Hallgrímskirkja
A seventy-four-metre concrete church shaped after basalt columns.
Duration
45 min – 1 hr
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The church was designed in 1937 by Guðjón Samúelsson, the state architect, and took forty-one years to build. Its stepped front takes the shape of basalt columns, the hexagonal pillars lava forms as it cools — Icelandic geology translated into concrete.
It stands seventy-four metres tall and a lift goes up the tower, which is the best viewpoint in Reykjavik: the coloured roofs, the bay, and Mount Esja opposite. The interior is bare, with an organ of five thousand pipes.
Getting there
At the top of Skólavörðustígur street, in central Reykjavik. Everything in the centre is on foot.
What to bring
- Windbreaker
Rules on site
The church is free, the tower climb is charged, and the lift is small: the queue runs over half an hour in summer. The tower closes during services and concerts.
Other places in Reykjavik
- The Golden CircleÞingvellir, the Strokkur geyser and Gullfoss waterfall, on a three-hundred-kilometre loop.
Blue LagoonMilky thirty-eight-degree water in a field of black lava.
Northern lightsFrom September to March, as soon as you step away from the city lights.
- The south coastSeljalandsfoss, which you walk behind, Skógafoss, and the black sand of Reynisfjara.