Reykjavík is an intriguing place, but of its many historic sites, none intrigued me more than Hólavallagarður Cemetery. Far from the hustle and bustle of Laugavegur (Reykjavík’s main street), this cemetery sits in perpetual silence amongst some of this city’s most picture-esque neighborhoods. Inside this cemetery, the only sound is the rustling of the leaves in the wind. To step through the weathered gates of this cemetery is to step into another world, and I was enthralled.

Hólavallagarður Cemetery was consecrated in 1838, which was pretty much the dawn of time for Reykjavík. Most history of this city prior to the mid-1800s lays in snowy obscurity, save for a few bullet points. However, the 'unofficial' history of this cemetery goes back much farther, as evidenced by the weathered, ancient tomb stones. By the early 1900s, all available plots of land in this cemetery had been claimed by the departed, and what an interesting group of dead people they are! Residents of this graveyard included French sailors, Germanic sailors from the Faroe Islands, and others. However, few gravestones can compete with this vertical boulder covered in old Norse:

Credit for discovering this mysterious piece of history goes to my brother, who had discovered it in the backwoods of this graveyard in his early wanderings through Reykjavík. Old Norse, as is written on this headstone, is essentially a dead language. Modern day Icelandic is pretty close to Old Norse, but the alphabet seen above has not been used for almost a thousand years. Think about what that means for the age of this grave! 

The whole graveyard is riddled with twisted winding branches and covered in moss. It literally could not be any cooler. Below are my best attempts to capture the strange mystique of Hólavallagarður Cemetery. Honestly, I don’t feel like I did a great job of it, but I think you’ll get the idea.

This might be an odd place to single out, but honestly, if you can only come to one place in Reykjavík, you should come here. Hólavallagarður Cemetery—Remember that name! It was one of the coolest places I've ever been for reasons I can't fully justify to you. It just had an aura about it.