The Höfdi House

In a country where the powerful nature use to overwhelm every useless attempt for the human to leave at least a humble trace of their precense, to find a remarkable architecture milestone becomes more a task of finding a place which represents a memorial of an important deed rather than an outstanding brimming of human capabilities. The true is that yet humble, some of this monuments owns an inherent beauty which becomes underlined by the extraordinary landscape, a join that points in a very poetic way the real size of the human kind beside the gigantic natural world´s powers.

One of this extraordinary contrast may be clearly exemplified by what is commonly known as "Höfdi House". "A beautiful house, but there are thousands like it in Europe" a clueless tourist would say, and maybe with a good fundament. And it is just how said before, the importance of such a picturesque place lies on the historical legacy of which the house has been witness.

Originally, the house was built intended to be the residence of the French consul in Iceland, Mr. Brillouin. In those times, Iceland was within the french sphere of influence since it was an important fishing zone for the French fleet. In order to offer all the comfort a French official deserved, a wooden house was imported from Norway, which was not only nice but also designed for support the critical meteorological conditions that preveal in Iceland. Indeed, the house still keeps a lot of traces that clearly signs its "french" heritage.

It is not surprising to know that certainly, the house was one of the most luxury and largest in the surroundings in those years and quickly became a very appreciated by the locals, which considered it a pretty part of the scene. The building was used as well to keep the first radio communication between Iceland an a foreign country in June 1905, in this case with the U.K. It was ironic, but despite all the efforts to bring all the confort available, Monsieur Brilloun never felt fit in the windy country and left to France a few months before the start of the WWI. Just a little after, Einar Benediktsson, a poet and entreprenour, bought the house, which later became the see of the British foreign office´s officials during the mid XX century. It was during its "British" time when Höfdi house began to be visited by famous guest when on visit to Iceland, including Winston Churchill, actress Marlene Dietrich, Willy Brandt and many other heads of State and leaders from the western world.

But despite this further fame, the house was about to be demolished once. It all began when its last British guest, the U.K.´s ambassador in Iceland left the house because he claimed it was haunted by the spirit of a lady. He managed to convince the British authorities to sell the house, which was bought by the Reykjavik´s authorities, who thought it would be a good idea to demolish such an ancient building. However, a group of architects working for the municipallity decided to restore it by their own, having made such a good job that the government decided to preserve it. Once restored, it was used, as mentioned before, for keep official receptions. And it was with this role that Höfdi House became world famous during the autumn of 1986, when a top summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorvachov was held among the walls of the wooden house. Whether if this meeting was crucial or not for the further end of the cold war is not clear, but the little house became world famous, for the envy and jealous of many bigger and flamboyant buildings, and by all means, an important part of the city of Reykjavik and Iceland, and of course, since a more trivial point of view, a well known touristic attraction for the years to come.

(image by www.icelandkankobunka.jp)

All other pics by Wikicommons