Editing Vadsø Municipality (section)

==General information==
[[File:2007.07.24 Tollbugata i Vadsø.jpg|left|thumb|The street of Tollbugata in Vadsø]]
[[File:2007.07.24 Fiskebåter i Vadsø.JPG|left|thumb|Fishing boats on land in Vadsø]]
[[File:Vadsø Church.jpg|thumb|left|[[Vadsø Church]]]]
The village of Vadsø was granted town status in 1833. In 1838, the [[Vadsø (town)|town of Vadsø]] and the entire rural district surrounding the [[Varangerfjord]]en were established as the new Vadsø Municipality (see [[formannskapsdistrikt]] law). The law required that all towns should be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was impossible to carry out for the municipality of Vadsø in 1838. (This was also true in the nearby towns of [[Hammerfest (town)|Hammerfest]] and [[Vardø (town)|Vardø]].)

In 1839, the western district (population: 598) was separated to become the new [[Nesseby Municipality]]. This left Vadsø with 388 residents. In 1858, Vadsø Municipality changed again: [[Nesseby Municipality]] (population: 706) was merged back into Vadsø and the district of Vadsø located south of the [[Varangerfjorden]] (population: 1,171) was separated to form the new [[Sør-Varanger Municipality]]. This change resulted in a population of 2,050 in Vadsø Municipality. In 1864, the western district of Vadsø (population: 866) was separated (once again) to re-create [[Nesseby Municipality]], leaving Vadsø with 1,367 residents.

On 1 January 1894, the rest of the rural district (population: 1,296) surrounding the [[Vadsø (town)|town of Vadsø]] was separated to form the new [[Nord-Varanger Municipality]]. This left just the town of Vadsø remaining in the municipality of Vadsø which now had 1,114 residents. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the [[Schei Committee]]. On 1 January 1964, [[Nord-Varanger Municipality]] (population: 1,587) was merged with the [[Vadsø (town)|town of Vadsø]] (population: 3,353) to form the present-day [[Vadsø Municipality]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jukvam |first=Dag |year=1999 |title=Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen |url=http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf |access-date=12 September 2016 |publisher=[[Statistics Norway|Statistisk sentralbyrå]] |language=no}}</ref>

On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly formed [[Troms og Finnmark]] county. Previously, it had been part of the old [[Finnmark]] county.<ref name="snl5">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Troms og Finnmark |encyclopedia=[[Store norske leksikon]] |publisher=[[Kunnskapsforlaget]] |url=https://snl.no/Troms_og_Finnmark |access-date=2019-12-26 |date=2019-12-24 |editor-last=Mæhlum |editor-first=Lars |language=no}}</ref> On 1 January 2024, the [[Troms og Finnmark]] county was divided and the municipality once again became part of [[Finnmark]] county.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-05 |title=Fylkesinndelingen fra 2024 |url=https://www.regjeringen.no/no/tema/kommuner-og-regioner/kommunestruktur/fylkesinndelingen-fra-2024/id2922222/ |publisher=Regjeringen.no |language=no}}</ref>

===Name===
The municipality is named after the [[Vadsø (town)|town of Vadsø]]. The name of the town comes from the island [[Vadsøya]], since that was the original townsite. The [[Old Norse]] form of the name would be ''*Vazøy'', ''*Vatsøy'', ''*Vassøy''; the eldest references to the town show the forms ''Vasthøen'' (1520) and ''Vaadsøenn'' (1567).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Indrebø |first=Gustav |url=https://runeberg.org/namneverk/0161.html |title=Norsk namneverk |date=1927 |page=161}}</ref> The first element is the [[genitive case]] of {{wikt-lang|no|vatn}} which means "[[water]]" and the last element is {{wikt-lang|no|øy}} which means "[[island]]". Therefore, the meaning of the name is "the island with drinking water".<ref name="snl" />

===Coat of arms===
The [[coat of arms]] was granted on 20 February 1976. The official [[blazon]] is ''"[[Gules]], a reindeer's head [[couped]] [[argent]]"'' ({{langx|no|På rød bunn et hvitt reinbukkhode}}). This means the arms have a red [[field (heraldry)|field]] (background) and the [[charge (heraldry)|charge]] is the head of a [[reindeer]] stag. The reindeer head has a [[tincture (heraldry)|tincture]] of [[argent]] which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. [[Reindeer husbandry]] is common in the municipality and of great economic importance, especially important among the [[Sámi people|Sámi]] population. The reindeer also symbolizes freedom, strength, and endurance. The arms were designed by [[Hallvard Trætteberg]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civic heraldry of Norway - Norske Kommunevåpen |url=https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Vadsø |access-date=2023-01-23 |publisher=Heraldry of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Vadso, Finmark (Norway) |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/no-20-03.html |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=Flags of the World}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1976-02-20 |title=Godkjenning av våpen og flagg |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LF/forskrift/1976-02-20-3?q=flagg |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=Lovdata.no |publisher=Norges kommunal- og arbeidsdepartementet |language=no}}</ref> {{See also-text|The coats of arms of [[Eidfjord Municipality#Coat of arms|Eidfjord]], [[Porsanger Municipality#Coat of arms|Porsanger]], [[Rendalen Municipality#Coat of arms|Rendalen]], [[Tromsø Municipality#Coat of arms|Tromsø]], and [[Vågå Municipality#Coat of arms|Vågå]]}}

===Churches===
The [[Church of Norway]] has one parish ({{lang|no|sokn}}) within the municipality of Vadsø. It is part of the [[Varanger prosti]] ([[deanery]]) in the [[Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland]].

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ style="font-size:medium"|'''''Churches in Vadsø'''''
!Parish ({{lang|no|sokn}})!!Church name!!Location of the church!!Year built
|-
|rowspan="3"|Vadsø||[[Vadsø Church]]||[[Vadsø (town)|Vadsø]]||1958
|-
|[[Vestre Jakobselv Church]]||[[Vestre Jakobselv]]||1940
|-
|[[Skallelv Chapel]]||[[Skallelv]]||1961
|}