National Archives of the Faroe Islands National Archives of the Faroe Islands The National Archives of the Faroe Islands () are located in Tórshavn; they were established there in 1932 as a government archive. It is now the largest collection of documents in the country and has acquired educational and research functions. In 1932, the Danish government responded to the request of Faroese politicians and administrators to stop archiving documents in Denmark rather than in the Faroes. Government and military documents were however exempted. The archive was moved in 1972 to rooms in the Natural History Museum, including a reading room. In the 1980s they were
Faroe Islands "sýslur" (similar to the British "shire": Norðoyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vágar, Sandoy, and Suðuroy). Although today "sýsla" technically means "police district", the term is still commonly used to indicate a geographical region. In earlier times, each "sýsla" had its own assembly, the so-called "várting" ("spring assembly"). The Faroe Islands have been under Norwegian/Danish control since 1388. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel terminated the Danish-Norwegian union, and Norway came under the rule of the King of Sweden, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland remained Danish possessions. From ancient times the Faroe Islands had a parliament ("Løgting"), which was abolished in 1816,