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Finnmark's wild northern coast is dotted with fishing villages and riven with grand fjords, while the vast interior is dominated by the broad Finnmarksvidda plateau, a stark wilderness. This is the home of Nordkapp, but also so much more, with Alta, Hammerfest and Honningsvåg providing gateways to some really stunning country.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Western Finnmark.
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This superb museum is in Hjemmeluft, at the western end of town. It features exhibits and displays on Sami culture, Finnmark military history, the Alta hydroelectric project and the aurora borealis (northern lights). The cliffs around it, a Unesco World Heritage site, are incised with around 6000 late–Stone Age carvings, dating from 6000 to 2000 years ago, and it's these petroglyphs that will live longest in the memory.
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No roads cross through the 747 sq km of Stabbursdalen National Park, which offers a spectacular glacial canyon and excellent hiking in the world's most northerly pine forest. The park is a haven for elk (moose), wolverine and the Eurasian lynx, although you'll be lucky to spot the last two species.
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Opened in 2013, the daringly designed Northern Lights Cathedral, next to the Scandic Hotel Alta, is one of the architectural icons of the north, with its swirling pyramid structure clad in rippling titanium sheets. The interior is similarly eye-catching, with an utterly modern 4.3m-high bronze Christ by Danish artist Peter Brandes – note how the figure gets lighter as your eyes move up the body.
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The Stabbursnes Naturhus og Museum serves both the Stabbursdalen National Park and Stabbursnes Nature Reserve. It sells field guides, maps and fishing permits and has a well-mounted exhibition about the birds, animals and geology of the interior high plateau, river valleys and coast. It also serves as a visitor centre for the park and reserve – entry to that section is free.
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Dedicated to preserving Hammerfest culture, the Royal & Ancient Polar Bear Society (founded in 1963) features exhibits on Arctic hunting and local history and shares premises with the tourist office. For 200kr you can become a life member and get a certificate, ID card, sticker and pin. At times, the link to polar bears here can feel a little tenuous. But if you think of the place in terms of the Norwegian name (Isbjørklubben, simply Polar Bear Club), you're less likely to be disappointed.
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The Stabbursnes Nature Reserve extends over the wetlands and mudflats at the estuary of the Stabburselva. Birdwatchers come to observe the many species of duck, geese, divers and sandpipers that rest in the area while migrating between the Arctic and more temperate zones. Ask the nature centre for a full list of birds recorded in the reserve and their seasons.
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Presiding over a scene of considerable natural beauty is this visitor centre, a vast bunker of a place, topped by a giant, intrusive golf ball. Within you'll find a detailed account of WWII naval actions off the cape; a cafeteria and restaurant; the Grotten bar, with views of Europe's end through its vast glass wall; a one-room Thai museum; the St Johannes chapel ('the world's northernmost ecumenical chapel'); a post office (for that all-important Nordkapp postmark); and an appropriately vast souvenir shop.
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The design of Hammerfest's contemporary church, consecrated in 1961, was inspired by the racks used for drying fish in the salty sea air all across northern Norway. Behind the altar, the glorious stained-glass window positively glows in the summer sun, while the wooden frieze along the organ gallery depicts highlights of the town's history. The chapel in the cemetery across the street is the only building in town to have survived WWII.
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Hammerfest's Reconstruction Museum is a great little museum, with particularly thoughtful and sensitive panels and captions (each section has a synopsis in English). It recounts the forced evacuation and decimation of the town during the Nazi retreat in 1944; the hardships that its citizens endured through the following winter; and Hammerfest's postwar reconstruction and regeneration.