Editing Vardø Municipality (section)

==History==
[[File:Everythingisastory.jpg|thumb|left|Street art in the old town]]
[[File:Ostervaagen.jpg|thumb|left|Old houses in Østervågen]]
Vardø has a long settlement history before it was granted status as a town in 1789. Several stone-age sites as well as sites dating from the Sami Iron Age are known on the island. In the Medieval period, Vardø's importance grew as a result of it being the easternmost stronghold of the then-expanding Norwegian royal power. A church was built in Vardø in 1307, and the first fortress was established at about the same time. Thick cultural layers in the southeastern part of the town, Østervågen, document continuous habitation in this area reaching back at least some 800 years.

Even if the presence of the fortress and king's bailiff gave Vardø a certain degree of permanence and stability not experienced by other fishing communities in Finnmark, the town's size and importance waxed and waned with the changing fortunes of the fisheries. In the mid-16th century Vardø had a population of 400 to 500 people. By 1789, however, it had reduced to about 100.

In the 17th century, Vardø was the center of a great number of [[Witch-hunt|witchcraft trials]]. More than 90 persons, Norwegian and Sami, were given death sentences. They are commemorated in the [[Steilneset Memorial]].

In 1769, the Hungarian astronomer [[Maximilian Hell]] and his assistant [[János Sajnovics]], delegated by [[Christian VII of Denmark]], traveled to Vardø to observe the [[Transit of Venus]].

After 1850, the town saw a marked expansion. The fisheries grew in importance, and so did the [[Pomor trade]] with Russia's White Sea region. In 1850 the population reached 400, and in 1910 it passed 3 000.

During World War II, with Norway occupied by the German ''Wehrmacht'', Vardø was heavily bombed by Allied, mostly Russian forces. Most of the town center was destroyed, and the population was evacuated. After the war, the city center was completely reconstructed, but older, traditional houses survived in the periphery, such as in the old town in Østervågen.

As of 2017, the fishing industry had collapsed. From 1995 to 2017, the population shrank by 50 percent to 2,100 people. In May 2017 work to lay a new electric cable from the Norwegian mainland to the island began. The additional electricity is needed to power the American-funded [[GLOBUS]] space surveillance system, located about 40 miles from Russia's Kola Peninsula, a territory studded with high-security naval bases and restricted military zones. The secrecy surrounding the radar systems has spawned fears that officials are covering up health hazards and other possible dangers. The electromagnetic pulses the current radar system emits interfere with television and radio reception, and some residents have blamed them for a rash of miscarriages and cancer cases in a civilian district next to the fenced-in security zone.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Higgins |first=Andrew |date=2017-06-14 |title=On a Tiny Norwegian Island, America Keeps an Eye on Russia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/europe/arctic-norway-russia-radar.html |access-date=2018-05-27 |work=New York Times}}</ref>

The town was selected as the [[millennium site]] for Finnmark county.