Akureyri Museum

About Akureyri Museum

The Akureyri Museum tells the story of North Iceland's largest town from inside its oldest neighborhood. Known in Icelandic as Minjasafnið á Akureyri, it's on Aðalstræti in Innbærinn, the old town at the south end of Akureyri, next door to Nonni's House.

The permanent exhibition, Akureyri: The Town by the Bay, traces the history of the town and the fjord through objects and photographs from daily life in Eyjafjörður. Temporary shows rotate through the other rooms. In 2026 they include Under Occupation, on the British, American, Norwegian and Canadian troops stationed in the fjord during World War II, and early maps of Iceland from the Schulte collection, among them the oldest known printed map of the country, from 1507.

Outside, two smaller sights are worth a few minutes. The Museum Church is a small church built in 1846 across the fjord and later moved here, with a chandelier from 1688 and an altarpiece from 1806. The garden around it began in 1899 as Iceland's first tree nursery, and in 2000 it held the tallest birch tree measured in the country.

One ticket covers the Akureyri Museum and six other museums the same organization runs, including Nonni's House, and it stays valid for a full year. It costs 2,800 ISK for adults and 2,200 ISK for those 67 and over, and visitors under 18 get in free. From June to September the museum is open daily from 11:00 to 17:00, and from October to May daily from 13:00 to 16:00.

Plan on about an hour, or longer if you add Nonni's House. The museum is about 2 km south of the town center and an easy walk, which makes it a good pick for cruise passengers with a few free hours in Akureyri.