Borgarnes
The city Borgarnes (Eng. " rocky peninsula " ) is located on Borgarfjorður in the Icelandic community Borgarbyggð in the region Vesturland.
On 1 January 2011 the town had 1,763 inhabitants. With its shops and shopping malls, schools and offices as well as a health center of the city forms the hub of the region.
History and Sagas
The area has been inhabited since the Conquest period. At this time, the peninsula on which now stands the town, called Digranes.
The sources are the land acquisition book, but also the sagas.
So Borgarnes is considered the hometown of poet and hero Saga Egill Skallagrímsson, the player has placed monuments in several sculptural works. The best known was created by Ásmundur Sveinsson and stands in front of the hamlet of Borg á Mýrum, because there is Egill have lived. Egils adventures are recorded in the Egils saga. His father Skalla - Grímur was loud Conquest book to the first settlers of the area and was the most influential.
The place Borgarnes itself is based on a commercial center and a fish processing. Thus, the first houses of the village of Scots James Richie were built in 1857 in the Englendingavík to process salmon. In the area of Borgarnes there are many salmon rivers. The best known are Norðurá ( Mýrar ) and Grímsá.
From 1929 they built in Borgarnes a port. It was an important junction. They drove up to the building of the bridge by boat to Borgarnes and from there by car on.
The church in the village dates from 1959, and before that in á Borg Mýrum was also used by the people of Borgarnes as such.
The formerly independent municipality Borgarnes ( Isl Borgarnesbær ) was formed from the 11th June of 1994 with the three rural communities Norðurárdalur ( Norðurárdalshreppur ) Stafholtstunga ( Stafholtstungnahreppur ) and Hraun ( Hraunhreppur ) the new community Borgarbyggð.
Culture and sights
In the small park Skallagrímsgarður which is lovingly cared for by the students of the local schools in summer work, you can see the grave of Skallagrímur Kveldúlfsson, the first settlers of the area, as well as a sculpture of his son Egill Skallagrímsson with the drowned son Böðvar on the arms.
Between Park and named after Egills nanny Brákarey island, which is connected by bridge to the mainland, the Museum Settlement Centre is located ( Landnámssetrið ). As the name says, it clearly shows the history of the colonization of Iceland. Another permanent exhibition dedicated Egill Skallagrímsson. Headphones explain the exhibitions in various languages, including in German. The museum director, actor and musician Kjartan Ragnarsson is the son of the sculptor Ragnar Kjartansson, who came from Staðarstadur on Snæfellsnes and among other things, the local sculpture of the medieval scholar Ari Fróði created - and the brother of the painter and sculptor Inga Ragnarsdóttir who lives in Kempten im Allgäu. On the top floor of the museum is a popular cabaret theater where mainly scenes from the sagas of the area, about the Egilssaga were acting implemented or recited, among other things, the Sturlungar saga by the writer Einar Kárason.
In various places in Borgarnes and environment that are associated with scenes from the Egilssaga, you have placed cairns, eg on Brákarsund and the campground, where according Saga Egills father wanted to kill the son in fit of rage after losing a ball game.
When the coast from Landnámssetrið to the north ( right) follows, you come to a peculiar playground called Bjössaróló. It is one of the first known cases of recycling in Iceland. The craftsman Björn Gudmundsson created his own design the original play equipment such as swings, forts etc. using recycled materials or recycltem material.
A little further north is the small bay Englendingavík. There you have restored the old trading houses from the 19th century. They once belonged to the Kaupfélag Borgfirðinga and in them the German puppeteer and builder Bernd Ogrodnik has set up a puppet named Museumn Brúðuheimur. He there built a puppet theater.
Transport links
The city is reached from the direction of Reykjavík on the Hringvegur on the second longest bridge in the country. The bridge measures 520 m and crosses the Borgarfjörður. It was put into service in 1980.
Borgarnes is a transport hub. The Hringvegur provides the connection to the north to Akureyri, it may be considered also in the West Fjords To the south is approximately 65 km from the capital Reykjavik. To the west you can north of Borgarnes turn onto the road 54, the Snæfellsnesvegur. To the north- east, however, there are several ways to access the Reykholtsdalur and continue to Húsafell and Langjökull. From Húsafell again it's all about highland slopes on the plateau of the Arnarvatnsheiði with its many fishing lakes or on the slopes Kaldidalur to Þingvellir.
For tourists, the city is also suitable as a base for trips to Snæfellsnes.
Numerous bus services run to Reykjavík, Akureyri and further to the west of the country after Snæfellsnes and Ísarfjörður.
Management and Services
The city represents an economic and service center for the west of Iceland
It has numerous shops, hotels and restaurants. Many smaller craft are in Borgarnes.
But you will also find several kindergartens, a comprehensive school ( Grunnskóli ) and a secondary school ( Menntaskóli ), a retirement home, a health center with medical care, offices and other administrative bodies.
There are also sports courts and a swimming pool, a golf course and riding stables.
Iceland is on its way to becoming an offshoot of Hollywood. So 200 jobs when shooting for the new film of actor Ben Stiller were in September 2012 temporarily created The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, among other things, was added to Borgarnes and near Grundarfjörður.
Water supply
The water supply in Borgarnes is something special. The cold water comes in part from the Hafnarfjall and from there under the bridge over the fjord Borgarfjorður, partly from the area of Bifrost, the hot water is directed over 35 km from the source Deildartunguhver to Borgarnes.
Twinning
- Denmark drag Holm, Denmark
- Sweden Falkenberg, Sweden
- Leirvík, Faroe Islands
- Phitihupudas Finland, Finland
- Ullensaker Norway, Norway
Sons and daughters of the city
- Egill Skallagrímsson (910 - ca.990 )
- Veturliði Óskarsson ( b. 1958 ), philologist
- Gisli Einarsson, Journalist