Christ the King Cathedral, Reykjavik

Christ the King Cathedral, Reykjavik tickets: which one to buy

Reykjavik's Catholic cathedral, known to everyone as Landakotskirkja after the farm the site once was, sits on a low hill in the old west end about ten minutes on foot from the centre. It is free, quiet and rarely on a tour itinerary, which is exactly its appeal. City walking tours concentrate on the big concrete church on the other hill, the harbour and the parliament, and mention this one in passing if at all.

Architecture-minded visitors should seek it out deliberately, because it is by the same architect and shows what he was doing a decade before the famous building. There is nothing to book and no ticket. Services run in Icelandic, Polish and English, the Polish congregation being substantial, and the English mass is a practical option for visitors who want to attend rather than look. The neighbourhood around it, with timber houses in painted corrugated iron, is the most attractive part of the capital to walk.

Visiting Christ the King Cathedral, Reykjavik: what to see

Catholicism vanished from Iceland at the Reformation and returned only in the nineteenth century, when two French priests bought the Landakot farmstead and built a chapel. The growing congregation needed something larger after the First World War, and Gudjon Samuelsson, who became the state architect and shaped much of modern Icelandic building, designed the present church. It was consecrated in 1929 and was then the largest church in the country.

The style is nominally neo-Gothic, with pointed arches and buttresses, but executed in concrete and stripped of ornament, and the tower ends in a flat top instead of a spire, which gives the building its blunt, unmistakable profile against the sky. Inside it is plain, pale and calm, with clear glass letting in the northern light and a simple vaulted ceiling. The same architect went on to design the great church on Skolavorduholt and the church at Akureyri, and the family resemblance is obvious once you have seen this one.

Christ the King Cathedral, Reykjavik opening hours and the best time to go

Iceland's light governs everything. In December the sun barely clears the roofs and the interior is dim by two in the afternoon, while in June it never really gets dark and the white concrete holds the light until midnight. Either is worth seeing; the shoulder months give the most usable daylight. The church is open through the day and closes during services. Christmas and Easter fill it.

The hill it stands on is exposed and the wind in winter is the sort that takes car doors off, so dress for the walk rather than the building. Around it, the old west end has the national museum, the university and the pond with its birds, all within a few minutes. The city's swimming pools, which are the real social institution here, include one nearby. Twenty minutes inside is enough, and the detour costs nothing on any walk between the centre and the museum.