Flateyri

Flateyri
Flateyri
Village
	Location of the Municipality of Ísafjarðarbær
	Flateyri
	Coordinates: 66°03′N 23°31′W / 66.050°N 23.517°W
Country	Iceland
Constituency	Northwest Constituency
Region	Westfjords
Municipality	Ísafjarðarbær
Population (January 2011)
• Total	around 180
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)

Flateyri is a village situated in Iceland's Westfjords. With a population of approximately 180, it is the largest settlement in Önundarfjörður.

History

Flateyri has been a trading post since 1792, and temporarily became a major whaling center in the 19th century. In October 1995 an avalanche hit the village, destroying 29 homes and killing 20 people. Since then a deflecting dam has been built to protect the village from any further avalanches. In the 1990s, Flateyri prospered as a fishing village and, but after the 2008–11 financial crisis hit its main fishing companies shut down and many people left. A German fishing company has set up base in Flateyri and is currently fishing in and just out of Önundarfjörður.

The Esso gas station in Flateyri was the subject of a Belgian documentary in a series about gas stations around the world. The avalanche 1995 was also a subject of a feature documentary, 66°23 North West (The Day of The Avalanche), which premiered in a Reykjavik cinema on the 15th anniversary of the avalanche in 2010.^[3]

References

^ Political division
^ Mainly statistical division
^ "The Night We Never Forget". Iceland Review. Retrieved 2016-07-03.

External links

Aerial photographs of Flateyri

66°03′N 23°31′W / 66.050°N 23.517°W / 66.050; -23.517

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[1] Political division

[2] Mainly statistical division

[3] "The Night We Never Forget". Iceland Review. Retrieved 2016-07-03.

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