The National Museum of Iceland seems to be the most important and vast of all the other ones in Iceland. The museum was established in 1863 as before then most of the precious items were held in Danish collections. Jón Árnason was the first curator to create an Icelandic collection and several years after that, an Antiquarian Collection Museum was established (it gained its current name in 1911).
The modernized and completely transformed building of the museum was finished in 2004. The main function of the National Museum of Iceland is to increase the knowledge of Icelandic cultural heritage and one must admit that if you spend enough time exploring all the floors and exhibitions and carefully paying attention to the information, then indeed one can get even overwhelmed by all the interesting information, items and features that the museum provides to each visitor.
The permanent exhibition of the museum is truly comprehensive, covering seven periods in the history of Iceland – from the dawn of the Icelandic society in year 800 up until modern times – these periods can be divided into four main topics, namely: work and way of life, homes and settlement patterns, arts and crafts, and social culture and language.
The museum holds not only a notable collection of historic artifacts and items, but also hundreds of valuable photographs introducing visitors with life and customs of Icelanders. Moreover, The National Museum of Iceland offers hands-on games where every visitor can try some puzzles and games engaging them into the activities of museum even more.
Also, the museum has many multimedia features, so that the visitor can have something like “a self-made” experience in the museum. Besides the temporary exhibitions, the museum also keeps up with the time and takes care of the diversity of content by constantly displaying temporary exhibitions such as installations of photography.
The museum is located in the central part of the city and hence, there should not be any problems in finding it just by following the map or street signs. Also, several buses (No 1, 3, 6, 11 and 12) stop in front of the museum.