Heritage Craft School celebrates its European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award at Tyrfingsstaðir Farm, Iceland

On 19 June at Tyrfingsstaðir Farm in Skagafjörður, Iceland, the Heritage Craft School celebrated its European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award while marking the 20th anniversary of its activities. The school was founded in 2006 by the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum to preserve traditional Icelandic building methods, with particular emphasis on turf construction.

The day opened with a series of speeches by local and national representatives who have played an important role in supporting and recognising the work of the Heritage Craft School. Among them were Rúnar Leifsson, Director General of the Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland; Clara Ganslandt, Ambassador of the European Union to Iceland; and Magnús Barðdal Reynisson, Director of the local council of Skagafjörður Municipality.

In his address, Rúnar Leifsson highlighted the essential contribution of the Heritage Craft School to the safeguarding of Iceland’s traditional building knowledge, emphasising that this heritage “is not tied only to specific buildings, places or monuments – it lives, first and foremost, in the hands and minds of the craftspeople. It is an intangible cultural heritage, and its value reaches far beyond national borders”. He concluded by stressing that “the craft must live on, not as a memory, but as a living part of our culture and as a contribution to the world’s architectural heritage.”

Representatives of the Heritage Craft School also addressed the audience, including Berglind Þorsteinsdóttir, Director of the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum, and Sigríður Sigurðardóttir, former Director of the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum and founder of the Heritage Craft School.

Páll V. Bjarnason, Council Member of Europa Nostra from Iceland, joined the celebration and presented the Award plaque to the team. In his remarks, he underlined the Heritage Craft School’s outstanding contribution to the preservation of traditional craftsmanship and its inspiring example for similar heritage initiatives across Europe.

Following the unveiling of the plaque, guests were invited to participate in hands-on activities and discover traditional turf-building techniques directly from members of the Heritage Craft School team. As part of the summer courses, the reconstruction of the final building at Tyrfingsstaðir was completed, and visitors had the unique opportunity to contribute to the laying of the turf roof and help complete the restoration project.

As a gesture of appreciation for two decades of invaluable collaboration, Kristín Jóhannsdóttir and Sigurður Marz Björnsson, the landowners of Tyrfingsstaðir, were honoured with  a new sign for the front of the farmhouse. Created by master carpenter Snædís Traustadóttir, the sign is an exact replica of an earlier one that once decorated the farm and had disappeared many years ago.

The celebrations were accompanied by live accordion music, while members of Pilsaþytur, a society dedicated to traditional Icelandic costumes, added a special cultural dimension to the occasion by wearing traditional attire.