Austurvöllur

Austurvöllur is a wide, open square dominated by the bronze statue of Jón Sigurðsson, the leader of Iceland's nineteenth-century independence movement. Before the city grew up around it, this patch of grass served as a hayfield for the local monastery. In nineteen forty-nine, the square turned into a battlefield when protesters clashed with police over Iceland joining NATO. Thousands gathered here to shout their opposition, eventually hurling rocks at the parliament building until tear gas clouded the air.