Lower Town

When the first monopoly merchants arrived in Skutulsfjarðareyri, they built themselves a house, probably a wooden house and shops made of turf and stone. The oldest house that still stands is somewhat younger, however. It is Krambúðin, which was built in 1757. There has hardly been any reason to build carefully over the merchants. They rarely wintered in Iceland, but arrived in the spring and went back to Denmark in the autumn.

Sometimes, however, a merchant would sit in for the winter, but the authorities were not keen on this, fearing that the presence of traders in winter might lead the people to drink and waste. Nor was it always healthy for the merchants themselves to sit here for the winter. At least one who did, Adrian Jensen Munch, was killed in a fight with four locals. He must have been reluctant to sell them tobacco.

In 1764, the General Trade Association took over the Icelandic Trade and soon decided to have winter residents in all the Westfjords ports and in Eyrarbakki. The most important thing there was undoubtedly that the association began teaching Icelanders how to make salted fish, which had become a sought-after product throughout Europe. The Westfjords glacier was considered suitable for salted fish production, as it was close to the fertile plains and the weather was suitable for such processing. Obviously, a building had to be built for the store manager, the factor, as he was supposed to be here year-round. In 1765, a residential building was therefore built, which is still inhabited and is called the Factor's House. By the turn of the century, about twenty houses must have stood in Neðstakaupstaður. In addition to Krambúðir and the Factor's House, two of them still stand, Tjöruhúsið, built in 1781, and Turnhúsið, built in 1784. Both were built as warehouses.

When the trade monopoly was lifted in 1787, a Danish merchant association from Altona took over the store. They only lasted six years, or until 1793. The merchants who came after them fared better, and it is a characteristic of Neðstakaupstaður that merchants generally stayed there for a long time. When the Altona merchants closed down, the partners Jens Lassen Busch and Henrik Christian Paus took over. Their store ran for 30 years, or until 1824, when the large merchant Matthías Wilhelm Sass bought it. Sass and his descendants then traded in Neðstakaupstaður for 59 years, or until 1883. That store gained fame by building the first ocean-going ship dock in Iceland in 1868.

In 1883, Sass's store was sold to Ásgeir G. Ásgeirsson and in the following years Neðstikaupstaður became the site of the largest privately owned retail company in Iceland. Ásgeirsstore was operated until 1918 when the United Stores took over. However, the new store's lifespan was short. In 1926, the United Stores went bankrupt, ending retail in Neðstikaupstaður.



County Commissioner Jóhann Gunnar Ólafsson was at the forefront when the Westfjords Regional Museum was revived in the 1950s. In the name of the Westfjords Regional Museum, he began a hard-fought campaign for the preservation of the 18th-century houses in Ísafjörður in articles about the museum that appeared each year in the Ísafjörður Historical Society. In support of his case, Jóhann cited Hörður Ágústsson, a painter who wrote about these houses in the cultural magazine Birting 1962, issues 1 and 2. At that time, the town council had decided to have the residential building in Hæstakaustaður demolished. Suffice it to say that with these comments from Jóhann Gunnar, that decision was postponed and the town council requested that Jóhann Gunnar write a report on the issues of the old houses and nothing happened to the demolition of the Upper Town Hall, the houses in Néðstakaupstaður and the Salt House in Þingeyri which is from the same period. All of them are today a true crown jewel of Ísafjarðarbær. In 1975, these houses were declared a protected area according to the wishes of the town council and those who fought for their protection will be thanked in due time.

When Ásgeirsverslun sold the Neðstakaupstað property to the United Icelandic Stores Company in 1918, a list was made of what the new owners were buying. It is striking how densely populated Neðsta was and how much disappeared in the last century.

"Næðstikaustaður takes over the land from the farthest tip of the so-called Suðurtangi to the so-called Mjósundur, as it is now owned by hf Hinna meinudu íslenska veslána in Likvidation and reference is made: (A) to the land deed dated 29 August and 29 September 1885, together with the houses and piers that stand on the land and are listed here:

• A blacksmith shop with attached forge and iron and tools from the seller.
• Residential building. (Factory building)
• Distillery.
• Barn and chicken coop
• Cellar house. (Brannivinskjalarinn)
• Government House, Danish government.
• New salt house (formerly called new coal house).
• Old coal house.
• Granary.
• Tower house.
• Fishmonger and fish washing house.
• Coal shed on the pier.
• The old shop, now a residential building. (Grocery store)
• ice house with all utensils.
• Tar house.
• A smelting house with an attached new shed, oil pans and other equipment.
• Shed on the dock with an 8 hp motor.
• Pamela's shed
• Old and new pier.
• Slides.
• The galeas (used for oil storage).”