Icelandic tales – Hallgrímskirkja

The last of my Icelandic posts. Not much here – we didn’t do this church justice. We didn’t go up in the tower, we didn’t even go into the church very far, just the lobby. There was a wedding going on when we visited in daylight so we were kept out, and it was closed at night when we went by. But it is impressive enough from the outside. The church is named after an Icelandic poet, Hallgrímur Pétursson.

The statue of Leif Ericsson is located in front of the church. As a child, I was familiar with knowing that the Viking Leif Ericsson discovered the North America many years before Christopher Columbus. But I don’t think I knew he was Icelandic. The statue is by Alexander Stirling Calder and it was a gift from the US to Iceland to commemorate the 1000-year anniversary of Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament. 1000 years!

The rainbow street is a symbol of LGBTQ pride and leads directly to the church. Nice juxtaposition. In the shot below, I just missed the black cat in the middle of crossing the street. In a few moments, the street emptied out.

I really like the photo below. It shows the texture of the exterior. The church was built to echo the physical features of the country, in this case the basalt columns. You can barely see it, but snow is falling.

This nighttime view of the church is magnificent.