Eastern Region (Iceland)
Eastern Region is a region in eastern Iceland. Its area is and in 2020 its population was 13,173.
The largest town in the region is Egilsstaðir, with a population of 2,300. The oldest municipality is Djúpivogur, which got their trading licence in 1589, had a population of 470 in 2015.
One of the best known localities in the world for Iceland spar was in “Helgustaðir” in Eskifjörður. The purity and transparency of crystals of Iceland spar from Helgustaðir, and the property of double refraction they displayed, made it of interest to scientists from the late 17th century onwards, and it subsequently "played a significant role in the early development of several fields in the physical sciences including wave optics, crystallography, and crystal physics". The Helgustaðir mine closed in 1925, and in 1975 the site was declared as a natural monument.
The only car and passenger ferry that sails between Iceland and the European continent calls at Seyðisfjörður once a week in the summer months and intermittently the rest of the year.
