Medieval Skálholt

Skálholt is a village in the south of Iceland. The Hvítá River flows through the village. Like the village of Hólar, Skálholt has also produced prominent bishops. For a long time it was the seat of a bishopric and even today there is a large Lutheran church with a plaque with the names of all the bishops.

The conjectural scale model of the Skálholt cathedral was created in relation to a Nowegian-Icelandic exhibition on medieval churches and ecclesiastical art that was opened in 1997 at the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavík and travelled in the following years to Oslo, Bergen and Throndheim**.

It is supposed to give a general impression of the very large, cruciform and stave built timber cathedrals of medieval Skálholt (approx. 40-50 m long). The model is, however, mainly based on documentary sources about the largest cathedral in Skálholt, built in 1567.

For more information, the church can also be viewed on this website: https://www.english.skalholt.is/. The website https://iceland360vr.com/wp-content/panoramas/Single%20Panoramas_Skalholt_new1.html also offers a virtual view of the church itself, but also its surroundings. For more virtual tours of Iceland, you can visit this link: https://iceland360vr.com/, and choose from a wide range of options.

* https://sarpur.is/Adfang.aspx?AdfangID=311830

** Adapted from a questionnaire sent by Kristján Mímisson, curator of The National Museum of Iceland