Hvalba

Hvalba [ kvalba ] ( old spelling Hvalbø, literally " Wal- field") is a place of the Faroe Islands in the north of the east coast of Suðuroy.

To commune Hvalba include the place Sandvík very north of the South Island and the offshore uninhabited island Lítla Dímun. Together, the municipality had the end of 2002 just 767 inhabitants. Geographically Hvalba lies on a 2 km narrow isthmus, Norðbergseiði, and has both access to the West and to the East Coast of the island. The real estate is located around the bay on Hvalbiarfjørður on the east coast. The football club of Hvalba is Royn Hvalba.

Economy

As the village name suggests Hvalba (Wal - field), this sweeping sandy bay is an ideal place for the grindadráp, which shall be conducted only in locations where the pilot whales can be angestrandet. According frequently appeared Hvalba in the statistics over the pilot whales in the Faroe Islands through the centuries as one of the league leaders.

The second part of the name comes from Bøur ( farmed field, Innmark ). In fact Hvalba has one of the largest agricultural areas of the Faroe Islands, and the local farmers are considered particularly hard.

A third economic factor was in the past, the lignite mining south of Hvalba since the 1770s, which is still played an important role in the entire country during the Second World War during the British occupation of the Faroe Islands. The greatest annual production in 1958 reached 18,000 tons. Still work in the mines four miners who are paid by the state. Every year they produce about 1000 tons of coal. Almost all of the coal for the rest of Faroe Islands was shipped from Hvalba from.

The coal seams are very low powerful and the only fossil energy sources of the Faroe Islands.

According to the economic importance Hvalba is not only relatively strong population, but 1963 was also connected as the first place of the Faroe Islands with a road tunnel (after Trongisvágur / Tvøroyri ). In 1969, the second tunnel to Sandvík.

History and Sights

The last still operating coal mine in the Faroe Islands can be visited a few kilometers south of Hvalba.

As in any place in the Faroe Islands, it is also available in Hvalba a monument to the sailors who lost their lives at sea. It stands on the edge of the road to Sandvík. On it the names of four miners are noted, the casualties in the lignite mines of Hvalba 1835, 1944, 1946 and 1957 respectively.

The church is worth seeing.

Hvalba / NES and Stóra Dímun

Mouth hole of a former mine

Memorial to accident mountain and seafarers