Landnámssýningunni (The Settlement Exhibition) & Aðalstræti 10, Reykjavik

Let’s get our series on Reykjavik’s museums underway with the Settlement Exhibition, an exploration of how people have lived in Reykjavik since its earliest days.

A Museum Two-For-One

Long-time readers know that I love a bit of archaeology. So much so, in fact, that the Settlement Exhibition was at the top of my list for Reykjavik. On the day that I arrived I dropped my bags at the hotel and set off exploring, with the aim of ending up here.

I knew that a ticket to the Settlement Exhibition also got you into nearby Aðalstræti 10, the oldest house in Reykjavik’s city centre. What I hadn’t fully appreciated is that the two are actually one and the same. They are linked by an underground tunnel, so you enter one and emerge at the other. The Settlement Exhibition is the best one to start in: it’s first chronologically and the exhibition layout works best in this direction.

So what exactly are these two-for-one museums? Well, the Settlement Exhibition is an excavated archaeological site from the earliest (Viking) days. And Aðalstræti 10 tells the story from that time to the present day. Between them you get almost 1,200 of history and construct a picture of how people have lived in this harsh landscape and built a city. Not a bad orientation before heading out to explore the rest of Reykjavik!

The Settlement Exhibition

We start, then, at the Settlement Exhibition at Aðalstræti 16. You enter through an unmanned foyer and head downstairs to find the ticket desk, shop and exhibition. The Settlement Exhibition focuses on an excavated and preserved archaeological site, discovered in 2001 during building work. Interestingly, Aðalstræti 16 is almost exactly where the Icelandic Sagas say that Ingólfr Arnarson established a settlement in 874 CE. Even more interestingly, parts of the site date back to before this apparent first settlement date. How do we know this? Iceland’s volcanoes play their part. Certain layers of ash and other volcanic debris can be dated with relative accuracy, and parts of the site are under the layer from 871±2 CE.

This first part of the museum is essentially one big hall. The excavated site is at the centre, and around it are artefacts and interpretation. The information is broken down into bite-sized chunks, things like Why Reykjavik? How did people live? What happened to the woods? I particularly liked a strip of landscape above these interpretive panels, with small videos set into it showing Reykjavik’s first inhabitants going about their daily business. Human impact and climactic shifts have changed the landscape so much that this really helps to picture what these first settlers experienced.

I very much enjoyed this part of the museum. People in the Viking Age built mostly from turf and other natural materials so the archaeological remains need a bit of imagination to bring to life. But you can push buttons to illuminate certain sections of the site and see what’s what. It’s the closest you will come to Vikings while in Iceland (other than the Saga Museum, which is a whole different story!).

Reykjavik… The Story Continues

This (Reykjavik… The Story Continues) is the museum’s name for the rest of the exhibition, culminating in Aðalstræti 10. You leave the Settlement Exhibition by a tunnel that connects you via an annex to this latter building. The tunnel catches you up on many centuries of history in Aðalstræti: people, commerce, industries. You then work your way forward in time by climbing the floors of the annex (the elevator is endearingly labelled a time machine). The tunnel brings you up to 1906, the next floor to 1962, and the final floor to the present day.

Until the latter years, this exhibition isn’t so big on original artefacts. There are a few, but I recall more ‘evocative’ objects like coils of rope. By far my favourite display was on the 1906-1962 floor. There is a model set up, showing a few city streets, I think circa 1927. Two or three big sets of binoculars were set up around it. I thought this was a bit odd because you could see enough detail as it was, but curiosity got the better of me and I took a look. Lo and behold, it was an augmented reality experience which brought the model to life. People chatting, birds flying, smoke rising. I loved it: a really great addition.

The top floor was not such a good use of space, in my opinion. It’s in a pitched attic and has a low crisscross shaped display unit with images, text and some objects. I read a few bits and pieces, but I wasn’t really here to learn about present-day Reykjavik so I went back downstairs to find Aðalstræti 10.

Aðalstræti 10

So we finish now with one of central Reykjavik’s oldest remaining houses, Aðalstræti 10. Other old buildings can be seen at the Árbær Open Air Museum (post coming soon). But this one is much easier to reach, so for those pressed for time is a nice way to see how people used to live here.

The house dates to 1762, and has been many things over the years. A grocery store. A beauty parlour. A bishop’s residence. A room has been devoted to each of these periods and purposes, in order to evoke the full breadth of the house’s history. One thing I enjoyed in Reykjavik was the fact that Christmas decorations were up in late November, so I saw the grocery store kitted out for the holidays.

With limited space, this approach of ‘one room per era’ is a relatively effective way of bringing history to life. You don’t quite see how people lived (Árbær is better for this) but get a sense of each time period. After peeking into each room I took my leave of the museum via the shop. The knowledge I gained here helped me to make sense of the contemporary city and spot the remnants of earlier eras during my remaining days in Reykjavik.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5