Hveragerði (, "hot-spring yard") is a town and municipality in the south of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, 45 km east of

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

on Iceland's main ringroad, Route 1. The river Varmá runs through the town. With an area of 9 square kilometers, Hveragerði is the third smallest municipality in Iceland by size.

Overview

The surrounding area is part of the Hengill central volcano, and is geothermally active and experiences very frequent (usually minor)

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

s. The town is known for its

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

s, which are heated by hot water from

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

. The first greenhouse was built in 1923. These springs are the site of occurrence of certain

extremophile An extremophile () is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e., environments with conditions approaching or stretching the limits of what known life can adapt to, such as extreme temperature, press ...

micro-organisms, that are capable of surviving in extremely hot environments. Close to the church is a

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

called (, "sand hill hot-spring"), formed during the violent South Iceland earthquake of 1896. A fenced-off geothermal area in the town has numerous

and fumaroles. Hveragerði contains a number of greenhouses and is a hotbed for Icelandic

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

. To the south of Hveragerði, there is the small port of

Þorlákshöfn Þorlákshöfn (, ) is a town on the southern coast of Iceland in the Municipality of Ölfus. The town is named after Saint Thorlak who was a bishop at Skálholt. Its main importance is as a port as it has the only harbour on Iceland's southern c ...

, winter point of departure for the ferry to the

Westman Islands Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyj ...

History

Water from hot springs has been used for heating in this area since 1929. Hveragerði had 121 inhabitants in 1940 and 399 in 1946. Hveragerði was awarded municipal status (''kaupstaðuréttindi'') on 1 July 1987. In 1989 the town had 1.593 inhabitants. On 29 May 2008 people were injured and many buildings in Hveragerði and its surroundings were damaged by a

Buildings and Culture

''Hveragerðiskirkja'', a modern Protestant church, was built 1967–72. ''Listasafn Árnesinga'' is a museum of arts founded in 1963 where about 500 pieces of art are exhibited. The exhibition ''Skjálftinn 2008'' in ''Sunnumörk'' shopping centre refers to the earthquake of 2008. The town has one of Iceland's two largest swimming pools, called Laugasgarður, tied with Laugardalslaug in Reykjavik, which has two 50 m long swimming pools.

Parks

''Hveragarðurinn'' is a park with various hot springs and fumaroles and information boards providing explanations on the occurrence. In ''Lystigarðurinn Fossflöt'', a park which was founded in 1983, a hydroelectric power station can be visited which was built as early as 1902 beside the waterfall ''Reykjafoss''.

Sport

The local football club is

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

, competing in the 4. deild karla, the fifth tier of the

Icelandic football league system The Icelandic football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Iceland. a fifth level was added to the previous men's format of four levels. there are 79 participating men's teams and 27 women's teams in the footb ...

Twin towns – sister cities

Hveragerði is twinned with: *

Äänekoski Äänekoski () is a town in Finland, located in the Central Finland regions of Finland, region, about north of Jyväskylä, the region's capital city. Äänekoski has a population of , as of , and covers an area of of which , or 22%, is water. ...

, Finland * Ikast-Brande, Denmark *

Örnsköldsvik Örnsköldsvik (; ), often shortened to just Ö-vik, is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Örnsköldsvik Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden, with 32,953 inhabitants in 2017. Its natural harbour and archipelago is in th ...

, Sweden *

Sigdal Sigdal is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Buskerud Counties of Norway, County, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Prestfoss. The municipality of Sigdal was established on 1 January 1838 (see forman ...

, Norway * Tarp, Germany

Climate

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hveragerdi Municipalities of Iceland Populated places in Southern Region (Iceland)