Photo: Mysterious Reykjavík

While small, Reykjavík is a multi-faceted city, always changing and always surprising. Each street feels as a small world, especially in the old West area of the city, and in the streets of the city center. Light and shadow can change a colorful building into an ominous Gothic mansion in a few seconds; a small window – which Icelanders decorate with objects that can range from cute to scary – can reveal a world and a story you could have never imagined.

Our resident photographer, Pu, has always loved to show things from unusual angles or under unusual conditions, and so her photographs are more representative than a thousand of my words of these sudden revelations one can have while walking the streets of Reykjavík. Once in a while, I will post some of the photos from Pu The Owl’s Flickr profile, which you are encouraged to visit and which is also linked on the sidebar of this website.

The photo in this post was shot in Austurstræti, one of the most central and important streets of the city, a few days ago. The building, located in Austurstræti 16, was designed by the architect Guðjón Samúelsson (1887-1950), once a state architect of Iceland. Built in 1916/1917, it was one of the first big concrete buildings of the country. During its history, the edifice housed banks, pharmacies, and is now mostly used for commercial activities. On a note, many of the biggest buildings in the city have been designed by Samúelsson, including the infamous Hallgrímskirkja church (completed after his death) and the University of Iceland.