Fodor's Expert Review Reykjavík 871±2: The Settlement Exhibition

The core exhibit here features the remains of a Viking longhouse dating from around 871. Unearthed in 2001 during the construction of the Hotel Centrum, this remarkable find was preserved in situ and now occupies an oval-shaped basement designed specially to frame the excavation site. A large, backlit panoramic image, showing how Reykjavík might have looked during the age of settlement, encircles the longhouse, and an illuminated strip installed in the surrounding walls marks the layer of tephra used to determine the approximate date of the remnants. Sounds and aromas add a multisensory dynamic to the experience, while high-tech media installations provide historical insight into life in Iceland's Saga Age.