Akureyrarkirkja is the Lutheran parish church of Akureyri, in northern Iceland. It stands on a hill in the centre of the town. Guðjón Samúelsson designed it and it was completed in 1940. The concrete building, with two spires at the front, is visible from the waterfront and from most streets in the town. Inside are an organ of 3,200 pipes, an altarpiece from 1863, stained glass made in Exeter and two baptismal fonts. In 2017 the church was vandalised, with the damage put at 20 million ISK.
Akureyri Church (Akureyrarkirkja)
Local name: Akureyrarkirkja
The altarpiece dates from 1863 — 77 years older than the church built around it.
- Entrance
- Charged for the interior, €5 as of mid-2026. Walking around the outside is free.
- Accessibility
- Wheelchair-accessible entrance and wheelchair-accessible parking.
- Parking
- The car park at the church is charged. There is also kerbside parking on the road behind the church grounds.
- Difficulty
- Easy, but a stair climb from the town centre
- Transport
- Central Akureyri — a short uphill walk from downtown
- Hours
- Open to visitors in summer; limited off-season
- Address
- Eyrarlandsvegur, 600 Akureyri
What makes it special
From the outside Akureyrarkirkja is plain concrete with two front spires. The detail is all indoors. The organ has 3,200 pipes. The altarpiece dates from 1863 and was designed by the Danish artist Edvard Lehmann. The windows were made by J. Wippel & Co. of Exeter in Devon. Ásmundur Sveinsson made the bas-reliefs on the nave balcony. There are two baptismal fonts: one of white Italian marble by the Florentine sculptor Corrado Vigni, and an angel font copied from Bertel Thorvaldsen, whose original stands in Copenhagen Cathedral. The bells ring about every quarter of an hour, and they carry across the churchyard.
Good to know
- Getting inside: the interior is not always open. One visitor came to Akureyri twice and never got through the door.
- Bells: they ring about every quarter of an hour and are loud in the churchyard.
- Without a ticket: you can still walk around the outside of the building, and there are benches to sit on.
- Landmark: the church is visible from the waterfront and from most of the town, which makes it a reliable way to get your bearings.
Getting there
Akureyrarkirkja stands on a hill in the centre of Akureyri and is visible from the waterfront, so it needs no map on foot: walk up towards the two spires. Drivers have a choice of two. The car park at the church is charged; there is also kerbside parking on the road that runs behind the church grounds, outside the site itself. From there it is a walk in past the churchyard, and a walk back down into the main shopping street.
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Frequently asked questions
Who designed Akureyrarkirkja?
Guðjón Samúelsson (1887–1950), the architect of Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík. The church was completed in 1940.What is there to see inside?
An organ with 3,200 pipes, bas-reliefs by Ásmundur Sveinsson on the nave balcony, an altarpiece of 1863 by Edvard Lehmann, and stained glass made by J. Wippel & Co. of Exeter.Is the angel baptismal font an original?
No. It is a replica of a work by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen; the original is in Copenhagen Cathedral. The church also has a white Italian marble font by Corrado Vigni.What happened to the church in 2017?
It was vandalised. The damage was put at 20 million ISK.