Porkeri

About the village

Porkeri is a village and municipality on Suðuroy. The village lies on the east coast of the island on the northern edge of Vágsfirði.

The first mention of the Village appears is in Hundabrævið (letter on dog keeping) around 1350, mentioning a sheepdog in Porkeri.

There are different theories about the etymology of the name “Porkeri”. The most famous one being that the first man to settle in Porkeri went on to cultivate the land and found sows (“purkur” in Faroese) in the topsoil. According to legend, the chieftain of Hovi, Hovgrímur, had a pig farm in this spot. This is why he named the place Purkurgerði (roughly translated to field of sows), which later became Porkeri.

The church in Porkeri was built in 1847. It stands in the old part of the cemetery where older churches have have been standing for centuries. The church is built with wood and the roof is covered with sod. Other old buildings stand in Porkeri which are owned by the village museum. These include the old school and the old district, í Eystrum, which consists of a shed for drying corn, a byre and a residential building.