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| County | Finnmark | |
| Landscape | ||
| Municipality | NO-2003 | |
| Administrative centre | Vadsø | |
| Mayor (2003) | Hauk Johnsen (Ap) | |
| Official language form | Bokmål | |
| Area - Total - Land - Percentage | Ranked 77 1,258 km² 1,234 km² 0.39 % | |
| Population - Total (2004) - Percentage - Change (10 years) - Density | Ranked 162 6,186 0.14 % -3.2 % 5/km² | |
| Coordinates | Template:Coor dm | |
| www.vadso.kommune.no Data from Statistics Norway (http://www.ssb.no/english/municipalities/2003) | ||
Vadsø (Vesisaari in Finnish) is a city and municipality in the county of Finnmark, Norway. The municipality of Vadsø includes the former municipality of Nord-Varanger. It forms the southern coast of the peninsula of Varangerhalvøya, which is largely covered by birch forests on this sheltered side.
A fishing village with a church sprang up in the 1500s on the island of Vadsøya, later it moved to the mainland side. The city was incorporated in 1833, and soon settlers came from Finland, and Finnish was the language of the majority through decades. Even today Finnish is still spoken in some households. During World War II, Vadsø suffered several air raids from the Soviet Union. However there is, unlike most places in Finnmark, a number of 19c. wooden houses preserved close to the city centre, notably the house of Esbensen, built by a Norwegian, and the house of Tuomainen, built by a Finn. On the island of Vadsøya you find the airship mast used by Umberto Nobile and Roald Amundsen for their expedition over the North Pole with the airship Norge in 1926, and used again on Nobile's flight with the airship Italia in 1928.
Vadsø is the administrative centre of the county of Finnmark, it has an airport and is also a port of call for the Hurtigruten.
| Municipalities of Finnmark | 
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Alta | Berlevåg | Båtsfjord | Gamvik | Hammerfest | Hasvik | Karasjok | Kautokeino | Kvalsund | Lebesby | Loppa | Måsøy | Nesseby | Nordkapp | Porsanger | Sør-Varanger | Tana | Vadsø | Vardø | |