Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.03.2012, Page 28

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2012 This is the fifth entry in a fascinating series of articles Gerður Jónsdóttir is writing
about Reykjavík's neighbourhoods! Log on to www.grapevine.is to read the rest!
Not long ago, Árbær was merely
heathland that walking or horse rid-
ing travellers passed through on
their way in and out of Reykjavík.
The land was bought by the City of
Reykjavík in 1906 to gain access to
clean water after linking a typhoid
epidemic to contaminated wells in
the city centre. It was not until 1965
that building began in what is today
one of Reykjavík’s ten districts—a
suburb with 3.540 homes and 10.192
inhabitants. In fact, almost all of the
houses are built after 1965 and it is
home to more young people, sixteen
years old and under, and fewer older
people, 67 years old and over, com-
pared to other districts in Reykjavík.
Árbær is named after an old farm in the
area, which had a guesthouse for people
from out of town and a canteen for bored
residents of Reykjavík. In 1957, this farm
had stood uninhabited for decades and
was nothing but a shadow of its former
glory. Unwilling to let it decay any fur-
ther, the City of Reykjavík decided that
year to preserve it and create an outdoor
museum. It was decided that the outdoor
museum not only feature the Árbær farm,
but also a number of other old houses
that were moved from the city centre to
this outdoor museum, which had been a
popular concept in other Nordic coun-
tries. With over 20 old houses, Árbær
Museum is the biggest outdoor heritage
museum in Iceland.
A WINDOW TO THE pAST
The houses at The Árbær Museum are
not the only historical remains in this
fairly new suburb. When driving east on
Ártúnsbrekka, one of two roads in Reyk-
javík where you can drive 80 km/h, a pe-
culiar building can be seen on the right
side of the road, just before the gas sta-
tion. This building has always caught my
attention. As a child, I was told that it was
a potato storage and later, as a grown
up, I learned more about the reason for
its existence. It was one of the barracks
built by US soldiers in Hvalfjörður during
World War II for the purpose of storing
bombs.
It was around this time that residents
of Reykjavík got into farming vegeta-
bles—primarily potatoes. With the advent
of geothermal heating of houses, how-
ever, a problem developed. Namely, peo-
ple’s homes were suddenly too warm to
store these vegetables. An entrepreneur
saw an opportunity to move the old bomb
storage to Reykjavík and transformed it
into special storage for keeping potatoes
as fresh as possible. The storage became
fairly popular and served many mouths,
with the potato loss being about 5%
rather than 20–50% in the newly warmed
houses.
A NICE pLACE TO RELAx
If you’re not fan of old houses and po-
tatoes you need not worry. Árbær is a
suburb that was designed with zoning
in mind; people were to live in one place
and work in another. An area of more
than 370.000 m2 is reserved for industry
with over 6.000 jobs at some of the big-
gest food companies in Iceland, which
make chocolate, liquorice, beer, cheeses,
ice cream, and more.
At the same time, Árbær is also home
to some of the nicest outdoor areas in
Reykjavík, with about 35% of its land
being a municipal conservation area.
Heiðmörk, which has been a municipal
conservation area of Reykjavík since
1950, is the largest nature reserve in the
city.
With lava fields, caves, and old stone
shelters for sheep, the area is popular
for walks, family picnics and fishing, es-
pecially during the summer. In Heiðmörk
you also find Reykjavík's water reserves
and more than four million trees, which
have been planted there in the last
sixty years. There's a strong belief that
Heiðmörk is the location of Iceland’s
first parliament, before it was moved to
Þingvellir, but ruins were submerged
in 1924 with the construction of a dam,
leaving many people scratching their
heads and gnashing their teeth.
AN IMpORTANT RIvER
The other recreational area in Árbær
is the Elliðaárdalur valley. The word El-
liðaárdalur is made up of the words Elliði
(named after a ship belonging to settler
Ketilbjörn), ár (river), and dalur (valley).
The river Elliðaá, which runs through
the valley, is cited in scripts dating back
to 1235, and remains a notable river in
Reykjavík.
In 1921, the river was used to quadru-
ple the electrical power in Iceland when
the first hydroelectric power station in
the country opened. The power plant is
still functional and its original building is
designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, who
also designed Hallgrímskirkja church,
The National Theatre, and many other
official buildings between 1920–1950.
Today the river’s world class salmon and
several hundred year old plants and sea-
shells, which can be found in sediments,
attract fishermen and geology lovers
from all over the world. There is also a
popular picnic area, dubbed Indjánagil
(“Indian Canyon”) by teenagers in the
late ‘90s, which has hosted an outdoor
theatre in recent summers.
When driving east
on Ártúnsbrekka,
one of two roads in
Reykjavík where
you can drive 80
km/h, a peculiar
building can be
seen on the right
side of the road,
just before the gas
station
Words
Gerður Jónsdóttir
photography
Alísa Kalyanova
Reykjavík | City planning
Árbær: Where Lots of Things Are preserved
How Reykjavík got to be what it is, part V
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM
Icelandic art through the ages. Phase one.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigurðsson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.