Review: Icelandic Phallological Museum (a.k.a. The Penis Museum)

by SharonKurheg

If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time, you know that we sometimes focus on the more quirky stuff. Joe and I each have wide varieties of interests when we travel, but we both tend to have some focus on the, shall we say, more odd opportunities.

We’ve already given reports on our visits to places like:

And we’ve reported on location-specific places you can visit such as:

So when we discovered that Iceland had a penis museum? You BET we were going!

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is located in Reykjavík and is the home to the world’s largest display of penises and penile parts. Founded in 1997 by Sigurður Hjartarson and now run by his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, the museum currently has roughly 300 penises from more than 100 species on display. They run the gamut from a 67-inch front tip of a killer whale penis to the 2 mm (0.08 in) baculum (penis bone) of a hamster (that one can only be seen with a magnifying glass).

The entrance to the Penis Museum is relatively unassuming, save for the amusing rock formation outside the front door.

a glass door with a sign on it

The museum itself is in the basement of an H&M store. Once you go down the stairs and through the hall (the walls are decorated with all sorts of penis-themed memes, drawings, jokes, etc., all framed) or take the elevator, you arrive in the souvenir shop. They sell just about anything you can think can be in the shape of a penis – lollipops, key chains, bottle openers, cheese cutters, and the like. Plus a full array of penis- and Icelandic Phallological Museum-themed T-shirts, underpants, postcards, mugs, books, shot glasses, knitted penis warmers, wind-up “Walking Willy” toys, buttons, cloisonné style pins, etc.

They also have a small cafe, where you can buy sandwiches, snacks, soft drinks, beer, etc. None are penis-shaped, BTW ;-). But you’re invited to take your food with you into the museum itself.

As costs go in Iceland, the Penis Museum is pretty cheap – ISK 2500 for adults (currently about $19 and change).

The museum has dozens upon dozens of penises from more animal species than you knew existed, as well as from 2 dozen or so that don’t, in the form of creatures and peoples of Icelandic folklore (so if you ever wanted to see what the respective penises of Icelandic Elf, Kelpie, Sea-Howler, Thorgeir´s Bull, The Corpse-Eating Cat of Thingmuli, or The Nasty Ghost of Snæfell looked like, you’re in luck!). Many are in formaldehyde but others are dried and erected (sorry not sorry) on the wall, along with information about each species’ mating patterns, typical phallus length and testicle size, courting habits, and any oddities (i.e. humans are the only primates not have a penis bone (read: the aforementioned baculum).

There are also sections that focus on penis paintings, sculptures, woodwork, penises in religion, etc.

Joe and I spent a good 2 hours in the museum, looking at the specimens, reading the captions, etc.

We had gone to the Penis Museum partially because we had never been to anything like it before, and, we admit it, partially for the giggles. After getting over the fact that we were virtually surrounded by penises (and getting past the sculptures of the penises of the entire 2008 Olympic silver medal-winning Icelandic men’s national handball team)…

a picture of a team on a wall

…we were happily surprised to discover that we were enjoying our visit more from an educational standpoint than an entertainment one. We would definitely recommend it as a way to spend a couple of hours.

(P.S. – we purposely didn’t include a whole lot of penis jokes in this post; no “big” or “small” comments, nothing about how long we spent there, etc. You are more than welcome to reply and fill in that need. 😉 )

Feature Photo: maxpixel

Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.

Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.

Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!

This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

1 comment

Robert September 17, 2021 - 5:13 am

Are there any hands-on displays?

Reply

Leave a Comment