Overview
About Fríkirkjan í Reykjavík
A congregation builds its own church
The congregation was established on 19 November 1899 with roughly 600 members. Early services took place in the Good Templars' building at Templarasund, but the space proved unsuitable. In 1901 the congregation bought a plot east of the pond and obtained permission to build. Its founding account identifies the new community as Evangelical Lutheran and explains that its separation from the national church was not based on a doctrinal dispute.
A building enlarged in stages
Master carpenter Sigvaldi Bjarnason designed the original timber church, completed in the early 1900s. Rögnvaldur Ólafsson designed its extension in 1905. A concrete chancel by Einar Erlendsson followed in 1924, and additions beside the tower were made in 1940. The present church records these successive adaptations as the congregation developed. Its location on Fríkirkjuvegur places it directly along the eastern edge of the pond, within the old centre of Reykjavík.
Article reviewed .
