Lebesby
Encyclopedia
Lebesby is a municipality
Municipalities of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 in Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...

 county
Counties of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kjøllefjord
Kjøllefjord
Kjøllefjord is the largest village in the northwestern part of Nordkinn Peninsula in the municipality of Lebesby, Norway, located on the shore of a small fjord of the same name, which empties into Laksefjord....

. Lebesby is also the name of a village in the municipality.

Lebesby was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt
Formannskapsdistrikt
Formannskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837...

). The areas of Tana, Berlevåg
Berlevåg
is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Berlevåg. Berlevåg was separated from the municipality of Tana to form a municipality of its own on 1 July 1913....

, and Polmak
Polmak
Polmak is a village and a former municipality in Finnmark county in Norway. It is located in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Tana...

 were transferred from Lebesby to the municipality of Nesseby
Nesseby
Unjárga or Nesseby is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Varangerbotn....

 in 1846. Gamvik
Gamvik
is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Mehamn. The municipality of Gamvik was separated from Tana on 1 July 1913....

 was transferred from Lebesby to Tana in 1864.

The municipality consists of the western half of the Nordkinn Peninsula
Nordkinn Peninsula
Nordkinn Peninsula is a peninsula in Finnmark, in northern Norway. Settlement is mostly concentrated on the northern shores and at the base of the peninsula. The main towns are Mehamn, Gamvik and Kjøllefjord. The Slettnes lighthouse near Gamvik is the northernmost lighthouse in mainland Europe.-...

, along with areas around the Laksefjord. Most people live in Kjøllefjord. This municipality is dominated by ethnic Norwegians, whereas the areas around the Laksefjord are predominantly Sami
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...

. Fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 is the mainstay of the population.

Name

Lebesby is probably a Norwegianized form of a Sámi
Northern Sami
Northern or North Sami is the most widely spoken of all Sami languages. The speaking area of Northern Sami covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland...

 name Leaibbessiida. The first element is then derived from leaibi which means "alder
Alder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...

" and the last element is siida which means "dwelling place" .

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is from modern times. They were granted on 22 July 1988. The arms are divided yellow over black by two embattlements
Line (heraldry)
The lines of partition used to divide and vary fields and charges in heraldry are by default straight, but may have many different shapes. Care must sometimes be taken to distinguish these types of lines from the extremely unusual and non-traditional use of lines as charges, and to distinguish...

. The idea is that the arms represent a cliff
Cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

 by the sea in the municipality, Finnkirka, ("the Finn Church"). This cliff formation has the appearance of a church, and in former times was used by Sami people as a place of sacrifice.

Attractions

At the entrance to the Kjøllefjord, one finds the spectacular seacliff of Finnkirka, so named because of its soaring spires. The cape of Kinnarodden (shared with the municipality of Gamvik) is the northernmost point on the European mainland.

Birdlife

The same seacliffs mentioned above hold large numbers of breeding seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

s. In fact Norway's third largest seabird colony can be found in the municipality. Experiencing a seabird colony is one of nature's great experiences, here you can see and listen to thousands of birds with such species as Fulmar
Fulmar
Fulmars are seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family consists of two extant species and two that are extinct.-Taxonomy:As members of Procellaridae and then the order Procellariiformes, they share certain traits. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called...

 and Atlantic Puffin
Atlantic Puffin
The Atlantic Puffin is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic during the breeding season is its brightly coloured bill...

 being a part of a fascinating ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

.
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