Sørvágur (Settlement) – Trap The Faroe Islands

© Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur

Sørvágur has 1,114 inhabitants and covers 48 merkur, of which 47 merkur and 8 gyllin are freehold land, and 8 gyllin are copyhold land leased by a single copyhold tenant. The sheep herd consists of 1,436 animals.

Population trends in Sørvágur 1966‑2021.
HAGSTOVA FØROYA

Archaeological excavations have shown that there used to be a Viking farm in Sørvágur. In the old days, all land in Sørvágur belonged to the Norwegian noble family Benkenstok. In 1665, the land was taken over by a Danish buyer, who sold it to some Faroese, thereby making the land freehold land, with the exception of 8 gyllin, which was handed over to the king in 1729 because the owner travelled illegally from the Faroe Islands. Until 2007, this land belonged to the sheriff’s office on Vágar, but has now been leased to someone else.

After a storm destroyed the village’s old church, a new one was built in 1886, which is a modernised version of the traditional village churches. In 1973, the church was extended with a chapel and room for the vicar, and in 1986 it was repainted, and the architect Alan Havsteen-Mikkelsen was responsible for the colour scheme. In 2015, a separate building was built for the church’s social activities.

The Brethren congregation has the Kedron meeting house built in 1937. A new mission house, Libanon, replaced the old one of the same name in 1980, which now belongs to the local housewives’ association.

The first school building with two classrooms and a teacher’s residence was built in 1887. A new, larger school was built in 1957 and has since been extended several times. The old village school is now part of the local music school. From 1959, teaching was extended to also include teaching for the 10th grade. Since 2006, the village has had a nursery and a kindergarten.

After the introduction of free trade and the emergence of dried cod production, first coastal fishing and later also long-distance fishing gained great importance in Sørvágur, as in most other places, and several people were given trade permits. In 1953, the trading company P/F N. Niclasen was the first in the Faroe Islands to take the initiative to produce deep-frozen fish fillets, and after a short time, this turned into an industrial production. After the financial crisis in 1992, however, production was closed down, and subsequently the village started engaging in the now essential salmon farming industry and subsequent production of salmon products.

The country’s only airport, Vágar Airport, is located at Sørvágur. It was built during World War II and used by the British. It was not until 1963 that regular flights to and from the Faroe Islands were established.

Immediately after World War II, the village got a dance hall with a cinema, which, in 1969, was installed in a new complex near the village’s sports area and football field built on Dungasandur in 1954. The annual Country Festival has been held here since 2012.

A native museum was established in 1962 and today has its own exhibitions, in addition to the Føroya Krígssavn (the Faroe Islands War Museum).

Further reading