Akureyri

The largest town in Iceland outside the Capital Region, at the head of Eyjafjörður, and known as the capital of the north. Helgi the Slim settled the area in the ninth century, but the first written mention of Akureyri is a court record of 1562, sentencing a woman for adultery. Danish merchants camped here in the seventeenth century for the natural harbour and the fertile ground, going home each winter; permanent settlement began in 1778 and the municipal charter came in 1786. The harbour does not freeze, which shaped everything that followed. The municipality also takes in Hrísey and Grímsey.