Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík: The Church and Its Tower

From almost anywhere in Reykjavík, and from far out across the bay, one building marks the centre of the city: a pale concrete tower on the hill of Skólavörðuholt, its sides falling away in stepped columns like a mountain or a cliff of basalt. Hallgrímskirkja (often written Hallgrimskirkja in English) is the largest church in Iceland and the tallest building in Reykjavík, a Lutheran parish church that took 41 years to build and was named after the country’s most loved hymn writer. This guide covers the poet behind the name, the long story of the building, what to look for inside, and the practical side of a visit: going up the tower, how long to allow and how much walking is involved. On Day 2 of our Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour, the group explores Hallgrímskirkja as part of a field trip to the icons of the capital.

Hallgrímur Pétursson, the poet behind the name

The church is a memorial to Hallgrímur Pétursson, born in 1614 at Gröf on Höfðaströnd and raised at the bishop’s seat of Hólar, and still regarded as Iceland’s greatest religious poet. His early life was anything but settled. As a boy he made his way to Copenhagen, where he worked as a blacksmith’s apprentice, until the influence of Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson won him a place at the Vor Frue Skole, the Latin school of the Church of Our Lady.

In 1636 the young student was given an unusual task. A group of Icelanders who had been seized in 1627 in the raid known as the Turkish Abductions, when pirates from North Africa carried off well over 200 people from the Westman Islands, had been ransomed by King Christian IV and sent to Denmark. Hallgrímur was asked to refresh their Christian faith. Among them was Guðríður Símonardóttir, sixteen years older than he was. They fell in love, she bore him a son, and they married in 1638, returning to Iceland where Hallgrímur worked as a labourer and fisherman before being ordained. He served as parson at Saurbær in Hvalfjörður from 1651 to 1669.

There, between 1656 and 1659, he wrote the 50 Passion Hymns (Passíusálmar), meditations on the suffering and death of Christ. They were first printed in 1666 and have been reprinted dozens of times since; Britannica notes they remain Icelanders’ most cherished devotional work. Hallgrímur contracted leprosy in later life, and the pain he knew runs through the hymns. He died on 27 October 1674. The three great bells in the tower carry the names Hallgrímur, Guðríður and Steinunn: the poet, his wife and their daughter, who died in childhood.

A church 41 years in the making

The idea of a large church on Skólavörðuholt came with Reykjavík’s growth in the early twentieth century. The hill takes its name from a cairn, the Skólavarða, built there in 1793. In 1929 a design competition was announced, and the parliament’s brief asked for a church seating 1,200 people with a high tower that might also carry radio transmitters. Radio and telephone companies still use the tower for broadcasting today.

The commission went to Guðjón Samúelsson, Iceland’s State Architect since 1920, who began work on the design in 1937. It was his last major work, and he did not live to see it built: he died in 1950. Construction began in 1945, and in 1948 the crypt beneath the choir was consecrated and brought into use as a church hall. Progress then slowed for decades, with two-thirds of the cost raised from church funds and private donations rather than the state. The tower and its wings were completed in 1974, and a hall in the south wing came into service that year. The nave was finally consecrated on 26 October 1986, the eve of the 312th anniversary of Hallgrímur’s death and the year Reykjavík celebrated 200 years as a town.

Basalt, glaciers and Guðjón Samúelsson

Samúelsson wanted a national architecture rooted in Icelandic landscape and materials, and Hallgrímskirkja is the clearest statement of that idea. The church describes the design as symbolising mountains and glaciers, and the ranks of vertical concrete ribs that step down from the tower to the wings are usually read as columnar basalt, the hexagonal rock pillars that form where lava cools slowly. Iceland is full of them; one of the best-known examples frames the waterfall of Svartifoss in Skaftafell.

The result is hard to pin to a single style. Architectural historians often call it Expressionist, and its tall pointed arches also nod to Gothic churches; Copenhagen’s Grundtvig’s Church, finished in 1940, is often cited as an influence. Not everyone admired it while it rose slowly over the city, and critics called it old-fashioned and a mix of styles. If you travel around the island you will meet Samúelsson’s work again: he also designed the National Theatre and the main building of the University of Iceland in Reykjavík, the Catholic cathedral at Landakot, and the church in Akureyri.

What do you see inside Hallgrímskirkja?

Inside, the church is tall, white and almost bare, a calm contrast with the drama of the exterior. Slender concrete columns rise into pointed vaults, and tall clear windows fill the nave with plain northern light. The decoration is restrained and mostly modern. The artist Leifur Breiðfjörð made the main door, the windows of the nave doors and the pulpit, and the baptismal font of 2001, which sets a bowl of lead crystal on a base of Icelandic basalt; the pulpit glass reproduces passages from Hallgrímur’s own manuscript. Look too for The Martyr, a sculpture by Sigurjón Ólafsson, the statue of Christ given by the sculptor Einar Jónsson in 1948, and icons of the archangels Gabriel and Michael on either side of the chancel by Kristín Gunnlaugsdóttir.

The great feature of the interior stands in the gallery at the back: the concert organ built by Johannes Klais of Bonn and inaugurated in December 1992. It is the largest organ in Iceland, with four manuals, 72 stops and 5,275 pipes, the longest of them 10 metres. It stands 15 metres high and weighs 25 tonnes. A smaller chancel organ by Frobenius of Denmark has been in use since 1985.

Leifur Eiríksson and the square

The bronze figure on the square in front of the church is older than the building behind it. The statue of Leifur Eiríksson, the Norse explorer who reached North America around the year 1000, was the work of the American sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder and a gift from the United States to mark the thousandth anniversary of the Althing, Iceland’s parliament, in 1930, and it was in place on the hill by the early 1930s. Our article on the Althing and its millennium tells that story. The statue stands on a red granite base shaped like the prow of a ship, and an identical twin stands in Newport News, Virginia.

Is it worth going up the Hallgrímskirkja tower?

Yes, on a clear day the tower gives the best overview of Reykjavík you can get, and it is the easiest high viewpoint in the city. The church gives the tower’s height as 73 metres (some sources give 74.5 metres), and from the top you look down on the coloured roofs of the old town, the harbour and the bay, with Mount Esja across the water and, in good conditions, mountains far to the north and west. On a day of low cloud or driving rain the view can shrink to almost nothing, so if your schedule is flexible, pick the clearest morning.

Tower tickets are sold in the church shop, to the left as you enter the foyer. At the time of writing they cannot be booked in advance, for individuals or groups, and a ticket is valid for one visit on the day it is bought, so the main way to avoid a wait is to come early or late in the day. The church is open daily, with longer hours in summer than in winter.

How long do you need at Hallgrímskirkja?

Allow about an hour for the church, the square and the tower, and a little longer if there is a queue for the lift or you want to sit and listen to the organ. The nave itself can be seen in 20 to 30 minutes. Because the church sits at the top of Skólavörðustígur, one of the main streets of the old town, it is easy to combine with a walk down the hill towards the shops, the harbour and the older parts of the city covered in our guide to Reykjavík’s history and sights.

How much walking and climbing is involved?

Less than the height suggests: a lift takes visitors most of the way up the tower, to the eighth floor, but the top viewing level is reached by stairs and has no wheelchair access. The church notes that the eighth-floor view is itself very good, so anyone who would rather not tackle the final stairs still gets the panorama. Ground-floor access to the nave is good for wheelchair users. The main effort is reaching the church at all: it stands on Skólavörðuholt, a hill above the old town, and every approach from the harbour is uphill. In winter, pavements and the open square can be icy and the wind on Skólavörðuholt is often strong and cold, so wear shoes with good grip and dress in layers. Check the Icelandic Met Office forecast, and safetravel.is for current warnings, before you go.

When is the tower closed?

The tower closes during Sunday morning services and is also restricted during funerals, ceremonies and some concerts, so check the church’s calendar before you plan around it. At the time of writing, the church and tower are usually closed for about two hours around the Sunday morning service, and hours can change on religious and public holidays. As a working parish church, it asks visitors to speak softly in the nave, avoid phone calls, and bring no food into the nave or tower.

Hallgrímskirkja on Day 2 of the tour

Hallgrímskirkja is one of the city icons the group explores on Day 2, the first full day of the tour. The day starts with a morning lecture on contemporary Iceland, followed by a field trip around the capital: a stop at Perlan for a panoramic view of the city, the stark white Hallgrímskirkja, the old Parliament, the modern city hall and the National Museum of Iceland, which traces the history of the nation from settlement to the present. Our piece on Iceland’s museum collections gives background for that visit. In the afternoon the group heads to the Blue Lagoon for its warm geothermal waters, before returning to Reykjavík for an evening at leisure.

From there the route runs right around the island, starting with Thingvellir National Park on Day 3; our day-by-day Iceland ring road itinerary follows the full circuit. The tour is rated Level 2, Moderate: three to five hours of activity a day, with up to 8 kilometres of walking on uneven ground, and an Odyssey Program Leader travels with the group throughout. For a wider look at how escorted travel works in Iceland, see our guide to Iceland small group tours for mature travellers.

Hallgrímskirkja rewards a visit on two levels: as a viewpoint over a small capital at the edge of the Atlantic, and as a monument to a poet whose hymns Icelanders have read for more than three centuries. On the Iceland cultural and wilderness tour, a small group of up to 16 travellers sees it on the first full day in Reykjavík, with an Odyssey Program Leader, before setting out on the long journey around the island.