The Monastery
In the Carmelite convent on the Old Town Embankment, there are Polish nuns. In the chapel of the cloister There are daily masses and at Advent there is a nativity scene which everyone is welcome to see. The cloister garden is a lovely garden which the nuns have more or less created themselves.
The history of the cloister
The beginning of cloister work in Hafnarfjörður can be traced back to 1929, but in 1939 Carmelite nuns came from Holland to establish a convent in Hafnarfjörður. On what is now Ölduslóð 13, the order had acquired land for the convent and begun its construction. The Dutch nuns ran the convent until 1983, when the last of them left. Less than a year later, the Polish Carmelite nuns, who are now at the convent, arrived.
The Cloister Garden
In the cloister garden, there is a lovely garden which the nuns have more or less made themselves. In the middle of the garden is Mount Carmel, a mountain in Palestine, and on this mountain began the settlement of hermits who lived according to an organised rule, which was the beginning of the order as it is today. In the 13th century, the Carmelite Order spread throughout Europe, but Carmel means garden. The sisters brought innovations in vegetable cultivation to the country, growing varieties of vegetables that few people in Hafnarfjörður had seen, as in those years potatoes and turnips were mainly grown. For the garden, the Carmelite convent received The Honourable Shield of Chivalry the year 2020.
Daily life
The Carmelite nuns dedicate their lives to the faith in Jesus Christ. In the chapel of the cloister There are daily masses where everyone is welcome. The nuns also accept requests for prayers. The monastery runs the Monastery Shop, where you can buy, among other things, calligraphic candles and cards which are always popular for confirmations and weddings.