Saga of Stephanie and Frank:
Voyage to Iceland

Isak's Church at Sauðanes

The steeple

Approaching the church

The church with a carved headstone outside

Repair work in progress

Stephanie in front of the church

Church interior

The altar

The altar up close

The triptich

The pulpit

Going up to the choir loft

Porthole window in the stairwell

Looking up at the bells in the steeple

Looking down from the choir loft. The blue curved roof is characteristic of Icelandic churches of this style.

View of the church and parsonage (far right) from the cemetery

The restored parsonage, now a museum. Originally built in 1879/80. The church was built later.

A cross in the grass at the cemetery

Isak built this church in 1889, at the age of 24. He had apprenticed with the Brynjólfsson brothers, who built the parsonage on the same site ten years earlier. Isak emigrated to Canada from Iceland in 1892.

The church is no longer used for services; however, the exterior was under repair, and the interior looked in no way abandoned. Inside, there is a cross from the 14th century, and the pulpit and altar tryptych are from the mid-1700s.

Historical Notes (from a sign posted outside the entryway to the site): "Sauðanes used to be a much sought-after parsonage because of the prerequisites that accompanied the position: eiderdown, driftwood, seal hunting, and grazing on the beach.

"The Rev. Vigfús Sigurðsson (1811-1889), who arrived at Sauðanes in 1869, had a stone house built here in 1879/1880 by the brothers Björgólfur and Sveinn Brynjólfsson; the former was a carpenter, the latter a stonemason. The stone had to be brought on sledges over long distances. Wood from a teak driftwood log on the beach Langanesfjörur was used for the doorfram and doors.

"The Rev. Vigfús also had a church built in Sauðanes in 1889."

Saga of Stephanie and Frank: Voyage to Iceland

Isak's Church at Sauðanes

Saga of Stephanie and Frank:
Voyage to Iceland