Reykjavik's Oldest Timber Building
Reykjavik's Oldest Timber Building
Aðalstræti 10, is considered the city’s oldest timber house. In olden times it used to be the residence of one Bishop Geir Vidalin (1761-1823), whose hospitality was infamous, to say the least.
If Skúli Magnússon were still alive, he would be a happy man indeed. A successful 18th-century entrepreneur and at one time the Governor of Iceland, Magnússon nurtured big plans for a craft centre in downtown Reykjavík. Today, the very building he had chosen for that purpose all those years ago has once more become a stylish centre for the very best of Icelandic design and crafts.
Number 10 Aðalstræti, the home of Kraum Icelandic Design, simply oozes history. Dating back to 1752, it is the oldest building still standing in the city centre, a place very different from what it was in Magnússon’s day when the capital consisted of only a few farms and a couple of hundred people.