Museums

Museums in Reykjavik

Reykjavik is home to several excellent museums that will help any visitor gain a deeper understanding of the country’s history, culture, and way of life. From the Settlement Exhibition on Adalstraeti, which contains a recently unearthed and well-preserved Viking longhouse dwelling, to World in Words at Edda, where some of Iceland’s oldest and most-important manuscripts, including the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, have been on display since November 2024, you’ll find plenty of history alive and well here. The National Museum of Iceland on Sudurgata tells the whole story, from settlement to the present day, in its permanent exhibition, Making of a Nation. At each of these museums you can learn all about the history of Iceland and what life was like for early settlers.

If you’re more interested in the artistic expression of Iceland, you can visit the Reykjavik Art Museum, over 3,000 square meters of space spread amongst three buildings, or check out one of the rotating exhibits at the Museum of Photography. The old Culture House on Hverfisgata, where the manuscripts used to be shown, is now the House of Collections, part of the National Gallery of Iceland.

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Museums around Iceland

Some of the best museums are out in the countryside, and many of them are right on the road you’ll be driving anyway.

• Skogar Museum, Skogar (South Iceland): a folk museum, an open-air museum of old Icelandic buildings, and a museum of transport and technology, a minute from Skogafoss waterfall.
• LAVA Centre, Hvolsvollur (South Iceland): an interactive exhibition on the volcanoes and earthquakes that shaped Iceland, plus a cinema.
• Eldheimar, Heimaey (Westman Islands): built around a house dug out of the ash from the 1973 eruption that buried part of the town.
• Settlement Centre, Borgarnes (West Iceland): two exhibitions, one on the settlement of Iceland and one on Egil’s Saga, which was set in the area.
• Snorrastofa, Reykholt (West Iceland): an exhibition on Snorri Sturluson, the medieval writer and chieftain who lived here, with audio guides in 12 languages.
• Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft, Holmavik (Westfjords): magical objects, sorcery, folk tales and the 17th-century witch trials, with a small restaurant on site.
• Glaumbaer, near Varmahlid (North Iceland): the Skagafjordur Heritage Museum, set in a well-preserved turf farmhouse and open all year.
• Herring Era Museum, Siglufjordur (North Iceland): Iceland’s largest maritime museum, spread over three buildings that bring back the town’s herring boom, including an old salting station and a boathouse full of fishing boats.
• Akureyri Art Museum, Akureyri (North Iceland): rotating art exhibitions on Kaupvangsstraeti in the center of town.
• Husavik Whale Museum, Husavik (North Iceland): 13 whale skeletons and exhibits on whale biology and conservation, in the town best known for whale watching.