Skagaströnd

65.823611111111 - 20.306944444444Koordinaten: 65 ° 49 'N, 20 ° 18' W

Skagaströnd ( Isl Sveitarfélagið Skagaströnd ) is vestra an Icelandic community in the region Norðurland. On 1 January 2009 the municipality had 521 inhabitants.

Geography

Skagaströnd is on the Skagi peninsula and at the same time on the eastern shore of the bay Húnaflói in northern Iceland. To the north and south is the municipality of Skagabyggð, east of the Skagafjordur.

The now eponymous capital of the province, an important fishing center, located in a bay below the mountain Spákonufell and the basalt rock formation called Spákonufellshöfði (Eng. " fortune tellers promontory "). Therefore, he was called in former times also Höfðakaupstaður.

Name

The name (German beach of peninsula beach Skagi or more accurately ) referred first to the coast on the bay Húnaflói from the river Laxa á Refasveit to the tip of the peninsula Skagi. Here were in the past, numerous winter fishing villages ( Isl verstöðvar ).

The name of the mountain Spákonufell and in a way so that the old name of the town stem from a folk tale to dergemäß the fortune teller Þórdís in the yard Spákonufell below the mountain of the same name established in the 10th century would have. Both were named after her so. It is also in the Icelandic sagas, for example, mentioned in the Vatsndæla saga, where she becomes entangled in wizard struggles with Guðmundur Riki from Möðruvellir. Also in the collection of folk tales Jón Arnason find several legends about them, eg with respect to a hidden treasure in the mountains.

History

Probably already the Englishman and the Hanseatic merchants here have driven trade in the 15th and 16th centuries. However, they were expelled after the establishment of the Danish trade monopoly in 1602. At this time happened to the royal command that the people from the Húnavatnssýsla as well as from the western Skagafjordur should make only with the Danish merchants in Skagaströnd shops. Initially, this was back from summer only, until the early 18th century are permanent buildings occupied and off since Danish merchants also lived locally.

The town flourished as the whole of Iceland in the 19th century slowly. First, under the Kaufmann Christian G. Schram, later among traders Bergmann and Hildebrandt, with the late 19th century arose also competition. This was exacerbated when in Blönduós Sauðárkrókur and shops were built.

With the beginning of the 20th century rose in Skagaströnd an increasing extent in fishing and fish processing, which have since been the main industries in the town. Already in the years of the First World War, but also in the 1920s and 1930s, the fishing grounds in the Húnaflói were awarded so that you can sometimes up to 80 ships at the same time saw fishing. From the 1920s, the port of the city was expanded after the second world war even further. In the years 1944 and 1946, a cold and a herring factory were built. But the herring remained after the 1960s from largely. Despite further upswing in the 1970s, it was not possible so far except fishing and processing anzuziehen.Man still larger employers now sets but also on tourism, such as the Wild West Tavern Kántrýbær.

Population

The population was broadly flat in recent years.

• 2005: 547 inhabitants
• 2009: 521 inhabitants
• 2011: 530 inhabitants