Reykjavík Of Yore: The Farmers’ Wet Dream Parliament Made Happen

Not many hotels are deemed so important that Parliament passes laws to get them built, but that was the case with Hótel Saga, aka the Farmer’s Palace, in the Vesturbærinn neighbourhood of Reykjavík. It started as a dream of the Farmer’s Association—a dream about being able to stay in luxury whenever they escape their dreary lives on the farms where they trudge through a tiresome existence of sheep, stale bread and gravel roads.

To fund the farmer mafia’s passion project, a special tax was implemented by Alþingi, and when the government is paying there are no holds barred. Halldór H. Jónsson, the finest architect in all the land was hired, the rooftop restaurant Grillið become the fanciest in the country, it became the “it place” where every night you could hear the loud voice of a farmer saying to a US GI from the base, “hov due yoo like Iceland?”

What does it look like now?