Moskenes

Moskenes is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality comprises the southern part of the island of Moskenesøya in the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Reine. Other villages include Sørvågen, Hamnøy, and Å.

General information

The municipality was established on 1 July 1916 when the southern part of Flakstad municipality was separated to become Moskenes. Initially, Moskenes had a population of 1,306.

On 1 January 1964, the municipalities of Flakstad and Moskenes were reunited, this time under the name "Moskenes". Prior to the merger, Moskenes had 2,001 residents and the new municipality of Moskenes had 4,068 residents. This new municipality did not last long because on 1 January 1976, Flakstad broke away again to once again form a separate municipality. This left Moskenes with 1,705 residents.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Moskenes farm ("Muskenes" – 1567), since the first church was built there. The first element is probably derived from the word mosk/musk which means "sea spray" and the last element is nes which means "headland". (See also Moskenstraumen.)

Å, Moskenes

Å (Norwegian pronunciation: [oː], from å meaning "stream") is a village in the municipality of Moskenes in Nordland county, Norway. It is located towards the southern end of the Lofoten archipelago. It is connected to the rest of the archipelago by the European route E10 highway. This part of the highway is also called King Olav's Road.

Until the 1990s, Å was mainly a small fishing village specializing in stockfish, but since then tourism has taken over as the main economic activity. The town features the Lofoten Stockfish Museum and the Norwegian Fishing Village Museum as two big tourist attractions. In May 2004, Å became the starting point of a cycling trip from A to B (with B represented by Bee, Nebraska).

Name

The village (originally a farm) is first mentioned in 1567 ("Aa"). The name is from Old Norse á which means "(small) river". The name was spelled Aa until 1917 when the Norwegian language reform changed the letter aa to å. The village is sometimes referred to as Å i Lofoten ("i" means "in") to distinguish it from other places named Å (see Å (disambiguation)).