Statues & monuments in Iceland

Sun Voyager

The Sun Voyager (Sólfar) is a stainless steel sculpture on the Sæbraut seafront in Reykjavík, about a 10-minute walk east of Harpa. Most people walk up expecting a Viking ship, but its creator, Jón Gunnar Árnason, described it as a dreamboat and an ode to the sun, a vessel for the promise of undiscovered territory and freedom. His design won a 1986 competition to mark 200 years since Reykjavík received its town charter. Árnason died in 1989, before the full-size piece was finished, and the Sun Voyager sculpture was unveiled on the city's birthday, August 18, 1990. It is polished stainless steel set on a ring of granite slabs. Much of the pull comes from where it stands. Faxaflói bay opens up behind the sculpture, with Mount Esja across the water, and the steel picks up whatever the sky is doing, from pale winter noon light to the long glow of a June night. Around the summer solstice the sun dips below the horizon for only a few hours, so a visit near midnight is easy and often the quietest time of all. The Reykjavík Sun Voyager is outdoors, free and open around the clock all year. From here the paved seafront path continues toward the Old Harbour in one direction and Höfði House in the other. Fifteen minutes is plenty unless you are waiting for light, and in the middle of the day tour groups fill the space, so early morning or late evening works best for photos. On clear winter nights some visitors wait here for the northern lights, though streetlights along Sæbraut wash out fainter displays. Sæbraut itself is a busy road, so cross at the lights, and keep off the sculpture.

Bridge Between Continents

The Bridge Between Continents is a steel footbridge across a sand-floored fissure at Sandvík on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland, where the North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart by about 2 centimeters a year. A few dozen steps take you from North America to Europe, at least symbolically. It helps to know what you're looking at. The plate boundary here is a wide rift zone full of cracks, so this gully is one of many rather than a single dividing line. Still, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rarely shows itself this plainly on land, and signboards at the site explain the geology. The bridge went up in 2002, and you can also walk down onto the black sand floor of the fissure to look up at the lava walls on either side. The Reykjanes Peninsula Bridge Between Continents is on Road 425 between Hafnir and the Reykjanes lighthouse, about 20 minutes' drive from Keflavík Airport and around an hour from Reykjavík. A signposted parking lot sits a short walk away. Entry is free, the site is open all year, and 15 to 30 minutes is enough, which makes it an easy stop on the way to or from a flight. For proof you crossed, ask for a personalized certificate at the information center in the Folk Museum in Garður, or request one from Reykjanes Geopark by email. Afterward, carry on south to the Brimketill rock pool, the Gunnuhver hot spring and the Reykjanes lighthouse, or east to the Blue Lagoon for a soak. Earthquakes on Reykjanes have opened new cracks and widened old ones near several sites, including this one. Stay on the marked paths, keep back from visible cracks and edges, and check the official safety and road-conditions updates before you go, since conditions on the peninsula can change with volcanic activity.

Höfði House

Höfði House is a white timber house on the Reykjavík waterfront where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in October 1986 and came close to a deal on cutting their nuclear arsenals. That meeting is widely seen as the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and inside, the flags of the United States and the Soviet Union still hang crossed to mark it. The building is older than the summit by almost 80 years. It was designed in Norway, shipped to Iceland and put up at Félagstún in 1909 for the French consul, Jean-Paul Brillouin, whose name and the year are lettered in gold on a door inside. The poet and entrepreneur Einar Benediktsson lived here next. From 1938 until the end of World War II, Höfði was the British consulate, a period when both Winston Churchill and Marlene Dietrich visited. Reykjavík bought the house in 1958, restored it, and has used it for official receptions since 1967. In August 1991, Iceland signed its recognition of the restored independence of the Baltic states here. A fire on the house's 100th birthday in 2009 damaged the building but spared its irreplaceable contents, and because Höfði is still a working reception house, most visitors see it from the outside. That makes this a short stop, 15 to 30 minutes on the lawn reading the plaques and looking out over the bay toward Mount Esja. It sits on the shore path about a 10-minute walk east of the Sun Voyager sculpture, and the statue of Einar Benediktsson by Ásmundur Sveinsson stands close by. There's no charge and the grounds are open all year, so it fits easily into a walk between the harbor and Laugardalur.

Reykjavík City Hall

Reykjavík City Hall (Ráðhús Reykjavíkur) is the seat of the city council, a concrete building standing in the water at Tjarnargata 11 on the northern edge of Tjörnin, the pond in the old center. Most people walk straight past it, but the ground-floor hall holds one of the best free sights in the capital: a three-dimensional model of the whole of Iceland, laid out on the floor. The building was inaugurated on April 14, 1992, and still houses the city council and its offices. The public part is Tjarnarsalur, a large hall used for exhibitions, meetings and community events. The relief map of Iceland is the reason to go. Built at a scale of 1:50,000 with the height doubled so the mountains read clearly, it covers 76.4 square meters in 57 sections, 43 of land and 14 of sea. It was started in 1985 from layers of 1 mm cardboard cut along the contour lines, and seeing the glaciers, fjords and highlands at once makes the rest of your trip easier to picture. City hall in Reykjavík is open weekdays 08:00–18:00, Saturdays 10:00–18:00 and Sundays 12:00–18:00, and entry is free and open to everyone. The map stands in the west side of Tjarnarsalur, so it's off view whenever the hall is booked for an event, and the city announces any closure dates in advance. Plan on 15 to 30 minutes. Afterward, carry on around the pond toward the Parliament House and Austurvöllur square, both a couple of minutes away on foot.

Alþingishúsið

Alþingishúsið is the Icelandic parliament building, a plain house of dark gray stone facing Austurvöllur square in central Reykjavík. For a national parliament it's surprisingly modest, small enough to miss if you're hurrying past, yet it houses an assembly that first met in the open air at Þingvellir in 930 and moved in here when the house was finished in 1881. The Danish architect Ferdinand Meldahl designed it, and it was built in 1880 and 1881 from hewn Icelandic dolerite. On the facade, look for reliefs of Iceland's four guardian spirits, a dragon, a vulture, a giant and a bull, the same figures that appear on the national coat of arms. A round extension called Kringlan was added in 1908, and a modern annex followed in 2002. Because it's a working parliament, you see most of the Parliament House in Reykjavík from the square, but you can still go inside to watch a debate. The public gallery is entered from the east side of the building, and sittings are open to the public. Alþingi normally sits Monday to Thursday, starting at 3 pm on Monday, 1:30 pm on Tuesday, 3 pm on Wednesday and 10:30 am on Thursday, with breaks during recesses. Guided tours of the interior are free and last 45 to 60 minutes, but they run only outside session times and mainly for groups with an educational purpose, booked well in advance. For most travelers, 15 minutes on Austurvöllur is enough, ideally combined with Dómkirkjan next door, Reykjavík City Hall and the Tjörnin pond, all within a few minutes' walk.

Imagine Peace Tower

The Imagine Peace Tower is an outdoor artwork by Yoko Ono on Viðey, a small island just off Reykjavík, dedicated to John Lennon and unveiled on October 9, 2007, which would have been his 67th birthday. Its base is a white stone wishing well carved with the words "Imagine Peace" in 24 languages, and for a few months each year a column of light is projected straight up from it into the clouds. The light runs on a fixed schedule. It switches on at 20:00 on October 9, Lennon's birthday, and shines until morning. Through the rest of October it runs from 20:00 to midnight, in November from 19:00 to midnight and in December from 18:00 to midnight, with an all-night lighting on New Year's Eve. A few extra dates are added in winter and spring, so check the official schedule before you plan around one. You don't need to leave the mainland to see it, either. On a clear night the beam is visible from much of Reykjavík, and the seafront path along Sæbraut near the Sun Voyager gives an open view across the water. Low cloud catches the light and makes the column look taller, while heavy rain can wash it out almost completely. To stand at the base after dark, you need an evening Imagine Peace Tower tour by boat from Ægisgarður in the Old Harbour. These run on set evenings during the lighting season and take about 1.5 to 2 hours. The regular Viðey ferry from Skarfabakki costs 2,500 ISK return for adults, but from September to mid-May it sails only on weekend afternoons, when the tower is dark. A daytime visit still lets you see the well itself, and in summer the island makes a good half-day walk.

Austurvöllur

Austurvöllur is the old central square of Reykjavík, a lawn framed by trees and benches a short block north of Tjörnin pond, with the Parliament House on its south side. On the first sunny afternoon of spring, half of downtown seems to end up on this patch of grass. Its name means the East Field. Back when Reykjavík was a single farm, this was its best hayfield, and the town grew up around it. Today the square is defined by its neighbors, with Alþingishúsið, the stone Parliament House where the Althing sits, and Dómkirkjan, the city's Lutheran cathedral, on the south side. Cafés, bars and the Art Deco Hótel Borg fill the other edges, which is why the benches stay busy whenever the weather allows. The statue in the middle is Jón Sigurðsson (1811–1879), who led Iceland's 19th-century push for independence. Einar Jónsson made it for the centenary of his birth in 1911, and in 1931 it moved here from outside the Government House on Lækjargata, replacing a statue of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Jón's birthday, June 17, became Iceland's National Day in 1944, and every year the official ceremony takes place on Austurvöllur with a wreath laid at his feet. Facing Parliament has made the square Iceland's natural place to protest. The biggest gatherings came during the 2008–2009 demonstrations after the banks collapsed, when crowds banged pots and pans here for weeks. In December the mood is gentler, as the lights go on in the square's large Christmas tree. The square is public, free and open around the clock. Lækjartorg is two minutes away on foot, and the Settlement Exhibition, City Hall and Tjörnin are all within a few hundred meters, so Austurvöllur is a natural starting point for a walk through the old center. Give it 15 minutes, or an hour if you sit down with a coffee.

Akranes Lighthouse

Akranes Lighthouse is a pair of lighthouses at the western tip of the Akranes peninsula in West Iceland, about 50 minutes' drive north of Reykjavík. The newer tower, Akranesviti, is a white concrete column with a red lantern, and the small square lighthouse it replaced stands out on the rocks a short walk away. The point makes an easy stop on the way from Reykjavík into West Iceland, with open sea on three sides and the Esja range across the bay. Built in 1918, the old Akranes lighthouse went dark in 1947 when the new tower took over. You can walk out to it along the shore. Akranesviti went up in 1943 and 1944 and entered service in 1947. At 22.7 meters, it's the tower you can climb when it's open, up a narrow stairway to a lookout over Faxaflói Bay. Inside, it doubles as a small arts venue for exhibitions and concerts, and musicians have praised its acoustics. Akranes is about 50 km from Reykjavík, roughly 50 minutes by car on Route 1 through the Hvalfjörður tunnel. The lighthouses sit at the end of Breiðargata on the town's western point, a short drive from the center. Give yourself 30 to 45 minutes, more if you climb the tower or catch a concert. Climbing hours change with the season, and published times don't always agree, so confirm with the Akranes information center before you drive out if the climb matters to you. On clear winter nights, locals come out to the point to watch for the northern lights, since it sits away from the town's brightest streetlights.

Borgarvirki

Borgarvirki is a volcanic plug ringed by basalt cliffs on a ridge between Vesturhóp and Víðidalur in Northwest Iceland, topped with stone walls that look like the remains of a castle. Nobody knows for certain who built those walls or when, which is half the appeal of the Borgarvirki fortress. The other half is the view from the rim over the lake Hóp, the Vesturhóp district and the valley of Víðidalur. The rock itself is natural. Borgarvirki rises to 177 m above sea level, with a 10 to 15 m band of columnar basalt around its top. Inside is a horseshoe-shaped hollow about 5 to 6 m deep that opens to the east, and that gap is closed by the largest of the stone walls. Within the hollow lie the ruins of two buildings and a collapsed well. One theory links the site to Barði Guðmundsson of Heiðarvíga saga and his feud with men from Borgarfjörður, while another holds that it was a district stronghold from the Settlement Age. You reach Borgarvirki on Route 717, about 10 km off the Ring Road and 18 km from Hvítserkur, so it fits neatly into a drive around the Vatnsnes peninsula. Hvammstangi is about 30 km away, Akureyri about 2 hours 45 minutes, and Reykjavík about 3 hours 15 minutes. Outside summer, check the official road-conditions map before you turn onto the side roads. A short, steep walk leads from the parking lot up to the rim. The edges drop sharply, so keep children close and stay back from the cliffs in strong wind. Plan on 30 to 45 minutes, and if you have time, Kolugljúfur canyon is about 20 minutes south in Víðidalur.

Garðskagi Lighthouse

Garðskagi Lighthouse stands on the Garðskagi point in Garður, at the northwestern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 15 minutes from Keflavík Airport and under an hour's drive from Reykjavík. You get two lighthouses for one stop here: the tall white tower is the newer light, and down on the shore stands the small red-and-white original. The old lighthouse went up in 1897 and is thought to be the second-oldest concrete structure in Iceland. It has been protected as a heritage site since 2003. Sea spray and erosion were a constant problem that close to the water, so a new tower was built farther inland in 1944. Designed by engineer Axel Sveinsson, the 28.6 m concrete cylinder took about three months to build and is still an active light today. The grassy point around both lighthouses is open to walk at any time, with a parking lot right beside it. On a clear day, you can see Snæfellsjökull glacier across the bay to the north, and the shore is good for birdwatching. Next to the lighthouses, the Garðskagi heritage museum fills the old fish processing buildings with local maritime history and a collection of more than 60 restored engines, almost all of them still in working order. It's open daily 10:00–17:00 from May 1 to September 30, and groups can book visits in winter. There's also a restaurant on site and a campsite on the point. Plan on 30 minutes for the lighthouses alone, or an hour or more with the museum. Garðskagi pairs well with Hvalsneskirkja church to the south, or works as a first or last stop on the way to or from the airport.

Harpa

Harpa is the concert hall and conference center on the Reykjavík waterfront, at Austurbakki 2, a short walk from the city center and the Old Harbour. Opened in 2011, Harpa Reykjavík is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Reykjavík Big Band, with concerts and conferences through the year. Henning Larsen Architects and Batteríið Architects designed the building with the artist Ólafur Elíasson, whose facade of geometric glass panels is the part everyone photographs. On a sunny day those panels throw patches of colored light across the floors inside, and on a gray one they take on the color of the harbor. You don't need a ticket to walk in. The public areas are open Sunday to Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Wednesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Climb the stairs through the foyers for the glass seen from inside and a view over the harbor to Mount Esja. Back on the ground floor are Hnoss Bistro and the Rammagerðin design shop, and the Volcano Express ride runs daily on level K2. To see Eldborg, the main hall, book a concert or join a guided tour. Tours run in English on scheduled dates, last 45 to 60 minutes and cost 5,200 ISK in 2026, with children 12 and under free. Allow 30 minutes for a walk-through on your own, or plan an evening around a performance, which is the best way to hear what the halls were built for. If you're driving, Harpa's underground garage is open 24 hours, with 545 spaces and 13 electric charging points. It's one of the simplest places to park in downtown Reykjavík.

Hvalnes Lighthouse

Hvalnes Lighthouse is a short orange tower on a gravel spit beside Route 1 in Southeast Iceland, about 50 km east of Höfn. Behind it, the dark, jagged peaks of Eystrahorn rise almost straight from the shore, with a pebble beach and a quiet lagoon on either side. For a Ring Road photo stop, few places take less effort. The light dates from the mid-1950s and still guides ships along this part of the coast. At about 12 meters, it is small next to most Icelandic lighthouses, and you can walk around the base but not go inside. The land around it, often called the Hvalnes nature reserve, marks the eastern end of the Lón district. Most people spend 20 to 30 minutes here, walking out to the black pebble Hvalnes beach and back, while wading birds feed along the lagoon shore. From Höfn the drive takes roughly 45 minutes, and coming from the Eastfjords it is about 50 minutes south of Djúpivogur. A short track leads to a small parking area by the lighthouse. There are no facilities, so plan restrooms and coffee in Höfn or Djúpivogur. Wind can be fierce on this exposed spit at any time of year, so hold on to your car door when you open it. Hvalnes pairs well with Vestrahorn, closer to Höfn, which has a similar mountain-and-beach setting, and heading east the Ring Road runs below the steep scree slopes of Hvalnesskriður toward Djúpivogur.

Kirkjugólf

Kirkjugólf is a natural pavement of basalt columns on the eastern edge of Kirkjubæjarklaustur in South Iceland. Its name means church floor, and the flat stone tops do look like tiles laid in a meadow, yet no church ever stood here. So what type of rock is Kirkjugólf made of? It's basalt. When a lava flow cooled, it contracted and cracked into columns, most of them five- or six-sided, and here only their flat tops reach the surface. Glaciers and waves later wore them smooth, which is why this patch of about 80 square meters looks so much like hand-laid tiling. For a long time people assumed the floor was man-made, and many believed the medieval convent of Kirkjubær once stood on it. Around 1940 the ground beside the stones was dug out 3 to 4 m deep, and the columns kept going until the diggers reached groundwater, which settled the question. The convent turned out to have stood a little to the southwest, and Kirkjugólf has been a protected natural monument since 1987. The site lies by Route 203 (Geirlandsvegur), which branches off the Ring Road at Kirkjubæjarklaustur. A small parking lot on Route 203 serves it, and a short path, rebuilt in 2021, leads across the field to the stones. You can also walk over from the village or the campsite, and Vík is about an hour's drive west. Fifteen minutes is enough for most people, and you can visit year-round. Overnight stays are banned at the parking lot, so use one of the village campsites instead. Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon is about 12 minutes away by car, which makes the two an easy pairing.

Malarrif Lighthouse

Malarrif Lighthouse is a white concrete tower on a lava headland at the southern tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland, almost directly below the summit of Snæfellsjökull. It makes a quick, easy stop in Snæfellsjökull National Park and marks the start of one of the best short coastal walks on the peninsula. The first light at Malarrif was built in 1917, and the current tower replaced it in 1946. Because it still works as a navigation light, you can't go inside, but you can walk right up to its base and along the cliff edge. People fished from this headland for centuries, and the national park's visitor center beside the lighthouse has an exhibition on the area's nature and its old fishing station. From the lighthouse, a marked path follows the coast east to the basalt sea stacks of Lóndrangar, which rise from the shore just over a kilometer away. It is an easy walk on mostly level ground. Head west by car instead and you reach Djúpalónssandur beach in a few minutes. Malarrif sits about 2 kilometers down a side road from Route 574, roughly 10 minutes west of Arnarstapi and about 3 hours from Reykjavík. The national park is open all year and free to enter. In summer the visitor center opens daily from 11:00 to 16:00, so check ahead if you're coming at another time of year.

Reykjanesviti Lighthouse

Reykjanesviti Lighthouse is a white concrete tower on Bæjarfell hill at the southwestern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 25 minutes' drive from Keflavík Airport. It carries on the job of Iceland's very first lighthouse and looks out over lava fields, steaming ground and a heavy Atlantic swell. Iceland's first lighthouse went up in 1878 on Valahnúkur, the sea cliff just below the hill. Earthquakes and wave erosion undermined it within a decade, so the current tower was built on Bæjarfell in 1907 and 1908, and the old one was demolished. The light still works today and was placed on Iceland's list of protected lighthouses in 2003. The Reykjanes lighthouse makes an easy stop on the way to or from the airport, roughly an hour from Reykjavík, reached through Reykjanesbær on Route 44 and then Route 425. A short path climbs the hill to the base of the tower, though you can't go inside. The best views come from the Reykjanes lighthouse cliffs at Valahnúkur, where the rock drops straight into the surf and a bronze sculpture remembers the great auk, a seabird hunted to extinction in the 1840s. Give yourself 30 to 45 minutes for the hill and the cliffs, or longer if you add the Gunnuhver hot springs about a kilometer away. Wind here can be ferocious, so stay well back from the cliff edges. Because the peninsula has had repeated eruptions since 2021, check the official road-conditions map and safety alerts for closures before you drive.