The Icelandic Wilderness Centre in East Iceland offers guests at its heritage museum at Egilsstaðir farm in Fljótsdalur valley in East Iceland. The farm, which is the innermost settlement in the valley, close to the central highlands, has been turned into a museum which shows how Icelandic farmers lived through the centuries. But since strolling through the rooms and viewing the exhibit from a distance does not capture the full feel, the Wilderness Centre offers visitors the option of actually spending the night inside the exhibit, sleeping in the same way as Icelanders of bygone age would have.
The heart of Icelandic history and culture
Overnight guests can book a night in different rooms, including the baðstofa, called the “dormitory”, or private rooms. The Baðstofa was is large common room where people slept in close quarters. Traditionally it was much more than just a dormitory: It was the heart and centre of the farm, where the family gathered at night to work, for example knit or weave, while either listening to the evening’s reading from the bible or sagas or stories, poems or verses told from oral tradition. The Icelandic literary tradition was preserved and maintained at these late night gatherings in the baðstofa.
Arna Björg Bjarnadóttir, at the Wilderness Centre, told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service that although overnight guests were in fact sleeping inside the museum, they did not need to fear they would wake up to discover they, in turn, been turned into exhibition pieces for curious onlookers: “No, guests are not allowed into the baðstofa before the overnight-guests have all gotten out of bed!”
The Icelandic Wilderness Centre in East Iceland offers guests at its heritage museum at Egilsstaðir farm in Fljótsdalur valley in East Iceland. The farm, which is the innermost settlement in the valley, close to the central highlands, has been turned into a museum which shows how Icelandic farmers lived through the centuries. But since strolling through the rooms and viewing the exhibit from a distance does not capture the full feel, the Wilderness Centre offers visitors the option of actually spending the night inside the exhibit, sleeping in the same way as Icelanders of bygone age would have.
The heart of Icelandic history and culture
Overnight guests can book a night in different rooms, including the baðstofa, called the “dormitory”, or private rooms. The Baðstofa was is large common room where people slept in close quarters. Traditionally it was much more than just a dormitory: It was the heart and centre of the farm, where the family gathered at night to work, for example knit or weave, while either listening to the evening’s reading from the bible or sagas or stories, poems or verses told from oral tradition. The Icelandic literary tradition was preserved and maintained at these late night gatherings in the baðstofa.
Arna Björg Bjarnadóttir, at the Wilderness Centre, told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service that although overnight guests were in fact sleeping inside the museum, they did not need to fear they would wake up to discover they, in turn, been turned into exhibition pieces for curious onlookers: “No, guests are not allowed into the baðstofa before the overnight-guests have all gotten out of bed!”
