Ísafjörður (pronounced , meaning ''ice fjord'', literally ''fjord of ices'') is a town in the northwest of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. The oldest part of Ísafjörður with the town centre is located on a spit of sand, or ''eyri'', in Skutulsfjörður, a fjord which meets the waters of the larger fjord Ísafjarðardjúp. With a population of about 2,600, Ísafjörður is the largest settlement in the peninsula of Vestfirðir ( Westfjords) and the administration centre of the

Ísafjarðarbær Ísafjarðarbær () is a municipality of Iceland in the Westfjords region, created in 1996 from Flateyrarhreppur, Ísafjarðarkaupstaður, Mosvallahreppur, Mýrahreppur, Suðureyrarhreppur and Þingeyrarhreppur. Geography The principal settl ...

municipality, which includes—besides Ísafjörður—the nearby villages of Hnífsdalur,

Flateyri Flateyri ( Icelandic: ) is a village situated in Iceland's Westfjords. It is part of the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær and has a population of approximately 200, making it the largest settlement in Önundarfjörður. History Flateyri has been ...

Suðureyri Suðureyri () is a small Icelandic fishing village perched on the tip of the 13 km-long Súgandafjörður in the Westfjords. The community was isolated for years by the huge mountains and rough road that led over them. Now it is connected to ...

, and

Þingeyri Þingeyri (, regionally also ) is a settlement in the municipality of Ísafjarðarbær, Iceland. It is located on the coast of Dýrafjörður fjord in the mountainous peninsula Westfjords (in Icelandic written Vestfirðir). On 1 January 2019, i ...

History

According to the Landnámabók (the book of settlement), Skutulsfjörður was first settled by Helgi Magri Hrólfsson in the 9th century. In the 16th century, the town grew as it became a trading post for foreign merchants. Witch trials were common around the same time throughout the Westfjords, and many people were banished to the nearby peninsula of Hornstrandir, now a national nature reserve. The town of Ísafjörður was granted municipal status in 1786. The former Danish trading post ''Neðstikaupstaður'', established in the 18th century, contains the oldest collection of timber frame houses in Iceland. These include ''Krambúð'' (1757), ''Faktorshús'' (1765), now the Danish consulate, ''Tjöruhúsið'' (1781), now a restaurant, and the site of the Westfjords Heritage Museum ''Turnhúsið'' (1784)

Geography and climate

The Westfjords are known to be the coolest area in Iceland at sea level. Ísafjörður has a tundra climate (Köppen climate classification: ET), closely bordering on either a dry-summer subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification: Dsc) or a cold-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csc), depending on if you use the 0 °C isotherm or the -3 °C isotherm. The climate is characterised by cold winters and cool summers. The warmest month is July with the mean temperature of ; the wettest is November with of precipitation. The climate has significantly warmed in recent years due to the effects of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. As the rest of Iceland, Ísafjörður experiences high winds and very few clear days throughout all the year.

Overview

The town is connected by road and a

road tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

Bolungarvík Bolungarvík (, regionally also ) is a small town and the only built-up area in the municipality of Bolungarvíkurkaupstaður in the northwest of Iceland, located on the Westfjords peninsula, approximately from the town of Ísafjörður and from ...

which lies to the northwest, and to the village of

Súðavík Súðavík () is a fishing village and municipality (Súðavíkurhreppur ) on the west coast of Álftafjörður in Westfjords, Iceland. History On January 16, 1995, an avalanche fell on the village early in the morning (around 6:25 am) and destr ...

to the east. The partly one-lane

Vestfjarðagöng Vestfjarðagöng (, regionally also , "Westfjords Tunnel") is the longest tunnel in Iceland, located in Westfjords in northwestern Iceland. It has a length of and was opened in September 1996. The tunnel has three entrances and the three arms ...

(Vestfirðir Tunnel), completed in 1996, leads to the towns of

and Suðureyri, and to the western parts of the Westfjords. Ísafjörður has an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

with regular flights to

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

. Fishing has been the main industry in Ísafjörður, and the town has one of the largest fisheries in Iceland. A severe decline in the fishing industry for a variety of reasons, such as fishing restrictions in the early 1980s, and a decline in the fish population, has led the inhabitants to seek work elsewhere, leading to a decline in the town's population. The harbor also serves ferries to nearby settlements as well as larger cruise ships for tourists visiting the area. The tourist industry is growing; it is a major access point to the nature reserve on the Hornstrandir Peninsula, an uninhabited wilderness area to which ferries run weekly during summer. Despite its size, small population, and historical isolation from the rest of the country, the town has a relatively urban atmosphere. Ísafjörður has a school of music, as well as a hospital. The older former hospital building now accommodates a cultural center with a library and showrooms. Recently, the small town has become known in the country as a center for alternative music outside of Iceland. A yearly festival, Aldrei fór ég suður, provides a platform for local musicians and bands from around Iceland and even from overseas. A university center, Háskólasetur Vestfjarða, which acts as a distance learning center for the 7000 residents of the Westfjords, was established in March 2005.

Education

Ísafjörður is the home to the University Centre of the Westfjords. The University Centre offers four master's degree programs: Coastal & Marine Management,

Icelandic language Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic lan ...

, Coastal Communities and Regional Development, and Marine Innovation. Students graduate from the University of Akureyri. The only gymnasium located in the Westfjords, Menntaskólinn á Ísafirði, is in Ísafjörður. The students range from 16 to 20 years of age, as is traditional in Icelandic gymnasia.

Business

Major employers in the region include Arctic Fish, Hraðfrystihúsið-Gunnvör, Íslandssaga, Klofningur, Orkubú Vestfjarða and Skaginn 3X. Ísafjörður is also the base of several noteworthy start-up companies including Fossadalur and Kerecis.

Culture

The town hosts varied and widely popular events, in the realms of both culture and outdoor recreation. These events include, but are not limited to: *The Ski Week Festival * Aldrei fór ég suður music festival * Fossavatnsgangan cross country skiing competition *European Swampsoccer Championships *Act Alone – a theatre festival dedicated to the art of acting alone, monodrama, held in August every year * Westfjords Heritage Museum

Annual music festivals

Aldrei fór ég suður – Ísafjörður Rock Festival In 2002, Ísafjörður's own Mugison (a.k.a. Örn Elías Guðmundsson) and his father organized the first Aldrei fór ég suður Music Festival as a free concert to support the burgeoning music community in Ísafjörður. The event has been established as an annual festival in mid April. The name ''Aldrei fór ég suður'' (I never went south) is taken from a

Bubbi Morthens 260 px, Bubbi Morthens, Laugardalsvöllur, Iceland (2007) Bubbi Morthens (full name ''Ásbjörn Kristinsson Morthens''; born 6 June 1956) is an Icelandic-Danish-Norwegian singer and songwriter. Aside from a lengthy solo career, he has been a me ...

song of the same name, and may refer to a movement among young Icelanders to establish cultural events outside Reykjavík, and draw attention back to the nation's roots in the countryside. The festival's subtitle is "''rokkhátið alþýðunnar''" or "rock festival for the people." Við Djúpið Music Festival From 2001 through 2014, the Við Djúpið Music Festival offered master classes and concerts with nationwide and worldwide known artists, such as

Erling Blöndal Bengtsson Erling Blöndal Bengtsson (March 8, 1932 – June 6, 2013) was a Danish cellist. Born in Copenhagen, Bengtsson gave his first public performance there in 1936, when he was four years old. He was admitted at the age of sixteen to the Curtis Insti ...

, cellist and Vovka Ashkenazy, pianist as well as the Pacifica Quartet,

Evan Ziporyn Evan Ziporyn (b. Chicago, Illinois, December 14, 1959) is an American composer of post-minimalist music with a cross-cultural orientation, drawing equally from classical music, avant-garde, various world music traditions, and jazz. Ziporyn h ...

, clarinetist, composer, and a member of the band Bang on a Can gave a master class and concert in Ísafjörður during Við Djúpið 2007 and among performers at the 2008 festival where Pekka Kuusisto, violinist with Simon Crawford-Phillips, pianist and

Håkon Austbø Håkon Austbø (born October 22, 1948) is a Norwegian classical pianist. He has created many recordings for the label Brilliant Classics and Naxos Records, and is also a professor at the Amsterdam conservatory. Born in Kongsberg, Austbø studie ...

, pianist.

Sports

Ísafjörður is the home of Íþróttafélagið Vestri and Knattspyrnufélagið Hörður multi-sports clubs. Vestri fields departments in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, football,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

and

bicycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

. Its men's and women's basketball teams have played in the top-tier basketball leagues in the country while its men's volleyball team was promoted to the top-tier division in 2019. Knattspyrnufélagið Hörður was originally a football club but has fielded other departments, most prominently in handball,

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

and Icelandic wrestling.

Other sport clubs

* Skíðafélag Ísfirðinga -

Skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

* Golfklúbbur Ísafjarðar -

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

* Skotíþróttafélag Ísafjarðar - Shooting sports

Notable natives and residents

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (; born 14 May 1943) is an Icelandic politician who was the fifth president of Iceland from 1996 to 2016.Official CV. He was previously a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the People's Alliance and served as Minis ...

–

President of Iceland The president of Iceland ( is, Forseti Íslands) is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, who is now in his second term as president, elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir as ...

(1996–2016) * Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir – Bishop of Iceland (since 2012)

Artists

* Helgi Björnsson – Musician and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

* Mugison – Musician * Árný Margrét – Musician

Athletes

Basketball

* Birgir Örn Birgisson – Former Icelandic national basketball team player *

Sigurður Þorsteinsson Sigurður Gunnar Þorsteinsson (born 8 July 1988) is an Icelandic professional basketball player who plays for Úrvalsdeild karla club Tindastóll and the Icelandic national basketball team. Nicknamed Ísafjarðartröllið (English: The Ísaf ...

– Icelandic national basketball team player

Cycling

* Arna Sigríður Albertsdóttir – para-cyclist who competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics

Football

* Stella Hjaltadóttir – former member of the Icelandic women's national football team * Björn Helgason – former member of the Icelandic men's national football team * Jón Oddsson – former member of the Icelandic men's national football team and the Icelandic

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

national team. * Emil Pálsson – caps for the Icelandic men's national football team * Ómar Torfason – former member of the Icelandic men's national football team * Matthías Vilhjálmsson – caps for the Icelandic men's national football team

Skiing

* Arnór Gunnarsson – former Olympic skier * Ásta Halldórsdóttir – former Olympic skier * Daníel Jakobsson – former Olympic skier * Steinþór Jakobsson – former Olympic skier * Guðmundur Jóhannsson – former Olympic skier * Sigurður Jónsson – former Olympic skier * Einar Valur Kristjánsson – former Olympic skier * Einar Ólafsson – former Olympic skier * Gunnar Pétursson – former Olympic skier * Oddur Pétursson – former Olympic skier * Árni Sigurðsson – former Olympic skier

References

External links

Town of ÍsafjörðurAldrei fór ég suður Rock Festival
(in Icelandic and English)
More information and photos about Ísafjörður on Hit IcelandVið Djúpið Music FestivalFossavatn Ski Marathon
(in Icelandic, English, French, German, and Norwegian)
Isafjordur Photo CollectionHáskólasetur Vestfjarða
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isafjordur Populated places in Westfjords Populated places established in the 9th century