Lindarbakki

Lindarbakki is one of Borgarfjörður’s main attractions and a popular destination for those who visit the fjord. In the past, there were many similar buildings along the seafront, built around 1900, at a time when trading was starting in the village of Bakkagerði. These houses were not considered ideal dwellings and most of them were torn down with the arrival of more modern construction techniques. Today, only Lindarbakki remains, an invaluable memorial of old times and habits. The house is heated with an old Sóló cooker, almost exactly in its original state. The last people who lived here year-round were Jóhanna Jóhannesdóttir and her son, Jóhannes Kristinsson, between 1967 and 1973.

Lindarbakki was until recently summer residence of Elísabet Sveinsdóttir (b. 1929), or Stella at Lindarbakki, as the locals call her. Stella was born and raised in Borgarfjörður but moved to Kópavogur as a young girl. In 1979, she and her husband, Skúli Ingvarsson, bought Lindarbakki from Elías B. Halldórsson and Ásthildur Sigurðardóttir. The title deed includes these words: The cottage Lindarbakki is old, built from turf, rocks, wood and concrete and in many ways not very modern.

 Stella and Skúli did great work renovating the house, as well as building a small shed in the same style, where old equipment and artefacts are kept. Skúli died in 1987 and after that, Stella herself took care of the property, with her friends’ help. In 2019 Stella gave the municipality the house. Today Lindarbakki looks exactly the way Stella left it and the house will be kept that way in the future.

Lindarbakki is around 30 m2 in size, with the anteroom. It has one room, a kitchen and a bathroom. The house has a basement which contains a well. The basement is the oldest part of the house, from 1899, but most of the interior dates from 1934.