New building for Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages inaugurated

"My heart always starts beating faster when I go inside, it's such a beautiful building," says former President of Iceland, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. A new building was inaugurated this weekend at Suðurgata at the University of Iceland and was named in her honour. 

The Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages is a research institute working within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Iceland. The Institute is a research centre for scholars who teach modern languages and cultures, the classical languages, and translation studies.

Since 1st October 2001 the Institute has had the honour of bearing the name of Ms. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland, 1980-1996.

Finnbogadóttir was Iceland's first female president and the first female president to be elected in Europe. Her avid passion for languages and the preservation of the Icelandic language is the theme of the new building, Vigdísarstofnun which will host exhibitions on the world's languages. 

Finnbogadóttir said to mbl.is that she hopes many foreign visitors will visit the building to see how their language is depicted in the exhibition. 

The building was designed by architects Haraldur Örn Jónsson and Kristján Garðarson. 

Weather

Partly cloudy

Today

3 °C

Clear sky

Tomorrow

3 °C

Clear sky

Saturday

1 °C