Langenes village has a unique historical atmosphere. In the Middle Ages, Langenes was by far the larges village in Øksnes - and it is considered to be among Norway's most important fishing villages in its era - on a par with Andenes, Ingøy and Vardø. These vibrant fishing stations bustled with activity. About 1590 A.D. Langenes had 60 fisherman families, numbering probably some 300 people altogether. The buildings were located close together. Although they could not qualify as a city, they were by proportion large country towns at the ocean's edge. 

The historical side of Langenes village is keenly felt when one comes here today. The transitoriness of all things occurs to one while walking about in the course green grass on which not even remaining tofts from buildings are visible. But beneath the earth's surface, in a two-metre cultural stratum, lie the remains of a past culture, preserved from time immemorial up to the previous century.

Bailiff Erik Hansen Schønnebøl gives in his Lofoten og Vesteraalens beskriffuelse of 1591 a dramatic description of the hard living conditions here in the north:

"Frost and cold, hunger and thirst, storm and rain, hail and snow, scurvy and epidemics ashore and leprosy are here to be found among the common men, and much of it, as if it were God’s will. Pestilence comes less often, but intruth, the wild sea, its turbin waves and sharp spray are pestilence enough for poor people who live here. This is not a good place to be, God will advise it to all who have other options. God spare him who is wont to spend his time and age out in this desolated end of the earth, where the wailing and pitiful humiliation one sees and hears daily in this impoverished people causes a person to shed tears, unless his heart is made of stone. God be merciful to us poor sinners, for Jesus’ names’ sake."

Today the village of Stø has taken over from Langenes as an active fishing village. The harbour is well sheltered inside an extensive breakwater construction.