Overview
About Alþingishúsið — Parliament House
A parliament built from Icelandic stone
Designed by the Danish architect Ferdinand Meldahl, Parliament House was built in 1880–1881 using basalt quarried from Skólavörðuholt. Its inauguration took place on 1 July 1881. The choice of local stone was deliberate: the project grew from a parliamentary decision to commemorate the millennium of Iceland’s settlement with a national festival and a permanent home for Alþingi in Reykjavík.
Symbols and changing uses
The façade carries the crest of King Christian IX and reliefs of Iceland’s four guardian spirits: a giant, a bird, a bull and a dragon. These details connect the building to both the Danish monarchy and Icelandic tradition. It originally also housed national collections, and the University of Iceland used rooms here after its foundation in 1911. Later annexes include the Rotunda, added in 1908, and Skálinn, completed in 2002.
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