Cain Manor

Your Guide To All Things Cain™

Nupsstadur Farm near Lomagnupur Peak

This photo is from the Nupsstadur (Núpsstaður) Farm near Lomag­nupur Peak in South­ern Ice­land.  This is a Unesco World Her­itage site, and this is what they say about it.

The aes­thetic beauty of the land­scape in Núpsstaður is well known. The area reaches from the seashore and the black sands, to high white glac­i­ers and includes a green veg­e­ta­tion belt with a native birch for­est, wil­low scrubs and flour­ish­ing under­growth (with e.g. Dacty­lorhiza mac­u­lata) in between. The area is adja­cent to Skaftafell National Park. It has numer­ous impres­sive geo­log­i­cal for­ma­tions, among them are. var­i­ous types of lava, rock-glaciers, water­falls, gul­lies, canyons, geot­her­mal areas, a cen­tral vol­cano, tec­tonic fis­sures, scree slopes, a glacial lagoon, glacial rivers and part of the Vat­na­jd­kull glac­ier. The farm, Núpsstaður, is sit­u­ated in the imme­di­ate neigh­bor­hood of the vast Skei6arcirsandur sands, south of the huge mass of the Vatnaj6kull glac­ier. East of the farm, looms the majes­tic cliff of Lómag­núpur, known from the Njál’s saga. At Núpsstaður stands a turf and stone farm­house and it is a typ­i­cal mid­dle– sized farm, like those found through­out the 19th cen­tury in the south­ern parts of Ice­land. There is a com­plete group of remark­able old farm houses, as well as a whole set of the usual sta­bles and other out­houses. A church was built at Núpsstaður in ear­li­est Chris­t­ian times, or at least some­time before 1200 AD, In the Catholic Period. The church was ded­i­cated to St. Nicholas and there were few peo­ple in the parish at that time. In the year 1765 how­ever, it was abol­ished as a parish church, but the build­ing served as a chapel fbr the fan­ner and his peo­ple. After 1783, the build­ing was reduced to the state of a store­house. In 1930 the National Museum of Ice­land took over the old house and in 1958–1960 gave it thor­ough repa­ra­tion. Like other turf and stones faffns, Núpsstaður has a long and con­tin­u­ous evo­lu­tion over many cen­turies. The same fam­ily has lived in N(jpssta6ur since about 1730. The farm­stead of Núpsstaður forms an unusu­ally well-preserved cul­tural land­scape, offer­ing a great deal of infor­ma­tion about the use of the area before modem changes. The area has always been an agri­cul­tural landscape.

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