Natural history museum · Reykjavík, Iceland

Icelandic Phallological Museum

The Icelandic Phallological Museum (Hið Íslenzka Reðasafn) in Reykjavík is the world’s largest collection of phallic specimens and artefacts, housing over 300 penises from more than 100 species of mammals. Founded by teacher and collector Sigurður Hjartarson, the museum also holds 22 specimens attributed to creatures of Icelandic folklore, and a growing collection of human specimens donated voluntarily. What began as a private curiosity in the 1970s has become one of Iceland’s most visited and internationally recognised museums, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors seeking a genuinely singular cultural experience.

At a glance

Type: Specialist natural history and folk culture museum
Period: Collection begun 1974; museum opened publicly 1997 in Húsavík; relocated to Reykjavík 2011
Style: Informal museum with scientific, folkloric, and humorous dimensions
Location: Laugavegur 116, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland
Coordinates: 64.1484° N, 21.9358° W
Founded by: Sigurður Hjartarson

Overview

The Phallological Museum is housed on Laugavegur, Reykjavík’s main commercial street, and presents its collection with a combination of scientific rigour and self-aware humour that has won it a devoted following worldwide. Specimens range from the enormous — a 170 cm sperm whale penis — to the microscopic, displayed under magnification. The museum’s scope extends beyond the biological to include art objects, folklore items, and documentary materials relating to phallic symbolism in Icelandic and international culture.

History

Sigurður Hjartarson received his first specimen — a cattle pizzle used as a whip — from a friend in 1974 while working as a schoolteacher. What began as a private joke gradually became a serious collecting project; by the 1990s Hjartarson had accumulated enough specimens to open a small museum in Húsavík in northern Iceland in 1997. The museum attracted international media attention and appeared in documentaries, becoming an unlikely landmark. In 2011 Hjartarson relocated the collection to Reykjavík to reach a larger audience, and his son Hjörtur later took over day-to-day management. The museum received its first human specimen in 2011, donated by a 95-year-old Icelander.

What you see

The collection covers the full range of Icelandic and international mammalian fauna: whales (blue, sperm, minke, humpback), seals, walruses, polar bears, horses, and over a dozen rodent species, among many others. Specimens are preserved in formaldehyde, dried, or mounted, and displayed with species identification and size information. Folklore exhibits include specimens attributed to elves, trolls, and other creatures of Icelandic legend. An art gallery presents paintings, sculptures, and craft objects with phallic themes from multiple countries, donated by artists and collectors over the decades.

Cultural significance

The museum occupies an unusual cultural space — simultaneously a legitimate natural history collection, a study in Icelandic folk tradition, and a commentary on societal discomfort with the human body. Its global media coverage has made it one of Iceland’s most internationally recognisable cultural institutions, contributing meaningfully to Reykjavík’s reputation as an unconventional and open-minded cultural destination. Academics studying natural history, gender studies, and museum theory have used the collection as a serious research resource.

Practical information

Address: Laugavegur 116, 105 Reykjavík, Iceland
Opening hours: Daily; check the official website for current hours and admission prices.
Website: phallus.is
Age: Open to all ages; parental discretion advised for young children

Getting there

The museum is located on Laugavegur, Reykjavík’s main shopping street, in the city centre. It is within easy walking distance of the city’s major hotels and attractions, including Hallgrímskirkja church (10 minutes on foot). Reykjavík has no metro system; buses and taxis serve the area, and the compact city centre is easily explored on foot. Reykjavík’s domestic airport (Reykjavík Airport, RKV) is approximately 3 km away; Keflavík International Airport (KEF) is 50 km distant with regular bus connections.

Sources & resources

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The Icelandic Phalological Museum&nbsp;is a small private museum in Reykjav&iacute;k dedicated to the male sexual organ. Before 2012, the museum was based in H&uacute;sav&iacute;k, a town in the north near Akureyri.



Founded in 1974 by Sigurdur Hjartarson, a retired history professor, the museum collects male genitalia, dried or preserved in formaldehyde.

The collection consists of 276 penises, belonging to 92 different animal species, in this case the mammals of Iceland, some of which are now extinct. Since 2011, a human penis has been part of the collection, donated by an Icelandic citizen upon his death.



The Icelandic Phallological Museum is probably the only museum in the world that collects a collection of phalological specimens belonging to all the various species of mammals found in a single country.



Phalology is an ancient science which, until recent years, has received very limited attention in Iceland, except as a marginal field of study of other academic disciplines, such as history, art, psychology, literature and other artistic fields such as music and ballet.

Today, thanks to the Icelandic Phallological Museum, it is finally possible for individuals to devote themselves to the serious study of the field of phalology in an organized and scientific way.



The Icelandic Phallological Museum contains a collection of two hundred and nine penises and parts of penis, belonging to almost all land and marine mammals found in Iceland.

Visitors to the museum will encounter fifty-five samples belonging to sixteen different species of cetaceans, a sample extracted from a polar bear, thirty-six pieces from seven different species of seals and walruses, and one hundred and fifteen samples from twenty different types of land mammals: all inclusive, a sum of two hundred and nine individual pieces belonging to forty-six different species of mammals.



It should be noted that the museum was also fortunate to receive legally certified promises from four samples of Homo Sapiens members. In addition, twenty-three folkloristic cambpions and forty foreigners are on display. In total, the collection contains 272 specimens of 92 different species of animals.

In addition to the biological section of the museum, visitors can admire the collection of some three hundred artistic oddities and other practical utensils related to the museum&#39;s favorite theme.

https://culturalheritageonline.com/places/icelandic-phallological-museum-l4028/

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