Overview
About Akureyri
Trade, farming and cooperation
The first residential house was built in 1778. When Akureyri became an authorised trading post in 1786, it had only twelve inhabitants; its commercial status was withdrawn in 1836 and restored in 1862. The fertile surrounding valleys supplied meat and wool for trade. Farmers later organised to strengthen their negotiating position with merchants, creating the foundations of the Eyjafjörður Cooperative Society, KEA, which became an important influence on the town's twentieth-century development.
An older town in timber and iron
The old town retains its original street pattern and buildings including Laxdalshús, dating from 1795. Timber houses often have protective corrugated-metal cladding. A more unusual local feature is pressed iron tiling imported from the United States in the 1930s. These surfaces show how an international trading town adapted imported materials to protect its wooden architecture.
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