Flatey in Breiðafjörður
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Flatey is the second largest island in Breiðafjörður, located in northwestern Iceland that consists of the main island and forty other smaller islands. It is believed that it was created during Ice age from a great glacier. Flatey is two kilometers long and one kilometer wide. The island is almost completely flat (hence its name, meaning "flat island" in Icelandic), with scarcely any hill.
The island has a seasonal habitation; most houses there are occupied only during summer. In winter, the island's total population is five people. In spite of this, Flatey was one of the greatest cultural centres of Iceland, with a no-longer existing monastery founded in 1172 standing on the highest point of the island, not far from the new monastery. In the middle of the 19th century, it was a cultural and artistic reference in Iceland, and was massively inhabited. It also has a church, built in 1926. The church's interior is painted with scenes of the island life, made by a Catalan painter, Baltasar, in the 1960s in return for free accommodation when he was visiting the island. Now, the church bears the odd title of oldest and smallest library in Iceland, established in 1864. This very library was once home to the Flatey Book, the biggest and best book in Iceland in the middle 17th century. After some refusal, the owner of the book (who resided in Flatey) at last was persuaded to give it to the Danish King Frederick III in 1662. Only in 1971 the book was returned to Iceland.
The island has an only road that leads down to the so-called "old village", which consists of some restored painted houses and a harbour, from where the island sheep are taken to the mainland for slaughter. Besides of sheep, most of Flatey's natural life consists of birds and, especially, puffins. Half of Iceland's 37 species of bird are found in the islands of Breiðafjörður. It is, so, an excellent place to go bird-watching.
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