Tjarnargata by Tjörnin

Tjarnargata, runs from Fógetagarðurinn, where the first settler Ingólfur Arnarson built his settlement in 874, to Hringbraut, along Tjörnin. Now the parliament’s office building is being built there, across from the Town Hall. Tjarnargatan is one of the most beautiful streets in Reykjavík, made up of stately houses, most of them imported from Norway around 1900. Also by the street stands the “Counsellor’s Residence”, a stately house that the Norwegian whaler Hans Ellesen built for himself in Önundarfjörður in 1892. Eight years later, he gave the house to Minister Hannes Hafstein, the minister of Iceland and the house was put down at Tjarnargata in 1910. The house is now both a meeting place for the Government of Iceland, and accommodation for foreign heads of state.