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Top Attractions in Vestmannaeyjabær

Surtsey

Surtsey is a volcanic island located in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. At 63.303°N 20.605°W / 63.303; 20.605, Surtsey is the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began 130 metres below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. The eruption lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of 2.7 km2 . Since then, wave erosion has caused the island to steadily diminish in size: as of 2002, its surface area was 1.4 km2 . The most recent survey shows the islands maximum elevation at 155 m above sea level. The new island was named after Surtr, a fire jötunn or giant from Norse mythology. It was intensively studied by volcanologists during its eruption, and afterwards by botanists and other biologists as life forms gradually colonised the originally barren island. The undersea vents that produced Surtsey are part of the Vestmannaeyjar submarine volcanic system, part of the fissure of the sea floor called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Vestmannaeyjar also produced the famous eruption of Eldfell on the island of Heimaey in 1973. The eruption that created Surtsey also created a few other small islands along this volcanic chain, such as Jólnir and unnamed other peaks. Most of these eroded away fairly quickly.

Eldfell

Eldfell is a composite volcanic cone just over 200 metres high on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. It formed in a volcanic eruption which began on the eastern side of Heimaey in the Westman Islands on 23 January 1973. This came without any sign of warning. The name of Eldfell means Mountain of Fire in Icelandic. The eruption caused a major crisis for the island and nearly led to its permanent evacuation. Volcanic ash fell over most of the island, destroying around 400 homes, and a lava flow threatened to close off the harbour, the islands main income source via its fishing fleet. An operation was mounted to cool the advancing lava flow by pumping sea water onto it, which was successful in preventing the loss of the harbour. After the eruption, the islanders used heat from the cooling lava flows to provide hot water and to generate electricity. They also used some of the extensive tephra, fall-out of airborne volcanic material, to extend the runway at the islands small airport, and as landfill, on which 200 new houses were built.

Heimaey stave church

Heimaey stave church is a close replica of Haltdalen stave church situated in the Skansinn area of the harbour of Vestmannaeyjabær on Heimaey, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. In commemoration of the thousandth anniversary of the conversion of Iceland to Christianity, recalling the first church built in Iceland by Olav Tryggvason in 1000, and developing a suggestion by the Icelandic government, the Norwegian state presented Iceland with a replica of the Haltdalen stave church, originally from around the 1170s. The first church known on Iceland was a post church and not a stave church. It was built in the north in the harbour by Hjalti and Gissur, two of Olav Tryggvason’s men. That church is long gone together with a number of other churches, some which are known to have been even larger than those found in Norway today. The replica was erected by the harbour of Vestmannaeyjabær in the Vestmannaeyjar, in an area formed by the lava of the 1973 eruption of Eldfell. The replica was undertaken by the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research as a three-year research and reconstruction project from 1998 to 2000 under the leadership of Elisabeth Seip. The church was constructed at Lom from materials deliberately drawn widely from around Norway, including timber from Røros, shingles from Odalen, tar from Skjåk, wrought iron from Vågå, and a doorstep from Holtålen. A gallery was added around the outside of the building, inspired by other stave churches, to provide the building with extra strength against the stormy weather of the Vestmannaeyjar. The church was built and consecrated in summer 2000, and was completed on 30 July 2000. The project was supported by a Norwegian government grant of 5.5m Norwegian kroner; Icelandic government funding for the redevelopment of the Skansinn area of Vestmannaeyjarbær as a heritage area; and some private sponsorship was also involved, most importantly that the Icelandic company Eimskip shipped the church to Iceland for free. The replica also includes an altar decorated with a replica of the St Olav frontal, one of the finest surviving medieval Norwegian works of art, undertaken unde the leadership of Terje Nordsted. The original for this is at Nidaros Cathedral but is said once to have been situated in the Haltdalen stave church.
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