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Reykholt

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Islande (Europe et Amérique du nord)
Date de soumission : 18/12/2001
Critères: (i)(iii)(vi)
Catégorie : Culturel
Soumis par : Menntamalaraduneytid. Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
Coordonnées Reykholtshreppur, Borgarfjarðarsysla, West Iceland
Ref.: 1609

Description

Snorralaug is a hot-spring bath, a basin of hewn stone to which hot-spring water is led along two conduits from the hot spring, named Skrifla, situated about 108 m east of Snorralaug. The bath is a circular basin made of Silica sinter, a type of rock formed beside hot springs. The bath measures 3.7 m - 3.9 m in diameter and is 54 cm - 84 cm deep. Its floor is faced with flat flags of silica sinter. No mortar is used in the walls, five courses of hewn silica sinter stones being laid very tightly against each other. The lower-most row consists of large, hewn flags placed on end. Above this are three or four courses of smaller, horizontally laid stones. Along the whole length of the base of the wall is a 20-cm-broad and 20-cm-high step, a cornice, on which the bathers could sit. Two steps down in the basin are linked to a pavement which connects with an underground passage, discovered in 1930, that may have connected the basin with the medieval homestead at Reykholt. The hot water was led from Skrifla spring by two conduits. Since these have been partly investigated by archaeologists, their route to the bath is known. They were originally partially concealed in the glacial clay subsoil and consist of hewn silica sinter laid to form a subterranean conduit, or a channel was dug out of the clay, lined with stone and covered with flat flags of basalt and silica sinter. The hot water from the spring is so hot when it enters the basin that it has to cool for several hours before it can be used. A simple mechanism, a stone, placed at the outlet of the conduit into the bath, originally served to adjust the flow of water. Nowadays, for safety reasons, the flow is regulated by a tap. An outlet to drain the water away is placed in the floor of the bath. A steam conduit has also been constructed from Skrifla hot spring, sloping upwards towards the west in the direction of the homestead of Reykholt. The steam was perhaps used for cooking, heating, or a sauna. Landnámabók, the book recounting the settling of Iceland in the first half of the 12th century, tells of a bath at Reykholt. However, the name, Snorralaug, meaning Snorri's bath, is first mentioned in a travel book from 1772. It is the chieftain and presumed saga author, Snorri Sturluson, who is associated with the bath. According to the Sturlunga Saga, written in the 12 th century, one of the places where Snorri lived was Reykholt and it is where he was killed by his enemies in 1241. The saga contains several stories about the bath at Reykholt, where the chieftains met and made important decisions. The same saga also mentioned that an underground passage once led from the bath up to the vestibule of the homestead. The age of the basins and the conduits is not known with certainty. The bath probably had its present circular shape as early as the middle of the 18th century. It was restored in 1858 and again in 1959, when the shape the bath had from 1858 was kept. Concerning the first restoration in 1858, it is said that it was constructed in the same manner as originally. Archaeological research in connection with the restoration in 1959, and additionally in 1964 and 1984, have shown that Snorralaug and the system of pipes belonging to it are engineering masterpieces of. Snorralaug is an example of the human creative ability to use the forces of Nature for his own enjoyment. Snorri Sturluson's activity and importance are remembered today at Reykholt. The bath that bears his name is the most significant monument. At Reykholt there is also a secondary school, a research institution and a church. Archaeological research at the old farm site at Reykholt has been going on since 1997 after an interval of nine years. In the summer 1999, reasonably well-preserved remains, dating to the medieval period, began to emerge. North of Snorralaug is a passageway first excavated and reconstructed in 1941, leading from - th_l 'th the bath toward a 17 9 century farm. The passageway is dug down in steps with the inner side of the walls made of stone, preserved in places up to a height of 1.8 m. The width at the bottom was between 70 cm and 80 cm and the floor was made of natural clay. There is no indication as to how the roof was constructed. In 1999, the end of the passage where it approaches the farm site was excavated. It turns sharply to the east, and is cut by a rectangular building that may, or may not have been constructed on top of the passage. Ten stone steps have been uncovered leading down into the passage from the southwest corner of the building with a difference of 1.78 m between the height of the top and bottom step. AC dating from this area has suggested 13th -15th century. This structure is also underground and lined with stone to a depth of about 1 m and is 9.5 m long by 2.8 m wide. A 0.75 m--l.5 m groove is dug along the length of the building, and creates what could be a 0.5 m--l.25 m-broad bench along both sides of the eastern part of the structure. It has been suggested that hot water or vapour may have been led into the structure at some time. Thus far, 22m of the 17th-18th -century passage-way farm have been uncovered, with an excavated area north of the underground passage leading from Snorralaug, as well as an area identified as a kitchen, and earlier evidence for a dairy which pre-dates the passage-way farm.