Porsanger

Porsanger is the country around a long fjord in Finnmark, known to Sámi as Porsáŋgu. Sámi communities lived along the fjord and in the interior, and in the eighteenth century people from Finland fleeing war and famine settled on its shores. In 1717 the priest from Kjelvik visited communities around the fjord to conduct services. The missionary Thomas von Westen founded a church at Kistrand in 1718, giving the western shore a lasting parish centre.