Skeletons removed in city centre to make room for a new hotel
Skeletons are being dug up in the parking lot in front of the Landssíminn building in the centre of Reykjavik which lies on top of the city's oldest graveyard. mbl.is/Golli
Former director of the National Museum of Iceland, Þór Magnússon has sent an op-ed to Morgunblaðið today calling for the protection of Reykjavik's oldest cemetary just near Austurvöllur square. Skeletons are already being dug up and removed to make way for a new hotel building there.
"The city should be spared from a hotel at the site of the churchyard. Instead it could be turned into a beautiful and peaceful place in memory of past generations instead of a drop-off point where tourists drag their luggage."
The old cemetary is called Víkurkirkjugarður at the Iceland telecom building, Landssíminn in teh centre of Reykjavik. The cemetary reaches into a building site where a new hotel is being constructed.
City councellors from the independence party have put forward a proposal to the Reykjavik city council to abandon the hotel plans.
"We are talking about the oldest cemetary of Reykjavik, where thirty generations of Icelanders have been laid to rest, and countless skeletons have been dug up recently and transported elsewhere. This goes completely against the demands of the Iceland Cultural Heritage Centre," says Kjartan Magnússon of the Independence party speaking to today's Morgunblaðið.
Golli / Kjartan Þorbjörnsson
