Breivik

Part of Breivik
Copyright © 2003, Anne Olsen-Ryum

Breivik is a beautiful place situated at the north side of the Breivikfjord halfway between Breivikbotn and Sørvær and about 30 kilometres from the place Hasvik. At the first census in the county of Finnmark in 1520 four families lived in Breivik. Today about 15 persons are living there, but since many persons have got their cabins at the idyllic place, the population increases during some short summer-months.

Breivik is an old fishing village and trading-place. The place was at one time one of the best fishing villages in the county of Finnmark. Before the year 1911 the harbour conditions in Breivik was extremely bad. After a hard days work at sea, the fishermen had to drag their boats ashore. There could be so many as 300 fishermen with different kinds of boats. Each boat's crew had to have bars of birch that were used under the boats for easier dragging them ashore. In the Summer of 1911 the building of a new mole in Breivik started, and this work lasted until 1926.

Like the rest of Finnmark, Breivik was burned down by the Germans at the end of World War 2. At that time 20 families lived at the place. Six of the families were evacuated by force by the Germans, while the rest hid in caves and cabins. In February 1945 these families were among the 502 people who were fetched by 4 English destroyers and brought to Murmansk. They were moved to allied merchantships and arrived Glasgow on February 28. 1945. After the liberation of Norway in May 1945, they came back to a Breivik in ruins. The place was rebuilt with houses, a new fish factory, school, meeting house, community center, waterworks and electricity.

During a storm in 1948 the mole in Breivik was destroyed. An application for a total repair of the mole was refused, and it was therefore only partly repaired in 1957.

In 1968 Breivik was labeled as a vacate place, and many people moved from the place. The trend altered for a short period when Rolf and Helga Hansen started buying fish and opened a shop in 1977.

Today there are nobody buying fish at the place and the shop is permanently closed.

Source: "Før i tida - en beretning om bosetning og kultur på Sørværhalvøya" by Anny Olaussen