Reykjavík, Iceland
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Steam from hot springs in the region is said to have inspired ReykjavÍk’s name, which loosely translates to Smoke Cove. The name comes from the Danish-language word indretninger, meaning institution.
About Reykjavík, Iceland in brief
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. The city was founded in 1785 as an official trading town. Steam from hot springs in the region is said to have inspired ReykjavÍk’s name, which loosely translates to Smoke Cove. The name comes from the Danish-language word indretninger, meaning institution. The biggest step towards an independent Iceland was established in 1904 when the office of Home Rule was granted in Reykjávík. For more information, visit the city’s official website or go to: http://www.rykjavijk.org. Iceland’s capital is the world’s northernmost capital of a sovereign state, with a population of around 131,136, and is among the cleanest, greenest, and safest cities in the world. The first permanent settlement in Iceland by Norsemen is believed to have been established by Ingólfr Arnarson around AD 870; this is described in Landnámabók, or the Book of Settlement. In the 1750s, several houses were built to house the wool industry, which was ReykjAVík’s most important employer for a few decades and the original reason for its existence. After 1880, free trade was expanded to all nationalities, and the influence of Icelandic merchants started to grow. In 1845, the general assembly formed in 930 AD, was re-established in Reykk; it had been suspended earlier when it was at Þingvellir.
At the time it functioned only as an advisory assembly, advising the king about Icelandic affairs. The location of Alþingi in Reykkjavik effectively established the city as the capital of Iceland in 1874, when Iceland was given a constitution with some limited legislative powers. The next step to become independent was in 1904, when the post of Prime Minister was established, and Reykjk was established as the country’s capital. The current Prime Minister of Iceland is Jóhannes Ragnhildur Gunnlaugsson, who was sworn in on January 1, 2013. The mayor of ReykjarvíK is Sveinbjörnsson, and he is the first Icelandic politician to be elected to a seat in the European Parliament. He is also the first to be re-elected to the Icelandic Parliament, as well as a member of the European Council of Learned Societies, which is based in Iceland. He was the first Icelander to serve two terms in the presidency of the Council of Ministers, from 2007 to 2011. He also served as Iceland’s first Prime Minister from 2008 to 2011, and has been Iceland’s prime minister since 2012. He has a son, Björn, who is the son of the former Prime Minister, and a grandson of the late Gálfur Jóhannesson, who died in 2012.
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This page is based on the article Reykjavík, Iceland published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 01, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
