Narvik

Narvik sits on a peninsula on the south side of the Ofotfjord, with steep mountains on every side. A wide band of railway tracks and the LKAB ore port cut the centre in two, and big bulk ships lie at anchor on the fjord. The town is here because of iron ore from the Swedish mines at Kiruna, carried down the Ofotbanen railway to a harbour that doesn't freeze. The line opened in 1902 and still runs 10 to 12 ore trains each way every day.

In North Sámi the town is Áhkánjárga, where njárga means headland. Narvik was an old farm name of uncertain meaning, perhaps from knarr, a merchant ship, or the god Njord. When Parliament made the place a town in 1901, it chose that name over Victoriahavn, the harbour's name since a Swedish royal visit in 1887. The midnight sun lasts from about 25 May to 19 July, and the polar night is short here, from 6 December to 6 January.

Local knowledge: the ore is also why Narvik is in the history books. Early on 9 April 1940 ten German destroyers sailed up the Ofotfjord in falling snow. The old Norwegian armoured ships Eidsvold and Norge were sunk outside the harbour, 276 men died, and the town was handed over without a fight. British warships came back twice and by 13 April every German destroyer was at the bottom of the fjord. On 28 May Norwegian, British, French and Polish troops took Narvik back, the first Allied victory of the war. Eleven days later the Allies pulled out for the fighting on the continent, and the Germans marched back in. By then almost all of the 10.000 people had been evacuated and 165 buildings were gone, which is why most of the centre was built after the war.

Born here: ski jumper Daniel-André Tande (born 1994) became world champion in ski flying in 2018 and won Olympic team gold the same winter. Singer Lise Haavik (born 1962) moved to Denmark at 20 and sang for Denmark at Eurovision in 1986 with "Du er fuld af løgn".

Visiting: the pin points to the tourist information at Kongens gate 41, open every day all year. The Narvik War Museum is in the same building, our rainy-day tip: the 1940 battles and the Beisfjord prison camp, one of the most brutal in the north. For the view, take the gondola up Fagernesfjellet above the centre: the fjord, the ore port and the Hålogaland Bridge at once. Every winter Vinterfestuka remembers the navvies who built the railway, and in 2026 the Arctic Race of Norway cycling race finished here. Good to know: Narvik's trains don't go anywhere else in Norway, only east into Sweden.

Fact sheet

• Other official names: Áhkánjárga (North Sámi)
• People: 14.243 in Narvik, 21.647 in Narvik municipality
• County: Nordland
• Town since: 1902 (as a trading town)
• Typical industries: hydropower and the power grid, the ore port and other transport services, the hospital (UNN Narvik)
• Midnight sun: 25 May – 19 July
• Polar night: 6 December – 6 January

Population on 1 January 2026, from Statistics Norway. Typical industries are the ones with a much bigger share of the jobs here than in Norway as a whole (Statistics Norway, 2025).