, demand for peat increased. Labourers were then hired to stack peat, dry it and transport it to Birtavarre Gruber in Ankerlia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two people who owned \u00c5r\u00f8ya farmed and fished. In 1931, more families arrived on \u00c5r\u00f8ya. The west side of \u00c5r\u00f8ya is known for having good fishing spots, and in the 1940s children aged 8-9 could row from Manndalen to fish for small saithe at \u00c5r\u00f8ya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foundations and defences<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

During the war in 1942, the Germans built a new foundation wall outside the original foundation wall at V\u00e5gen, and erected a youth centre they had transported from the mainland on top of it. This became the Germans' command centre. They also built a birch timber quay on V\u00e5gen. There were a total of 750 Russian prisoners of war on \u00c5r\u00f8ya and Rottenvik, and the prisoners started work on building a defence facility on the north side of the island. During the war, five families lived on \u00c5r\u00f8ya. They were evacuated in the autumn of 1944, but the families returned after the end of the war. After the war and until the 1960s, a total of 25 people lived on \u00c5r\u00f8ya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
\u00c5r\u00f8ya. Photo: Tania Lopez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Defence takes over the island<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

During the rearmament of the Cold War, the Norwegian Armed Forces expropriated the island in 1976 and closed it to all civilian traffic. The Norwegian Armed Forces continued to build on the defences constructed by the Germans during the war with bunkers and new weapon positions. \u00c5r\u00f8ya was reopened to the public when the municipalities of Lyngen, Storfjord and K\u00e5fjord bought it in 2005. Today, traces of settlement can still be seen in V\u00e5gen, Sommarsetet, Storbukta and Holmenden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current links<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5r\u00f8ya\/\u00c5r\u00f8yholmen, turliv.no<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyngen: \u00c5r\u00f8yholmen, ishavskysten.no<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Management plan for \u00c5r\u00f8yholmen 2017-2021, pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c5r\u00f8yholmen is released by the defence, NRK 2004<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buys \u00c5r\u00f8yholmen 2005, framtidinord.no<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NRK programme U: Report on K\u00e5fjord youths occupying \u00c5r\u00f8ya (approx. 01.50 min into the programme), 1992<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c5r\u00f8ya lies in the Lyngenfjord. The island has probably been inhabited or visited since the Iron Age. On the island there are several foundation walls and remains of earlier settlements.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historie-og-religion","tag-aroya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/2000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nordligefolk.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}