Two of the biggest names in the Icelandic film industry, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason and Benedikt Erlingsson, rode from the Reykjavík suburb of Kópavogur to the city center and through the City Hall yesterday to catch the attention of city authorities.
On their way, the actors rode past Fríkirkjuvegur 11, an historic building which city authorities sold to investment company Novator yesterday. The garden outside the building is a public park called Hallargardurinn where a small paddock for horses is located, 24 Stundir reports.
“On the occasion of the sale of Fríkirkjuvegur 11 we wanted to remind members of the city council to secure the continued access of children to Litla-Halló, which the paddock behind the house is called, and that the operations of the new owner will take the youth culture which has bloomed there into consideration,” Erlingsson said.
“Then we [Erlingsson and Gudnason] became punks and rode into the City Hall,” Erlingsson added. According to Fréttabladid, the actors both grew up in central Reykjavík and met in the old paddock behind Fríkirkjuvegur 11.
The sale process of Fríkirkjuvegur 11 has been both long and complicated. “It has been a long, difficult and strange process,” chair of Reykjavík City Council Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir told Morgunbladid, adding she was glad it was finally finished.
Novator’s owner, noted entrepreneur and billionaire Björgólfur Thór Björgólfsson, made an offer for Fríkirkjuvegur 11 in February 2007. His great-grandfather had built the house.
Reykjavík Mayor Ólafur F. Magnússon submitted an amendment proposal to the sales contract during the meeting yesterday which everyone agreed to. It states that Hallargardurinn will not be changed apart from the entrance square south of the building to improve public access.
The park itself will not be changed and the public will have unlimited access to it.
