Hella, Iceland

Hella is a place in the south of Iceland in the community Rangárþing Ytra. On 1 January 2010, the city had 785 inhabitants.

Geography

Hella is on the river Ytri - Rangá, about 15 km west of Hvolsvöllur and about 25 km east of Selfoss.

Name

The name means to German cave. This is because in the place actually are several caves in the banks of the river.

They are associated with Irish monks, hermits, also here in these caves - such as to have lived on the island Papey at Djúpivogur or in the Westman Islands. On the other hand, also could not be assigned on the basis of archaeological finds this tradition.

Today the caves are often used as storage rooms, located one of them in the south of the ring road, and even serves as a garage.

Service center

Hella was created as a service center for the local farmers, and this is today. However, playing at the beginning of the 21st century tourism is a growing role.

One can find supermarkets, gas stations, a hotel and a swimming pool. Even a primary school located in the village.

On the site Gaddstaðaflatir Hella took place in the summer of 2004 and 2009, the state competition for Iceland horse named Landsmót instead.

In July, an annual festival called Töðugjöld takes place.

Earthquake

As the place in covered in crevasses south of the country lies, he was sometimes drawn in strong earthquake hit. One of the two earthquakes of the year was 2000 ( magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale) its epicenter very close. Some damage incurred while on roads and houses. The earthquake of 2008 felt it, though the epicentres were further west.

Traffic

Hella is situated on Hringvegur, the main traffic artery of the country.