Hammerfest: the world's northernmost town

Claiming the title of world's northernmost city, Hammerfest houses the Struve Meridian, a UNESCO World Heritage site used to measure the Earth.

The center, among the world's most northern, is comfortably explored on foot despite the Arctic climate.

The Struve Meridian, a UNESCO World Heritage site, marks the point where in the nineteenth century one of the first precise scientific measurements of Earth's circumference began.

A few steps away, Hammerfest Church, rebuilt in modern style after Nazi destruction in World War II, remains a symbol of the city's rebirth.

Continuing along the port, visitors discover the Reconstruction Museum, which recounts how the entire city was razed to the ground by retreating Germans in 1944 and subsequently completely rebuilt.

In winter months, the Northern Lights remain visible with good frequency above Hammerfest thanks to its position well beyond the Arctic Circle.

Hammerfest was completely razed to the ground by retreating German troops in 1944, the only Norwegian city entirely destroyed during the war, and rebuilt from zero in the postwar period.

The Struve Meridian, a chain of measurement stations spanning ten European countries, allowed nineteenth-century geodesists to calculate the shape and size of the Earth with precision for the first time in history.