Icelandic Phallological Museum

The museum began with a schoolteacher, Sigurdur Hjartarson, who as a boy had owned a bull's pizzle used as a cattle whip and began collecting in 1974, when a friend who heard the story gave him four more; by the time he handed the collection to his son it ran to hundreds of specimens covering essentially every mammal in and around Iceland, from mice to sperm whales. It opened in Reykjavik, moved to Husavik for years, and returned to the capital. The long-running gap in the collection was a human specimen, promised by several donors over the years and eventually received in 2011. Around the preserved material sit folklore objects, carvings and a certain amount of tourist-shop humour.

History

The founder, Sigurður Hjartarson, a teacher and head teacher for 37 years, had owned a bull's pizzle as a child, used as a cattle whip; in 1974 a friend who heard the story gave him four more, and the collection grew from slaughterhouses, fishermen and whaling stations. Kept at first in his office at the college, it went on public display in Reykjavík in August 1997 with a grant of ISK 200,000 from the city, had 5,200 visitors by 2003, and in July 2011 received its first human specimen (Wikipedia, Icelandic Phallological Museum).

What you'll find

• Hundreds of mammal specimens - essentially every species in Icelandic waters and land.
• A collection begun as a joke - a teacher's gift in the 1970s.
• A human specimen since 2011 - the gap the founder spent decades trying to fill.
• Folklore and carvings - alongside the jars.

When to go

Year round. An hour.

Things to know

It is exactly what it sounds like, and it is a paid hour of jars. Some visitors find it genuinely interesting zoologically and others find it a novelty stop. It is not suitable for young children. Prices are city-centre level.

Nearby

The centre's bars and museums are around it; the harbour is a short walk.

Key facts