The Apotek Hotel is Reykjavík's landmark address and the city-center boutique done with history intact: the 1917 building on Austurstræti at parliament square — designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, the state architect whose fingerprints define the capital (Hallgrímskirkja and the National Theatre are his — this corner block was among his first, and the protected facade's neoclassical polish shows the young architect proving himself), serving as the city's main pharmacy (the apótek) for eight decades before the conversion — now running as a 45-room boutique whose virtues stack: the location is the argument (the hotel faces Austurvöllur square and parliament — Laugavegur's spine starts a block east, the harbor five minutes north, the Tjörnin pond three south: the whole walking city radiates from the doorstep, and the roster's city entries practically list the hotel as their midpoint), the rooms run Nordic-calm (the high-ceilinged pharmacy floors gave generous proportions — the corner rooms' square views are the category to request — with the muted-palette, wood-and-wool register of the capital's better conversions), the Apotek Kitchen+Bar downstairs earns its own trade (the restaurant-bar is a city institution independent of the hotel — the pharmacist-themed cocktail list plays on the building's past, the Icelandic-Argentine kitchen runs the lamb-and-langoustine register with theater, and the weekend scene brings the locals in: guests upstairs skip the reservation queue), and the history's texture survives (the facade's protected lines, the lobby's nods to the pharmacy century). The honest frame: rooms at the entry tiers run boutique-compact, the square-facing rooms trade a little weekend noise for the view (the runtur passes below — light sleepers take the back), and the rates run city-center real. Fit: first trips (the location solves every logistics question), couples (the cocktail-bar-downstairs register), and every stay that measures hotels by what is outside the door.
The building's story is the city's compressed: Samúelsson designed it young (the 1917 block announced the ambition that would make him state architect — the man later gave Iceland its national style, and Hallgrímskirkja's basalt-column facade descends from the career this corner began), the pharmacy century made the address a civic fixture (the apótek served the capital until 1999 — generations bought their medicine under these ceilings), and the boutique conversion kept the bones: the protected facade, the proportions, and the name. The room craft: the corner categories' double-aspect square views are the booking (Austurvöllur's trees and parliament's stone from bed), the top-floor rooms add quiet and light, the back rooms solve the weekend-noise question, and the junior suites earn celebration stays.
The downstairs institution's detail
Apotek Kitchen+Bar runs as one of the center's reliable serious tables (the tasting menus and the lamb are the kitchen's case; the bar's apothecary-coded cocktail list — prescriptions, tinctures, the theater of it — made it a date-night fixture), the breakfast does the hotel honors, and the happy-hour and weekend registers bring the city in. The location geometry restated as itinerary: Austurvöllur's café ring and parliament at the door, the cathedral and Harpa's glass five minutes, Laugavegur's spine a block east (the roster's entry), the harbor walk and Sun Voyager ten minutes, Tjörnin three — the hotel is the walking city's origin point, and taxis to the lagoon-and-tour pickups stage at the square.
Practicals and fit
Austurstræti 16 at parliament square, 45 rooms, Kitchen+Bar downstairs (guests skip the queue), weekend-noise math by room choice. Fit: first trips' logistics answer, couples' cocktail-register base — the capital, from its landmark corner.
Why stay here
- ✓Parliament square location
- ✓Protected 1917 landmark
- ✓Apotek Kitchen+Bar downstairs
- ✓Corner square-view rooms
- ✓Nordic-calm interiors
- ✓Breakfast room
- ✓Walking-city origin point
- ✓Tour pickups at the square
Good questions
Why is the building famous?+
It is a 1917 landmark by Guðjón Samúelsson — the state architect behind Hallgrímskirkja — and served as the city's main pharmacy for eight decades: the protected facade and the name carry the century.
Is the location really that central?+
It is the walking city's origin point — parliament square at the door, Laugavegur a block east, the harbor and Tjörnin minutes either way: the location solves every first-trip logistics question.
What about weekend noise?+
The square-facing rooms trade a little runtur hum for the view — light sleepers take the back or upper floors, and the corner categories' double-aspect views reward those who keep the front.
