The black church at Buðir - Iceland

After digging them out from the archives, I couldn’t decide which of these three pictures of the black church at Buðir to include in the previous post, so I thought I’d give them a stage of their own. The church is black as it’s painted with pitch (as used on the hulls of boats) against the weather and has become a very popular spot for photographers visiting Iceland where it stands in contrast against the mountains beyond. Luckily, as we were there out of the busy season, we had the area to ourselves. On a freezing and windy afternoon we lingered for a while taking pictures and it was nice to be in such a place as the only visitors, to truly feel the sense of isolation and peace despite the biting wind. No doubt there have been some hardy members of the congregation over the years as the first church on the site was built in 1703 when Iceland must have been an inhospitable place to find yourself.