Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ÍSAFJÖRĐUR
A
ACCOMMODATION
Campsite
Edda Ísajörður
Gamla Gistihúsið
Gistikofinn Silfurgötu
Ísajörður
Kollinn
1
2
4
6
5
3
Park
OR
Library
CAFÉS & RESTAURANTS
Bræðraborg
Hamraborg
Húsið
Kaffi Edinborg
Kaffi Ísól
Thai Koon
Tjöruhúsið
Við Pollinn
8
4
1
7
3
2
6
5
Skutulsjörður
Shopping
Centre
PÓLGATA
Bolungarvík
Bus Stop
Bus Stop
Cinema
Borea
Adventures
Byggðasafn
Vestjarða
G A
Long distance
buses
AÐALSTRÆ
S
RT
4
Sundahöfn
Harbour
(For boats to
Hornstrandir)
SHOPS
Eymundsson
Supermarket
Vínbúð
2
1
3
0
200
metres
century. However, although the sandspit was inhabited from the time of the
Settlement, it took several centuries for Eyri at Skutulsfjörður, as Ísafjörður was then
called, to emerge as one of the country's main commercial centres, an enviable
status due to the establishment of a trading post here by foreign merchants during
the late sixteenth century. It was also around this time that the town's most
notorious resident,
Jón Magnússon
, a fundamentalist priest, ordered two men on a
neighbouring farm to be burned at the stake for sorcery, which was reputed to be
widespread in the West Fjords at the time. Finally, in 1786, with the winding-up of
the Danish trade monopoly, the town was granted municipal status and became one
of Iceland's six official trading posts. Just over a hundred years later, Eyri finally
received city status and celebrated by changing its name to the present Ísafjörður,
meaning Ice Fjord.
Byggðasafn Vestfjarða
Suðurtangi • Mid-May to mid-Sept daily 9am-6pm• 800kr •
W
nedsti.is
The town's only tourist sight,
Byggðasafn Vestfjarða
(West Fjords Heritage Museum)
aims to portray the history of fishing in this remote corner of Iceland from the cutter
to the trawler. It's set in one of Iceland's oldest buildings, Turnhús, a rare timber
structure dating from the harsh days of the trade monopoly with Denmark in the late
eighteenth century. In addition to the neighbouring
Tjöruhús
which holds an agreeable
café-cum-restaurant (see p.187), there are two other buildings on the site, though
they're not open to the public.
