Akureyri Church
Gudjon Samuelsson's 1940 hilltop church above Akureyri, reached by a long flight of steps.
Akureyri Church stands on a rock terrace above the town centre, approached by a flight of stone steps from Kaupvangsstraeti. It was designed by Gudjon Samuelsson, Iceland's first state architect and the author of Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik, and consecrated in 1940. The twin towers and stepped basalt-column forms draw on the same vocabulary as his Reykjavik work, adapted here to a smaller parish church for the largest town in northern Iceland.
The interior holds a good deal worth pausing over. Stained glass above the altar was brought from England, with the central panel said to have come from Coventry Cathedral. Reliefs on the nave gallery are by the sculptor Asmundur Sveinsson, and the font follows a design by Bertel Thorvaldsen. A model ship hangs from the ceiling, a votive offering of a kind long made in Icelandic churches for those at sea. The organ carries some three thousand pipes.
Highlights
- Twin-towered 1940 design by the state architect Gudjon Samuelsson
- Stained glass from England, the central panel linked to Coventry Cathedral
- Gallery reliefs by the sculptor Asmundur Sveinsson
- Votive model ship suspended above the nave
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