The local council of Hafnarfjördur, a neighboring town of Reykjavík, has approved an application for expanding the local Viking Village and building 14-16 houses in the traditional turf-farm fashion.

Fjörugardurinn (Fjörukráin) in the Hafnarfjördur Viking Village. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

The area already has two restaurants, Fjörugardurinn (Fjörukráin) and Fjaran, and Hotel Víkingur. The new houses will serve as an addition to the hotel, Morgunbladid reports.

“It is just to condense the Viking Village which has developed here. Each house will serve as a room where one to four persons can stay. They will be like Fjörukráin, carved on the inside and outside,” described Fjörukráin’s owner and the Viking Village’s operator Jóhannes Vidar Bjarnason.

Construction will begin soon, Bjarnason stated, and the goal is to open the new houses on Fjörukráin’s 22nd anniversary, May 10, 2012. Hotel Víkingur currently has around 100 accommodation spaces and 40 will be added with the expansion.

Alongside these changes, the restaurant Fjaran will be modified to coincide better with the Viking theme. “There will be a Valhalla atmosphere there with finer Viking-style dining,” Bjarnason said, explaining that it had always been the finer option among the two restaurants but not strictly of Viking style.

“We will never serve pizzas there, only through-and-through Icelandic dishes served with style,” Bjarnason iterated, adding that locals are optimistic about the expansion of the town’s tourism services.

ESA