The House of Collections

The House of Collections in Reykjavik was once the National Library's reading room, and this guide reconstructs the spring of 2012, when that room was cleared of manuscripts and fifteen judges took their seats for the first sitting of the Landsdómur since the court was created in 1905. It follows the case against Geir Haarde, prime minister when Iceland's banks collapsed in 2008, and the charges of gross misconduct that narrowed as the trial went on. Along the way it traces the building's own earlier life, raised between 1906 and 1908 to house the National Library and Archives, its facade carved with the names of Icelandic writers.