Skriduklaustur monastry - 1550 reconstruction

The Skriðuklaustur cloister was the last one to be founded during Iceland’s Catholic period, i.e. shortly before the country’s 16th-century Reformation. It was thus active for less than six decades, and could scarcely be said to have flourished for more than about four decades. The deed of gift is still preserved whereby the couple Sesselja Þorsteinsdóttir and the local sheriff Hallsteinn Þorsteinsson, who lived on the other side of this valley at Víðivellir ytri, donated Skriða farm as the site for a cloister. Although this deed was signed on 8 June 1500, it is considered certain that the cloister was founded sooner, probably in 1493 when Stefán Jónsson, bishop at Skálholt, came on his first visitation to this valley.