Árbæjarsafn er útisafn sem var stofnað árið 1957 en auk Árbæjar eru þar yfir tuttugu hús, sem mynda torg, þorp og sveit. Í Árbæjarsafni er leitast við að gefa hugmynd um byggingalist og lifnaðarhætti í Reykjavík á 19. og 20. öld. Hvert og eitt hús geymir annaðhvort sjálfstæða sögusýningu eða þá að þar er sýnt dæmigert heimili frá ákveðnu tímabili. Á safninu má einnig sjá gamaldags verkstæði ýmiskonar þar sem sjá má dæmigerða aðstöðu, tækni og tól.

Árbær was an established farm well into the 20th century, and the museum opened there in 1957. Árbær is now an open-air museum with more than 20 buildings which form a town square, a village and a farm. Most of the buildings have been relocated from central Reykjavik. The Museum seeks to give an idea of Reykjavik's architecture and way of life in the 19th and 20th centuries. Each house contains an independent historical exhibition or a typical home from a specific period. The museum also houses old-fashioned workshops on typical facilities, technology, and tools.

The guide takes guests to all the main houses of the museum and tells their stories. The guided tour is in English and takes just over an hour.

Guided tour at Árbær Open Air Museum

Leiðsögumaður fer með gesti í öll helstu hús Árbæjarsafns og segir frá sögu þeirra. Leiðsögnin fer að mestu fram á ensku og tekur rúma klukkastund.

Leiðsögn á Árbæjarsafni

Leiðsögn

Varðskipið Óðinn er hluti af Sjóminjasafninu og um leið ein helsta sýning safnsins. Skipið kom til safnsins árið 2008 og er varðveitt í því ástandi sem það kom. Boðið er upp á leiðsagnir á hverjum degi fyrir utan köldustu vetrarmánuðina auk þess sem skipið er opið gestum á hátíðisdögum sem er þá sérstaklega auglýst. 

Í leiðsögn er gengið um skipið, sagt frá sögu þess, lífinu um borð og því hlutverki sem að það gegndi hjá Landhelgisgæslu Íslands. Hver leiðsögn tekur tæplega klukkustund.

Til þess að tryggja öryggi um borð skal hafa í huga:

Lágt getur verið til lofts og hvassar brúnir og horn sem hægt er að reka sig í. Stigar eru brattir. Skipið hentar ekki fólki sem fær innilokunarkennd eða hefur skerta hreyfigetu. Börn yngri en 12 ára skulu ætíð vera í fylgd með fullorðnum.

Börn eru á ábyrgð forráðamanna.

The Coast Guard Vessel Óðinn is a part of the Reykjavík Maritime Museum. It is, as such, one of the Maritime Museum's primary exhibitions. It is preserved in the condition in which it arrived at the museum in 2008.

We offer daily guided tours on board the vessel except during the coldest winter months. It is also open to the public on national holidays, which we announce especially.

A guided tour includes walking around the vessel and hearing about the history on board and its role under the Icelandic Coast Guard. Each guided tour takes a little less than an hour.

To ensure safety on board, you should keep the following in mind:

The ceiling can be low, and please beware of sharp edges. The stairs are steep. The ship is not suited for people with claustrophobia or with reduced mobility.

We offer daily guided tours at 13:00, 14:00, and 15:00 on board the Coast Guard vessel Óðinn from 1 March to 31 October, focusing on the Cod Wars and the vessel's rescue history. Welcome aboard!

The Coast Guard Vessel Óðinn - guided tour on board

Við bjóðum daglegar leiðsagnir  kl. 13, 14 og 15 frá 1. mars til 31. október í hinu sögufræga varðskipi Óðni þar sem þorskastríðin og björgunarsaga skipsins eru í brennidepli. Velkomin um borð!

Varðskipið Óðinn - leiðsögn um borð

Dillonshús Café verður opið og býður upp á ljúffengar veitingar í notalegu umhverfi.

Öll velkomin!

Aðgengi: Gangstígar á safnsvæðinu eru flestir malarstígar. Inn í flest húsin er gengið upp eitt þrep eða yfir þröskuld. Hjálparhundar eru velkomnir í safnið.
Strætisvagnar: Næsta stoppistöð heitir Árbæjarsafn (1 mín. gangur). Aðrar nálægar stoppistöðvar heita Laxakvísl og Fagribær (5-6 mín. gangur).
Bílastæði fyrir hreyfihamlaða eru við inngang safnsins.
Öll bílastæði eru ókeypis.

Dillon's House Café will be open and offers delicious refreshments in a cozy environment.

Everyone is welcome!

Accessibility: The museum’s footpaths are mainly gravel. Many historic houses have steps and thresholds. Service dogs are welcome.
Public Transport:
Nearest bus stop: Árbæjarsafn (1-minute walk).
Other stops: Laxakvísl and Fagribær (5–6 minutes away).
Free parking, including blue-badge parking spots opposite the entrance, is available.

Welcome to Árbær Open Air Museum on the Sundays of 28 June and 10 August at 13:00-16:00. 
Then the village comes to life at the museum, and visitors get to experience various tasks and daily life in a village from days gone by.

Village Life

Verið velkomin á Árbæjarsafn sunnudagana 28. júní og 10. ágúst kl. 13–16.
Þá vaknar þorpið til lífsins á safninu og gestir fá að kynnast fjölbreyttum störfum og daglegu lífi í þorpum fyrri tíma.

Lífið í þorpinu

Fræðsla

Sýning

Á hátíðinni, sem haldin er í minningu stofnanda hennar Karls Jónatanssonar harmóníkufrumkvöðuls, koma fram margir af landsins bestu og þekktustu harmóníkuleikurum í fallegu umhverfi safnsins.
Þetta er í 27. skiptið sem Harmóníkuhátíðin er haldin og hefur þetta oftar en ekki verið einn af vinsælli viðburðum Árbæjarsafns á hverju sumri.

Á safninu geta gestir, ungir sem aldnir jafnframt fylgst með og tekið virkan þátt í heyönnum eins og þær tíðkuðust fyrir daga heyvinnuvéla, með þeim fyrirvara að veður haldist þurrt. Um aldir höfðu Íslendingar engin önnur verkfæri en ljá, orf og hrífu til að afla vetrarforðans. Víða var heyjað upp á gamla mátann fram yfir miðja síðustu öld, en nú eru gömlu handbrögðin sjaldséð í sveitum landsins. Missið ekki af þessu tækifæri til að komast í kynni við orf, ljá og hrífur og að taka þannig virkan þátt í heyönnum á Árbæjarsafni.

Athugið að heyannir geta fallið niður ef veður er óhagstætt en þá er í hið minnsta alltaf hægt að skemmta sér við fallega harmóníkutóna og kíkja í kaffi á kaffihús safnsins í Dillonshúsi.

Dagskráin stendur frá klukkan 13-16 en safnið er opið 10-17. Ókeypis aðgangur fyrir börn, öryrkja og menningarkortshafa.
Öll velkomin!

The festival, which is held in memory of its founder, accordion pioneer Karl Jónatansson, will feature many of the country's best and most well-known accordion players in the beautiful surroundings of the museum.
This is the 27th time that the Accordion Festival is held, and it has often been one of Árbær Open Air Museum's most popular events each summer.

At the museum, visitors of all ages can also observe and actively participate in haymaking as it was done before the days of haymaking machines, provided the weather remains dry. For centuries, Icelanders had no other tools than a scythe, a sickle, and a rake to gather their winter provisions. Haymaking was done in the old-fashioned way until the middle of the last century, but now the old methods are rarely seen in the countryside of the Iceland. Don't miss this opportunity to get acquainted with a scythe, a sickle and a rake and thus take an active part in the haymaking at Árbær Open Air Museum.

Please note that haymaking may be cancelled if the weather is unfavorable, but at least you can always enjoy beautiful accordion tunes and a coffee at the museum's café at Dillon's House.

The program runs from 13:00 to16:00, but the museum is open 10:00-17:00. Free admission for children, the disabled and culture card holders.
Everyone is welcome!

The Reykjavík Accordion Festival will be held in collaboration with Árbær Open Air Museum on Sunday 13 July at 13:00-16:00.

The Reykjavík Accordion Festival and Haymaking

Harmóníkuhátíð Reykjavíkur verður venju samkvæmt haldin í samstarfi við Árbæjarsafn, sunnudaginn 13. júlí og stendur frá kl. 13 til 16.

Harmóníkuhátíð og heyannir

Í ár verður haldið upp á 10 ára afmæli dagsins með sérstakri dagskrá.

Aðeins hundar sem taka þátt í kynningunni munu fá aðgang að safninu.
Í haga er jafnframt að finna ýmis húsdýr. Landnámshænurnar vappa frjálsar um safnið.

Safnið er opið frá kl. 10 –17 en dagskráin hefst kl. 14.

Ókeypis aðgangur fyrir börn, öryrkja og menningarkortshafa.
Öll velkomin!

Aðgengi: Gangstígar á safnsvæðinu eru flestir malarstígar. Inn í flest húsin er gengið upp eitt þrep eða yfir þröskuld. Hjálparhundar eru velkomnir í safnið.
Strætisvagnar: Næsta stoppistöð heitir Árbæjarsafn (1 mín. gangur). Aðrar nálægar stoppistöðvar heita Laxakvísl og Fagribær (5-6 mín. gangur).
Bílastæði fyrir hreyfihamlaða eru við inngang safnsins.
Öll bílastæði eru ókeypis.

This year, the 10th anniversary of the day will be celebrated with a special program.

Only dogs that participate in the presentation will be allowed access to the museum.

There are also various farm animals within the museum area. The settlement chickens roam freely around the museum.

The museum is open from 10:00 to 17:00, but the program starts at 14:00.

Free admission for children, the disabled and culture card holders.
Everyone is welcome!

Accessibility: The museum’s footpaths are mainly gravel. Many historic houses have steps and thresholds. Service dogs are welcome.
Public Transport:
Nearest bus stop: Árbæjarsafn (1-minute walk).
Other stops: Laxakvísl and Fagribær (5–6 minutes away).
Free parking, including blue-badge parking spots opposite the entrance, is available.

On Friday, 18 July, Icelandic Sheepdog Day will be celebrated at Árbær Open Air Museum. There, it will be possible to greet the dogs and their owners who will happily answer all questions about the Icelandic Sheepdog. The dogs are sweet and smart and it is safe to pet them with the owners' permission.

Icelandic Sheepdog Day

Föstudaginn 18. júlí, verður haldið upp á Dag íslenska fjárhundsins á Árbæjarsafni. Hægt verður að heilsa upp á hunda og eigendur þeirra sem glaðir svara öllum spurningum um hinn íslenska fjárhund. Hundarnir eru ljúfir og spakir og óhætt er að klappa þeim með leyfi eigenda.

Dagur íslenska fjárhundsins

Aðgengi: Gangstígar á safnsvæðinu eru flestir malarstígar. Inn í flest húsin er gengið upp eitt þrep eða yfir þröskuld. Hjálparhundar eru velkomnir í safnið.
Strætisvagnar: Næsta stoppistöð heitir Árbæjarsafn (1 mín. gangur). Aðrar nálægar stoppistöðvar heita Laxakvísl og Fagribær (5-6 mín. gangur).
Bílastæði fyrir hreyfihamlaða eru við inngang safnsins.
Öll bílastæði eru ókeypis.

Accessibility: The museum’s footpaths are mainly gravel. Many historic houses have steps and thresholds. Service dogs are welcome.
Public Transport:
Nearest bus stop: Árbæjarsafn (1-minute walk).
Other stops: Laxakvísl and Fagribær (5–6 minutes away).
Free parking, including blue-badge parking spots opposite the entrance, is available.

This summer, the 50th anniversary of ISLEK – the Nordic folk dance festival that has united dance enthusiasts from the Nordic countries since 1975 – will be celebrated 🇮🇸🇬🇱🇫🇴🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴🇫🇮
This year, the festival will be held for the ninth time, and on Saturday, 19 July, guests dressed in national costumes from Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland will perform folk dances throughout Árbær Open Air Museum's grounds.
From 14:00 to 16:00, guests will be able to enjoy a variety of dances and colourful costumes that reflect the cultural heritage of the Nordic countries.
Welcome!

ISLEK 2025 - Traditional Nordic Dance Performance

Í sumar verður haldið upp á hálfrar aldar afmæli ISLEK – norræns þjóðdansamóts sem hefur sameinað dansáhugafólk frá Norðurlöndunum allt frá árinu 1975.
Í ár fer mótið fram í níunda sinn, en laugardaginn 19. júlí munu þjóðbúningaklæddir gestir frá Grænlandi, Íslandi, Færeyjum, Noregi, Svíþjóð, Danmörku og Finnlandi stíga þjóðdansa víðsvegar um safnsvæði Árbæjarsafns.
Frá 14:00 til 16:00 munu gestir og gangandi geta notið þess að sjá fjölbreytta dansa og litríka búninga sem endurspegla menningararf Norðurlandanna.
Verið öll velkomin!

Þjóðdansasýning - Norræna þjóðmenningarhátíðin ISLEK 2025

Steingrímur Hermannsson, prime minister with drag queens on election night, 20 April 1991

Reykjavík Museum of Photography

Gunnar V. Andrésson Press Photographer  │Half a Century Through the Lens

Árbær Open Air Museum

Growing Pains

Reykjavík Maritime Museum

Fish & folk – 150 years of fisheries

Viðey Island

Milestones│Richard Serra

The Imagine Peace Tower

Consumption – Reykjavík in the 20th century

The Age of Carts

Come and play!

From High Mass to High Jump 

Aðalstræti

The Settlement Exhibition - Step into the Viking Age

The Christian celebration of Christmas in ancient times, and right up until the 19th century, was not lavish, as Christmas was not the big celebration we see today.  It was an important Church day, but Easter was considered much more significant, as were Whitsun and Ascension Day.  The resurrection and the message were considered more important than the birth.

But Christmas was still a holiday, people indulged in food and drink, if they could.  Farms were cleaned, candlelight was lit, and sometimes there were games or dancing, although the church didn't quite approve of it.


Most people are familiar with the old custom of sending Christmas cards.  Although the cards have changed over time, their purpose has not changed – to connect people, families, relatives and friends and to wish happiness. In Iceland, Christmas cards became very important in the first half of the 20th century when people moved from the countryside to Reykjavík. In centuries before, Christmas greeting letters were better known abroad, which then changed and were shortened into a card because it was simpler and faster. In Iceland, the first Christmas cards came on the market just before the turn of the century and they were from Denmark and Germany. Many artists welcomed it for drawing and painting various images of Santa Claus and gifts on Christmas cards, which over time became a large industry.

Following the digitization of our time, this custom has, unfortunately in the opinion of many, moved more and more into computers and devices, and people send Christmas greetings and pictures to each other on social media.

Family sitting at a dining table, 1939-1940. Photo Óskar Gíslason

Many people probably had Iceland’s traditional “hangikjöt”, smoked lamb, which was a festive food, but not necessarily limited to Christmas as it is today.  Potatoes then began to appear from the 1800s, but modern side dishes such as red cabbage, green beans and the white "Bechamel" sauce came from Denmark and began to appear at the end of the 19th century.

The same can be said about glazed ham, which is a very Danish food that became popular in the first half of the 20th century, and we can also thank the Danes for the "Ris a la mande".

But we have the Icelandic leaf bread all to ourselves and this is not known in the other northern countries.  There are records of it at the beginning of the 19th century and it seems to have been on tables on various occasions, not just Christmas. 


Another thing we also have that is very Icelandic is the Christmas drink "Malt & appelsín", which is malt and orange soda.  There are malt drinks in many countries, as well as orange drinks, but Iceland seems to be the only place where these were deliberately mixed to bring out a certain taste.

This started in 1955 when _Egils appelsín_ first came on the market. Malt extract had been produced for 32 years and was considered good but was more expensive than other sodas.  It was therefore ideal to drink it with the orange mixture, although many people also put Coca-Cola in this mixture.


According to custom, a Christmas tree was supposed to be evergreen, which in central Europe, Great Britain and Denmark was of course a spruce tree, as it was quite elegant.  But in Iceland we weren’t as lucky, as spruce did not start to be planted here until the late 19th century, and it was both expensive and difficult to transport them to the country.

What many Icelanders did instead was to build themselves a Christmas tree and decorate it with evergreen plants such as heather or juniper branches.  Small candles were then placed on these homemade trees to light up living rooms all over the country.

Sometime later, or in the first half of the 20th century, the import of spruce trees, but also artificial trees from Germany, began.  These artificial trees became very popular and were used even between generations in the 20th century.


As for Christmas decorations, they came late and also originate from Denmark, Germany or Sweden. Candlelight was considered a decent decoration at the time when Icelanders lit up the short day with cod liver oil lamps, but Christmas trees were not known here until the 1850s, and then by Danish or Danish-educated officials.

The tree decorations, or Christmas balls, also originally came from Germany.  These were usually spheres made of razor-thin glass, and this type of glass had been used out there for many centuries.

Other Christmas decorations, both bought and homemade, were for example Christmas bags and came from Denmark. Likewise, the advent lights, which became very popular in the 1970s, but which originally came to the country from Sweden.


Anyhow, there is one Christmas decoration, which is a bit special and could have a Swedish model, although it is difficult to judge that.  There are the small Christmas churches that existed in many Icelandic homes in the middle and second half of the 20th century, but churches in Iceland are very significant in our architectural history. 

These were small models of churches, decorated with cotton on the roofs and towers and usually with a light bulb inside.  These Christmas churches are not sold out of a store but always homemade, but despite that, there were very many of them and they are possibly still in homes around the country.

This custom is still maintained today and the execution has changed in line with technological progress, as 3D printing has become popular for such works.



There is also one Christmas tradition that we’ve become from abroad, but that is giving gifts in the shoes.  The custom most likely originates from legends of Saint Nicholas, who was said to be generous.  But the custom of children receiving small gifts in socks, shoes or other small items existed in central Europe at the end of the Middle Ages and spread from there throughout the Western world.

These gifts usually come only once, on Christmas night.  The same thing happened in Iceland when the custom began to appear in the 1930s, but it changed over the years because here we have many Santa Clauses and not just one (called the Yule lads).

Around and after the 1970s, Icelandic children began to have their shoes filled thirteen times, and therefore profited greatly from these special Icelandic conditions.


Christmas Cards and Traditions

Jón Páll Björnsson 
##### - Project Manager, Children's Culture and Museum Learning


Jóhanna Guðrún Árnadóttir 
##### - Project Manager, Digital Media Content and Exhibitions

Christmas Cards and Traditions

Christmas Cards

Christmas dinner

Malt & Orange Soda

Christmas tree

Christmas decorations

The Small Christmas Churches

“To give in the shoe”

Christ­mas Cards and Tra­di­tions

Christ­mas Cards

Christ­mas din­ner

Malt & Or­ange Soda

Christ­mas tree

Christ­mas dec­or­a­tions

The Small Christ­mas Churches

“To give in the shoe”

Christmas Cards and Traditions

Christmas Cards

Christmas dinner

Malt & Orange Soda

Christmas tree

Christmas decorations

The Small Christmas Churches