Saurbæjarkirkja
Saurbæjarkirkja is a church in North Iceland, Iceland — about 416 km from Reykjavik and reached by a straightforward drive from the nearest highway turnoff. Shoot it during the summer window, when light, road status, and crowd levels line up for photography, then use the GPS coordinates, parking notes, and nearby waypoints below to fold this stop into a longer photography route.
Overview
Saurbæjarkirkja is a church in the Eyjafjörður region of Iceland. It is located about 26 kilometres south of Akureyri.
As a photography stop, Saurbæjarkirkja is a church in North Iceland, roughly 416 km from Reykjavik, reached by a straightforward drive from the nearest highway turnoff. Plan the shoot during the summer window, when light, road status, and crowd levels line up for photography. The downloadable Church map pins exact GPS coordinates, parking, and nearby waypoints so you can fold it into a wider route instead of hunting for the pull-off on arrival.
Planning more than one stop? Open the church photography map for Iceland to put Saurbæjarkirkja on the same offline layer as everything nearby.
Notes on this location
Compiled from published sources rather than a visit. Sources are listed below.
A turf church of 1858 in Eyjafjörður, built by Ólafur Briem, who had studied carpentry in Copenhagen. Thick turf and stone walls outside, a wooden frame within, turf on the roof — one of only six turf churches still standing in Iceland.
- Built
- 1858, by Ólafur Briem (1808–59), who studied carpentry in Copenhagen
- Construction
- Thick turf and stone walls outside for protection against the weather, turf on the roof, a wooden frame within
- How many are left
- One of only six turf churches still extant in Iceland
- Custody
- Under the care of the National Museum of Iceland
- Not in the source
- The cited article does not call it the largest turf church in Iceland, and does not mention a 1960 cellar, a 2003 reconstruction, or an earlier church or convent at the site
This is the third turf church in the catalog, after Hofskirkja and Víðimýrarkirkja, and the three are worth treating as a set rather than repeats: 1858 here, 1834 at Víðimýri, 1883 at Hof — a fifty-year span in the same vernacular. Only six survive nationally, so photographing half of them is a coherent project rather than a coincidence.
SourcesSaurbæjarkirkja — Wikipedia
Light & aurora at this spot
Calculated from this location’s coordinates (65.447, -18.210). Iceland stays on UTC year-round, so these are local times.
- Summer
- 22.5 h of daylight in June and the sun barely sets, dipping only 1.2° below the horizon — effectively continuous golden light through the small hours.
- Winter
- December: only 3.4 h of daylight (11:27–14:49), but the sun never climbs above 1.3° — the entire day is golden hour. Sunrise bears SSE, sunset SSW.
- Aurora
- Aurora-grade darkness Sep–Mar, peaking at 13 h a night in December. Not possible Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug — the sky never gets dark enough.
Bar height is daylight hours. Months marked • have enough astronomical darkness for aurora; the rest do not.
Questions & answers
Saurbæjarkirkja is a church in North Iceland, Iceland, approximately 416 km from Reykjavik. Exact GPS coordinates are included in the downloadable Church map.
The recommended season for Saurbæjarkirkja is Summer. For light, plan around blue hour and the first hour after sunrise; Iceland's long shoulder-season twilight extends usable conditions on either side.
Drive access. A standard rental car works in most seasons; check road status in winter before committing. The downloadable GPS map puts the waypoint on your phone; your own app routes you to it from wherever you are.
Saurbæjarkirkja is best visited during Summer. Outside that window, expect limited access, weather closures, or significantly different photographic conditions.