Insight Guides Iceland by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Iceland
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2024-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

A church at Þingvellir was the first in Iceland to be consecrated, probably soon after the conversion of 1000, although not at this location. The present version dates from 1859. Inside, there is a pulpit from 1683 and a treasured altarpiece, painted by Ófeigur Jónsson of Heiðarbær in 1834, that had been taken from Iceland and wound up in a church on the Isle of Wight in southern England. It was rediscovered only in 1974, and returned to Iceland in time for the 1,100th anniversary of the Settlement, which was celebrated at Þingvellir. There are three bells in the church steeple: one dating from the Middle Ages, one from 1698, and the third called Íslandsklukkan (“Iceland’s bell”) that was cast to ring out for Iceland’s independence in 1944.

There are two cemeteries at the church, the higher one a circular plot of ground with only two graves in it, both of poets: the illustrious nationalists Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807–45) and Einar Benediktsson (1864–1940). Just to the north of the church is Biskupabúð, the “Bishops’ booth”, which is the largest ruined booth in Þingvellir and one that dates back to its earliest Viking times.

KEY PLACE IN HISTORY

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