Thingvellir, Iceland

Thingvellir is the most important cultural heritage site in Iceland. The Althing (General Assembly) was established here in 930 and continued meeting for more than 850 years until 1798.

The Althing was an assembly for the whole country and there are good written accounts dating back to its earliest days.  The assembly lasted for roughly two weeks a year and was held outside, mainly confined to two places, the Lögberg (Law Rock), and the Lögrétta (Law Council).  Here laws were recited and announcements and summonses made. People made speeches, presented ideas and submitted proposals. In bad weather proceedings were held in the church. 

The lögsögumaður (lawspeaker) was based at the Lögberg and was in charge of proceedings, memorising and reciting the laws. People travelled to the assembly from all over Iceland and erected temporary houses or shelters called booths, which had turf or stone walls and were roofed with a woollen cloth. The ruins of these can still be seen at Thingvellir today.

The precise location of the law rock and law council is unclear. 13th century documents place the Lögberg somewhere on the eastern edge of Almannagjá, with the Lögrétta possibly in the field in front of it, either north or east of the river - Öxará.  Place names, such as Drowning Pool and Gallows Rock can also shed light on some of the grimmer aspects of the proceedings.

Thingvellir is both historically and archaeologically the largest and most significant assembly site in Northern Europe.  In addition to the visible remains, conducting archaeological excavations could shed new light on the site and its evolution – information that is unlikely to be obtained anywhere else. 

In 1930 Thingvellir was declared a National Park and a law was passed designating Thingvellir “a protected national shrine for all Icelanders, the perpetual property of the Icelandic nation under the preservation of parliament, never to be sold or mortgaged.”  In 2004 the park’s cultural values were recognised when it was placed on the World Heritage List.