Hallgrímskirkja, the most famous church in Reykjavík, now boasts a new bronze door designed by visual artist Leifur Breidfjörd, who has worked on it for ten years. The door forms a sculpture along with the church’s stained windows.
Hallgrímskirkja. Photo by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir.
There is an inseparable connection between the door and the windows, which become even clearer at dusk. Then the door lightens up and unites with the windows in a single piece of art, Morgunbladid describes.
Breidfjörd also recently designed another church artwork, a glass and iron sculpture which serves as a gate for the Edinburgh St. Giles’ Cathedral, RÚV reports.
Twenty-five years ago Breidfjörd was asked to sketch an idea for a stained window for the cathedral and his proposal was accepted. Last year the artist was contacted again, asked to sketch an idea for the cathedral’s doorway, and connect it with the window.
Breidfjörd proposed a four-sided doorway of blue glass. On the inside is an iron gate, so visitors to the cathedral will walk through the artwork. His proposal was accepted.
“It is a very exciting project because it is the main cathedral of Scotland and when the queen comes to Edinburgh this is her church and she goes to mass there,” Breidfjörd said.
Breidfjörd isn’t the only Icelandic artist whose work adorns the Edinburgh cathedral; it also has a baptism font by Icelandic-Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844).
They priest wasn’t aware of that and when Breidfjörd told him, he exclaimed: “When do they stop coming, the Icelanders!”
