Kirkenes

Kirkenes
Clockwise from top left: Lionsgate University campus, St. Jude Market, view of downtown skyline, Exhibition Gate, Caron Street, sunset view of Melbourne Square and the Panopti Tower.
Province Country	Noua Cymru  Kelssek
Population City Metro area	7,725,958 18,720,500 (1st)
Time zone	Kelssek Coastal Time (+8 UTC; +9 UTC in summer)
Area codes	046, 215, 397 637, 447, 730, 915 (metro)

Kirkenes is a city in Noua Cymru on the coast of the Northwest Pacific Ocean. It is the most populous city in Kelssek and the centre of its largest metropolitan area, Greater Kirkenes, which has a population of over 18.7 million people. Kirkenes is a major international centre for finance, education, culture, and transportation. The city is home to several universities, influential cultural institutions, Kelssek’s main stock exchange, and the country’s largest concentration of private sector corporate headquarters. Its cosmopolitan, multicultural character, famous landmarks like the 540-metre tall Panopti Tower, and its numerous cultural events make it a major tourist attraction.

Geography

Central Kirkenes lies between the valleys of two rivers, the Dawn and Torbett. Large sections of the ravines are preserved as parks and green space. The city centre is ringed by a green belt established in 1969.

The city’s location and climate result from warm offshore ocean currents and a natural harbour, which is both the largest and most reliably ice-free port in the region. The earliest settlement was built around Winter Harbour, which is the oldest part of the city. The city has a humid continental climate with an average annual snowfall of 120.9 cm and rainfall of 784 mm.

Kirkenes suffered serious air pollution problems in the mid-20th century, giving it its nickname "The Smoke". While it still has the occasional smog day, the problem is largely a thing of the past thanks to aggressive measures to improve public transportation, and a nationwide moratorium on coal-burning which took effect in 1995.

Arts and culture

Media, television and film production are major industries in the city. The Kelssek Broadcasting Corporation's largest studio complex and master control point for its English-language programming is located in Kirkenes. Kirkenes is also the headquarters of the private television and cable networks TV12, NxTel, Maxi, United Kelssek Cable, and the Noua Cymru public broadcaster TVNC.

A number of major newspapers and magazines are published in Kirkenes. Among the broadsheets, the Kirkenes Courier, the city’s main daily newspaper, the National Independent, and the Economic Review are daily newspapers which have nationwide coverage and readership. Two mainstays of tabloid press are headquartered in the city with the People's World News Daily often publishing stories which take supernatural and conspiracy theory beliefs seriously, while the Kirkenes Express is a byword for something which is popular but also utter trash. Voice is the main alternative weekly and is historically known for its role in the late-century counterculture. The city also gives its name to the highbrow Kirkenes Journal literary magazine.

With its economic and cultural weight, the city looms large in the perceptions of anglophone Kelssek and is often viewed with ambivalence. On the one hand it is the centre of economic opportunities, international linkage, and is where many of the country’s most prestigious firms and institutions are. But Kirkenes is also stereotyped as boring, expensive, full of conservatives, capitalists, and cultural elites, and its centrality is resented to an almost gleeful extent. The fact that it was a royalist stronghold during the Revolution is one reason for this.

Transportation

Public transportation in Kirkenes is extensive and reliable, run by the Transport Commission of Kirkenes, an agency of the city government. The T-Comm network includes subway, trams, and suburban light rail.

The city has three main stations for inter-city rail. Union Station is the terminal of the metropolitan area’s Konnex Transit commuter rail network and is used by Velocit high-speed services. Redfearn Station in the northwest part of downtown is the main station for westbound services operated by Noua Cymru Rail. Trains to the north and east use Rosedale Station.

Kirkenes Malton Airport is the city’s main international airport, and is the busiest airport in Kelssek in terms of number of passengers with over 66 million passengers using the airport each year. Layton Memorial Airport, located on an island adjacent to the downtown core, is restricted to turboprop flights but is popular with business travellers for its convenient location. Port Kirkenes is the busiest seaport in Kelssek by cargo volume.

Universities

Kirkenes is an important city for higher education and research. The University of Kirkenes and Lionsgate University are both are part of the U10 group of research universities. In addition, Glendon University's faculty of law is regularly considered among the country's best. In addition to the universities listed here, the Bluete Institute located in the adjacent city of Aurora is an important centre for theoretical physics research.

• Glendon University
• Lionsgate University - One of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Kelssek.
• Noua Cymru Institute of Art and Design - Known as NCIAD for short.
• Nilan University
• Pearson University
• St. David's University
• University of Kirkenes - An elite research university which attracts the most research funding of any Kelssek university.
• University of Noua Cymru
  • Penfield Institute for Health Sciences - A research institution which awards post-graduate degrees only.

Sports

Several professional sports teams are based in Kirkenes, which has at least one team in the top-level competition for each of the country’s four most popular sports. Exhibition Place stadium is the primary home venue of the Kelssek national football team and hosted the final of the Cygnus Cup.

Professional sports teams