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Sørvágur is a village on the island of Vágar in the Faroe Islands. It is located at the landward end of Sørvágsfjørður. Sørvágur is the largest village in Sørvágur Municipality. [edit] History
Between the years of 1200 and 1400 the village moved from its first settlements alongside the river Hanusará and further south between the rivers of Stórá and Kirkjuá. Historical records from 17th century show, that the original settlement alongside Hanusará was abandoned, and the village was moved firmly to the new location between the two main rivers in Sørvág. The main reason for this was probably that the weather conditions between the two rivers are far superior to other places in Sørvág. The first written record regarding Sørvág is from 1584. The record shows that there were only three small farms in Sørvág at that time. This coincides very well with the fact, that the land belonging to Sørvág is divided into three parts: Suðurtriðingur, Norðurtriðingur and Úttriðingur. From the 15th century to the late 17th century the Norwegian nobles the Benkenstock family owned all the land in Sørvág. Around 1665 a Dane – Severin Fohrman – bought all the land from the Benkenstock's and immediately started to sell it back to the locals. This meant that almost all the land in Sørvág is private property (óðalsjørð) instead of belonging to the king (kongsjørð). Using the "Land Books" (Jarðarbøkur) it is speculated, that the number of inhabitants in Sørvág in the 17th century was around fifty. In the first census in the Faroes in 1801 the number of inhabitants in Sørvág had risen to a mere 86. In 1855 the number of inhabitants was 163. The reason for this slow progress is due to the special requirements for marriage, that were law in the Faroes. The law said, that in order to marry you would need to own land or have demonstrated that you were a faithful servant to someone who owned land. It was only the wealthy farmers who had a substantial amount of land, and therefore the birthrate in the Faroes was very low until this law was abolished. During the feudal period, it was only the big farmers who had a fishing boat. The first person in the Faroes, who did not own any land, and got his own fishing boat, came from Sørvág. His name was Gamli Dávur. During the Sloop period Sørvágur had many sloops. The church in Sørvágur is from 1886. The first fish factory in the Faroe Islands was built in Sørvágur in 1952. The locals from Sørvágur formed a part of the backbone of fishermen, who went to Greenland to fish. Faroese fishermen were instrumental in teaching the inhabitants of Greenland to do deepsea fishing. In the period 1902–1912, there was a whaling station in the nearby bay of Selvík [edit] World War IIDuring World War II Sørvágur was home to the British Royal Engineers, who lived at Uppi á Mýrum. They built all the main infrastructure in Sørvágur including Vágar Airport, the harbour in Sørvág, Niðaraveg (the main road to the harbour) and several bridges. To accomplish this they had to move entire houses to other locations. [edit] Research Tips
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