The National Gallery of Iceland

The National Gallery of Iceland is recognizable by its white, neoclassical exterior, originally built in nineteen sixteen as a freezing plant for the local fishing industry. The building held tons of ice and salted fish before its transition into a home for art in nineteen eighty-seven. Sigurjón Ólafsson once kept his studio nearby, and the museum houses a vast collection of his sculptures. Its concrete walls, once designed to keep the cold in, now protect a national collection of Icelandic paintings.