Hallgrímskirkja

At 74.5 metres this is the largest church in Iceland and the second tallest building in the country, standing on the Skólavörðuholt hill and visible from most of Reykjavík. Guðjón Samúelsson’s design was commissioned in 1937 and is said to take its shape from Icelandic landscape itself, the trap rock, the mountains and glaciers, and above all the columnar basalt organ pipes of places like Svartifoss. The sanctuary’s cylindrical form has been read as a Viking war helmet. It was finished in 1986 and named for the poet and cleric Hallgrímur Pétursson, who wrote the Passion Hymns.