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700 years of military history at risk in Vardø

Vardøhus Fortress is the northernmost fortress in the world.

The Norwegian Armed Forces want to cut down on the number of soldiers at the world’s northernmost fortress Vardøhus from four to zero.

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The Armed Forces believe that the soldiers stationed at Vardøhus fortress do not get sufficient military training and want to save the NOK 300.000 (€36.000) keeping the four-man large unit costs.

Removing the soldiers from the fortress will mean ending 700 years of military history, something the inhabitants of Vardø do not want to see happening. “I cannot accept that they want to remove the four soldiers and will bring the question to a higher political level,” Mayor of Vardø Lasse Haugom said to NRK.

The Facebook group in support of the soldiers at Vardøhus has more than 2800 members, more than there are people in Vardø.

Commander at Vardøhus Fortress Elisabeth Eikeland has now concluded an agreement with the Sør-Varanger Garrison – home to the Norwegian Border Guard Service, on sending her soldiers to Kirkenes for training and exercises, hoping that this will give them sufficient military education, NRK writes.

Vardøhus Fortress is loacated in the town of Vardø on the island of Vardøya in the Varanger Fjord near the border to Russia. The first fortification was erected by King Haakon V Magnusson in 1306, when Norway was in conflict with the Republic of Novgorod. The current octagonal star fort was ready in 1738.

Today the fortress has few practical military purposes and serves primarily as a salute fortress, firing gun salutes on Norway’s Constitution Day, on royal birthdays and on the first day the sun is visible above the horizon after the polar night. The fortress has a museum and is one the most visited tourist attractions in the region.