Stykkishólmur
Encyclopedia
Stykkishólmur is a town and municipality situated in the western part of Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

, to the north of the Snæfellsnes
Snæfellsnes
The Snæfellsnes is a peninsula situated to the west of Borgarfjörður, in western of Iceland.It has been named Iceland in Miniature, as many national sights can be found in the area, including the Snæfellsjökull volcano, regarded as one of the symbols of Iceland. With its height of 1446 m, it...

 peninsula.

With its 1,100 inhabitants, it is a center of services and commerce for the area. Most of the people make their living from fishing and tourism. A ferry called Baldur goes over the Breiðafjörður
Breiðafjörður
Breiðafjörður is a large shallow bay, about 50 km wide and 125 km long and located in the west of Iceland. It separates the region of the Westfjords from the rest of the country. Breiðafjörður is encircled by mountains, including glacier Snæfellsjökull the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the south side...

 fjord to the West Fjord
Fjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

s (Vestfirðir). It also is the gateway to Flatey.

Overview

The favourable position of the town was discovered rather early and in 1550 a trading post was founded at the site. Today, the most important employer of the town after the fishing industry is a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 of Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

s.

The town was named after a small island in front of the harbour with the name Stykkið (meaning the piece in Icelandic). The nearby mountain of Helgafell
Helgafell
Helgafell is a small mountain on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula of Iceland. The mountain is high, and a temple in honor of Þór was built there by the first settler of the area, Þórólfur Mostraskegg. Helgafell also appears in the Laxdaela saga as the location where the heroine Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir last...

 is the burial place of Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir
Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir
Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir was the historical protagonist of the Medieval Icelandic Laxdœla saga, which recounts the history of the People of Laxárdalur. She was famed for her beauty and was married four times. Her first marriage to Thorvaldr Halldorsson ended in divorce...

, a heroine of the Icelandic sagas.

The town's former library has been restored as a public hall and contains an installation by the American artist Roni Horn
Roni Horn
Roni Horn is an American visual artist and writer. Horn's oeuvre, which spans almost four decades, encompasses sculpture, drawing, photography, language, and site-specific installation. The granddaughter of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, she was born in New York and lives and works in New York...

.

The sports club of Stykkishólmur is called Snæfell
Snæfell
There are three volcanoes with the name Snæfell in Iceland:* The famous mountain Snæfellsjökull with its big glacier on top lies to the west of the island ....

 (Umf. Snæfell), named after a glacier which is located on Snæfellsnes, called Snæfellsjökull
Snæfellsjökull
Snæfellsjökull is a 700,000 year old stratovolcano with a glacier covering its summit in western Iceland. The name of the mountain is actually Snæfell, but it is normally called "Snæfellsjökull" to distinguish it from two other mountains with this name...

.

Popular culture

In the novel Red Storm Rising
Red Storm Rising
Red Storm Rising is a 1986 techno-thriller novel by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond about a Third World War in Europe between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, set around the mid-1980s...

from 1986, Stykkishólmur was the site of a landing by American Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

 tasked to liberate Iceland from occupying Soviet forces.

The world known chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 champion Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

 was planning on moving to Stykkishólmur before his sudden death in early 2008.

Town Festival

Every year the people in Stykkishólmur celebrate the "Danskir dagar" ("Danish days" in Icelandic) festival. This festival is held on the second or third weekend in August every year where the town's historic connections with Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 are celebrated. This festival has been held every year since 1995.

Twin towns

Kolding
Kolding
Kolding is a Danish seaport located at the head of Kolding Fjord in Region of Southern Denmark . It is the site of the council Kolding Municipality. It is a transportation, commercial, and manufacturing centre, and has numerous industrial companies, principally geared towards shipbuilding...

, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta is a city and municipality that resides on the shore of the lake Saimaa in South-Eastern Finland, about from the Russian border. It belongs to the region of South Karelia. With approximately inhabitants Lappeenranta is the largest city in Finland...

, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 Drammen
Drammen
Drammen is a city in Buskerud County, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern and most populated part of Norway.-Location:...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 Örebro
Örebro
-Sites of interest:Örebro's old town Wadköping is located on the banks of Svartån . It contains many 18th and 19th century wooden houses, along with museums and exhibitions....

, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....


External links

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