Flateyri

Flateyri is a village in the municipality Ísafjarðarbær in the Westfjords of Iceland.

Location

The town lies on the north bank of Önundarfjörður on a peninsula in the fjord and was on 1 Jan.2011 237 inhabitants. The village is dominated by the 660 meter high mountain Eyrarfjall.

Transport links

Transport links to Flateyri in former times was not easy in the winter. Then carried out mainly by sea, the fit of the Breiðadalsheiði direction Isafjordur was this time of year difficult passable.

However Flateyri since 1996 by a total of over 9 km long tunnel Vestfjarðagöng, the longest tunnel in Iceland, connected to the northerly city of Isafjordur, which now also belongs to the same community. To the south, connecting roads 64 and 60 via the pass of Gemlufallsheiði Flateyri with the fishing Þingeyri on Dýrafjörður.

Name

The name means Flateyri shallow sandbar and refers to the same, on which the village was built. Many places in the Westfjords of Iceland lead Eyri in the name and were built on sandbars below the often very steep mountain walls in the fjords see also Hesteyri, Þingeyri, Hrafnseyri etc.

The sandbar is on the Flateyri, consists of boulder clay and Moränenresten the Ice Age glaciers and was subsequently eroded by the sea and further shaped.

History

In 1792 Flateyri was founded as a trading center and a branch of the larger marketplace Þingeyri.

Shark fishing

It was not until about 100 years later, however, formed a real village. This happened in the context of fisheries, especially the shark catch. As in other places on Iceland's north and west coast you went out in rowing boats and small sailing boats to catch the Greenland shark, which today is considered a delicacy in Iceland. In 1900, then about 200 people in Flateyri were established.

Whaling

Around the same time, more precisely in 1889, founded the Norwegian Hans Ellefsen in Flateyri one stop for whaling and processing. This factory burned down in 1901, however, and the company was then moved to the East Fjords of Iceland.

1912 began a German company, to operate fish processing on the former site Ellefsens. This was adopted by Icelanders later.

The house of the Norwegian H. Ellefsen

His large house sold Ellefsen at this time to Hannes Hafstein, Iceland first internal head of government, then under Danish rule. Hannes Hafstein tore down the house, transported to Reykjavík and build it in the Tjarnargata in Reykjavík city center. There it still stands today and is used by the respective Icelandic government under the name Ráðherrabústað for Council meetings etc..

Avalanche danger

The winter of 1995 proved to be a particularly snowy. This results in some serious avalanche accidents resulted in Iceland. Thus dissolved on 26 October 1995 from the Eyrarfjall above the village Flatey a large avalanche. Under it, 45 people were buried, of whom 25 were rescued in difficult circumstances, but 20 died. Many houses were destroyed. A documentary by Einar Þór Gunnlaugsson of 2010 about the events and the bailout also mentions that because of the difficult weather conditions and transport links - a compound of Isafjordur through a tunnel did not exist - initially set for 5 hours the people in Flateyri on itself were.

Now have more avalanche avalanches derived from the village. On the barriers is a viewing platform.

Management and Services

The harbor was gradually expanded, and the inhabitants of Flateyri still live mainly on fishing. After less and less profitable this, many commute by tunnel to Isafjordur to work.

In Flateyri are kindergarten and overall school and medical care, gas station, restaurant, guest house and sports facilities with swimming pool.

Church

The local church was consecrated in 1936 and is made of concrete. Of note are the stained glass windows of Leif Breidfjord. The main altar painting is by Brynjólfur Þórðarson.