Strandakirkja is located on the south coast of Iceland near the town of Þorlákshöfn. It was built somewhere in the 12th century by few fishermen. The story says that back in the days those fishermen were trying to get back to land and having a rather hard time. They prayed to God to help them ashore and vowed to him that they would instead build him a church where they landed. And so they did and they named it Strandakirkja. (strönd=shore and kirkja = church. So you could say the Churc by the Shore)
Many donations, vows and miracles have been attributed to the church ever since and once it was said to be the riches church in Iceland.
The Church is also quite close to a fishing lake called Hlíðarvatn. In fact the church is quite visible from the lake. Once while the hubby and I were fishing in Hliðarvatn I made a vow to the church. Honestly, I had been fishing all day and nothing happened. So standing there, looking at the Church I made the vow. I vowed that if I would catch one fish I would make a small donation to the church. And what do you know. On the way back home I had to stop at the Church to pay my dues because I did catch a fish. Of course we also signed the beautiful guestbook that is in the Church and I hope you will to.
