Rituvík (Settlement) – Trap The Faroe Islands

© Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur

Rituvík is an outlying village from Toftir and was established in 1873. The village currently has 317 inhabitants. The village lies in an inlet facing the open sea, where surf often crashes against the shore. There is a landing site and boat houses on both sides of the inlet. When the weather is good, it is an excellent place to dive in the water off the village where there is a kelp forest with sandy patches on the seabed and underwater caves. Glyvrafjall north of Rituvík rises 303 m. On the beach, a rare geological phenomenon was formed by the filling of a lava tunnel while the lava was still molten. The old path to the village of Lamba leads past the 220 kg stone, which the legendary hero Ole the Strong is said to have lifted.

Rituvík had its first school in 1892, and a new one was built in 1965 by Lamhauge & Waagstein. The school is now as part of the municipality’s after-school program.

The inhabitants used Nes Kirkja until 1955 when Rituvík got its first church. The wooden church is the last of the eight churches designed by the architect H.C.W. Tórgarð. The church bell is a ship’s bell from the Portuguese schooner Florentine, which sank in Greenland in 1947. The church acquired a bigger bell in 1995.

In 1975, a sculpture by Fridtjof Joensen was placed by the church to commemorate the first settlements in Rituvík. The sculpture is a man with a digging tool called a haki and a woman with knitting needles. There is also a memorial stone at the village’s oldest house. Captain Anton Olsen, who was from Rituvík, rescued 4,004 Vietnamese refugees in 1975 with his ship Clara Mærsk after the fall of Saigon, and in 2015, a commemorative tablet was placed in front of his childhood home.

Further reading