Garden Parks IV

The Akureyri Park is run by the town as a botanical garden and a nature park. The latter was formally opened to the public in 1912 while the botanic garden opened in 1957. The Park Society was founded in 1909 with Sigridur Sæmundsdóttir as its first president. Margrethe Schiöth contributed to the growth and development of the park for more than thirty years. The Akureyri Embellishment Society promoted the acquisition of a remarkable and unusual botanical collection owned by Jón Rögnvaldsson, a pioneer in the cultivation of plants in Iceland. Now the park contains nearly 7000 foreign species and most of the Icelandic flora.

The Hallargarður park in Reykjavík, constructed in 1953-4, was designed by Jón H. Björnsson, Iceland’s first trained landscape architect. The park is influenced by American modernism, with curves and constantly changing vistas. It was completed in summer 1954. In 1986 the park was altered and the pond and fountain replaced by shrubs and flowerbeds. There is a monument in the park of the entrepreneur Thor Jensen and his wife, Thorbjorg Jensen. In the uppermost part of the park we find the sculpture “A boy and a girl” by Ásmundur Sveinsson.