Hammerfest

Hammerfest stands on the northwestern shore of Kvaløya, with an ice-free harbour facing the Arctic seas. Long before it became a town, fishers and hunters used this coast. Its first church was built in 1684, when the settlement had around sixty inhabitants. Russian ships brought grain as part of the Pomor trade from 1764, and Christian VII granted market-town rights in 1789. During the Gunboat War two British brigs captured and plundered Hammerfest in 1809 before withdrawing.