2022-12-21

Laufás í Eyjafirði │ Iceland Photo Gallery

Documenting Iceland

by: Rafn Sig,-

Laufásbærinn er stílhreinn burstabær, dæmigerður fyrir íslenska bæjagerð þess tíma, en þó allmiklu stærri. Hann er búinn gripum og húsmunum frá aldamótunum 1900.

Laufás er í Grýtubakkahreppi og er kirkjustaður og prestsetur í Þingeyjarsýslu. Prestsetur hefur verið í Laufási frá fyrstu kristni. Kirkjustaðurinn kemur lítillega við sögu í Ljósvetninga sögu. Laufáskirkja var helguð Pétri postula. Á árunum 1622-1636 bjuggu séra Magnús Ólafsson og kona hans Agnes Eiríksdóttir í Laufási. Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás-Edda) er kennd við Laufás en ekki samin þar. Magnús lést 22. júlí 1636 og bróðursonur Agnesar var vígður til prests í Laufási árið 1637. Sá hét Jón Magnússon og var skáld.

Kirkjan sem stendur í Laufási er byggð árið 1865 af Tryggva Gunnarssyni, trésmið og athafnamanni, og Jóhanni Bessasyni á Skarði í Dalsmynni.

Í Laufási er gamall burstabær, byggður í núverandi mynd af Jóhanni Bessasyni bónda á seinni hluta 19. aldar. Laufásbærinn er nú byggðasafn og búinn húsmunum og áhöldum líkast því sem tíðkaðist í kringum aldamótin 1900. Hann var hýbýli prests þar til byggt var nýtt prestsetur árið 1936.

Laufás er einn þeirra mörgu staða í Suður-Þingeyjarsýslu, þar sem hafa fundizt kuml úr heiðni og má því ætlað að staðurinn hafi byggzt snemma á sögulegum tíma. Kenningar eru uppi um að þar hafi staðið hof Odds Ásólfssonar í Höfða og líklega hefur verið kirkja þar frá fyrstu kristni.

In Eyjafjörður fjord in North-Iceland, you will find one of the biggest turf houses in Iceland, the Laufás turf house.

The traditional building method here in Iceland from the Settlement of Iceland (874-930) was the building of turf houses, and both rich and poor lived in such houses.

Turf houses were built with turf and rocks and where there was lava available, the lava was used in the walls of the turf houses, as you will see at Grenjaðarstaður turf house.

Laufás is a gabled turf house, rebuilt in 1866-1870 by Rev. Björn Halldórsson, who served at Laufás from 1853-1882.

This beautiful turf house was a wealthy vicarage and was built for a minister with a large household, but some 20-30 people lived at Laufás at this time.

Rev. Þorvarður Þormar was the last minister to live in Laufás turf house, but he moved into a new vicarage in 1935-1936. He was a minister at Laufás from 1927-1959.

It wasn’t until the mid 20th century that the last inhabitants moved out of the turf houses, and f.ex. the inhabitants at Bustarfell turf house East Iceland lived on the turf farm until around 1966.

Laufás turf house was rebuilt in 1957-1959, 1976-1978, 1994-2003, and 2009-2012 (Ref. Af jörðu, Hjörleifur Stefánsson), but the oldest part of the turf house is believed to date back to 1840.

The oldest wood might even be 2 centuries older or even older.

Thickness of the turf walls are incredibly thick, but good insulation was needed in Iceland during the long and cold (and dark) winters, and the turf walls seem to have given good insulation.

The existing church was built in 1865 and among its special items is a pulpit from 1698. The farmhouse was rebuilt in an ambitious style in 1853-1882 and is an example of the gabled farmhouse, although significantly larger than the ordinary Icelandic farmhouse. The oldest section of the present day house is believed to contain timbers from the 16th and 17th century.

. . . All info at: https://www.patreon.com/RafnSig

You can buy this and other photos at my Icelandic Stock Photo Web: IcelandStockPhotos.com

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