Hella, Iceland

Town in South Constituency, Iceland

63°50′N 20°24′W / 63.833°N 20.400°W / 63.833; -20.400Country

IcelandConstituencySouth ConstituencyRegionSouthern RegionMunicipalityRangárþing ytraPopulation

(2019)

• Total865Time zoneUTC+0 (GMT)Post Code

850, 851

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Hella.

Hella (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈhɛtla]) is a small town in southern Iceland on the shores of the river Ytri-Rangá and has, as of 2021, 942 inhabitants.^[1]

Hella is situated 94 kilometres (58 mi) to the east of Reykjavík on the Hringvegur (Route 1) between Selfoss and Hvolsvöllur.

Overview

The name of the town comes from caves near the river. It is said that Irish monks lived there in the times of first settlement. There are small industries as well as shops. As in other regions of the country, tourism is a growing sector. The volcano Hekla is nearby so it is possible to go hiking there as well as to make excursions to other locations popular with tourists such as Landmannalaugar or Þórsmörk. The founding of Hella started in 1927 when Þorsteinn Björnsson built a store over by the bridge Ytri-Rangá in the land of Gaddstaðaflatir. That founder of Hella was built a memorial at the celebration of Hella's 50 years since the founding of it at 1977.