Árbær Open Air Museum

The exhibition From High Mass to High Jump tells the story of the building that it´s in but the building was originally constructed as a Catholic church. It was a prefabricated building, made in Mandal, Norway, and brought to Iceland in 1897. It was built on the Landakot grass-field, just east of the present junction of Túngata and Ægisgata in Vesturbær of Reykjavík.   

In 1929, when the new concrete Cathedral of Christ the King was completed on Landakot Hill, the old church building was donated to Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur (Reykjavík Sports Club). It was moved to a new site on the corner of Túngata and Hofsvallagata, where it stood for more than 70 years as a gymnasium.  



In 2004, when the former church was no longer in use as a gymnasium, it was moved to the Museum. Now restored, it is one of the Museum’s exhibition spaces. 

The exhibition is at the choir-loft, where you can see, among other things, a stained-glass window from 1896 that adorned the building when it was used as a church. The window was a kind of altarpiece of the church and depicts Jesus Christ and the Sacred Heart. Other artefacts in the exhibition are related to the sports activities of the Sport Club ÍR in the building.



From High Mass to High Jump

The story of the building Landakot is told in the exhibition From High Mass to High Jump. The house was built in 1897 as the first catholic church in Iceland since the Reformation. In 1930 it became a sportshall and remained as such until 2004 when it was relocated to the museum.