Editor Pick
Beauty on the Banks of the Fjord
- October 12, 2009
- Rated 4 of 5 by
UK Flower Girl from Market Weighton, England
Laufás is a complex of turf houses and a church built back in 1840. The complex is no longer used as a home, but is now a museum dedicated to showing what it was like there in the late 19th century. Due to its lack of trees, Icelanders used sod to build many of their structures and this is no exception. Blocks of sod were cut from the soil and stacked to make the houses. The sod provided ample protection from the harsh Icelandic elements such as the cold wind and rain
The gabled, turf-roofed farmhouse is set on the edge of the Eyjafjördur about 11 km south of Grenivik in the north of Iceland. It is a typical example of a gable-end parsonage built for a priest with a large household of up to 30 people. The large number of people was necessary due to the natural resources on the land. Eider ducks populate the area and collection of the eiderdown was one of the things that residents did living on this farm. There was also haymaking and fishing to tend to in the area.
Laufás was inhabited until 1936. It has been administered by the National Museum of Iceland since 1948. Extensive repairs were done between 1957 and 1959.
Attached to the farmhouse is a little country café where you can have cakes, coffee and traditional Icelandic fare.
Nearby the turf houses is the little church, built in 1865, and dedicated to St. Peter. There is evidence of a church being there as early as 1047. The current pulpit in the church has wood carvings dating from 1689. The colourful carvings of Saints were incredible and almost looked out of place in the church.
The barrel-roof church was tiny, but beautiful. It had a little balcony in the back where you could climb the steps and overlook the whole of the church. The ceiling was a sky blue colour made up of rectangular shapes. The walls were white and the windows plain glass, not stained glass as I expected. Overall, it is a simple, cheerful little church with an amazing view of the nearby fjord.
Because the museum was not open when we visited we had to be happy having a look around outside the turf houses and visiting the little church.
Open 10am-6pm from 15th May to 15th September.
From journal The Land of Fire and Ice, Part I