Eiríksstaðir

Eiríksstaðir, a former homestead of Eiríkr Þorvaldsson, located 152 km from the capital city, near Haukadalsvatn, is a very historical place and said to be among the first Viking settlements. Eiríkr or ‘Erik the Red’ as he was known, was a Norse explorer, who is said to have founded the settlements in Greenland, was the father of another famous explorer Leifur Eiríksson. 

Eiríksstaðir, a former homestead of Eiríkr Þorvaldsson, located 152 km from the capital city, near Haukadalsvatn, is a very historical place and said to be among the first Viking settlements. Eiríkr or ‘Erik the Red’ as he was known, was a Norse explorer, who is said to have founded the settlements in Greenland, was the father of another famous explorer Leifur Eiríksson.

Leifur or ‘Leif the Lucky,’ who was born in Eiríksstaðir, is believed to be the first European to discover North America, ‘Vinland’, during 1000 AD, nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus, who discovered it in 1492. 

The Saga of Erik the Red and Landnámabók reveal that Eirikr married Þjóðhildur Jǫrundardóttir and set up a farm of Eiríksstaðir near Vatnshorn in Haukadalur. Today at the site of Eirikr’s longhouse stands a replica, which welcomes guests in Viking attire and tells a tale of a bygone Viking era. The longhouse built in Eiríksstaðir now is said to be among the best-built longhouses in entire Europe.

Archeologists began taking interest in this project around the mid-20th century and excavations began only towards the end of the 20th century, during the 1990s. Based on the findings of the 1997 archeological investigation, a museum was set up in Eiríksstaðir in 1999, which was formally opened in 2000, to commemorate the 1000-year anniversary of the discovery of Vinland.

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