Icelandic-Phallological-Museum

The Icelandic Phallological Museum

The Icelandic Phallological Museum (Icelandic: Hið íslenzka reðasafn) contains the world’s largest public display of penises and penile parts. The largest penis is 170 cm long, the smallest one is just 2 mm. The museum recieves around 11,000 visitors annually.

At the time of writing, the collection is comprised of 280 specimens. There is for instance over a hundred penises collected from various land mammals, 50+ whale penises and three dozen seal penises.

Most of the penisses are either dried or preserved in jars of formaldehyde.

Founded back in 1997, the museum obtained its first human penis in 2011, from a man who pledged his penis to the museum before he died. Regretably, the detachment of the penis from the body caused serious damage to the penis. It has been preserved in a jar of formalin.

Collecting penises is like collecting anything. You can never stop, you can never catch up, you can always get a new one, a better one.” – Sigurður Hjartarson

Examples of objects in the museum

  • The 170 cm long penis-tip of a blue whale. Only the tip of the penis is preserved at the museum. The whole penis would have been around 5 meter long and weighed around 350-450 kg.
  • A nearly 1 meter long elephant penis.
  • The 2 mm long penis of a hamster
  • Seal and walrus penises that includes the penis bone.
  • A human foreskin donated by Iceland’s National Hospital after an emergency circumcision.
  • Human testicles.
  • Lampshades made from bull scrotums
  • An 18th-century engraving depicting the circumcision of Jesus Christ.
  • Sculptures based on the 15 penises of the members of the Iceland national handball team that won the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Where is it located?

The museum is located in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

Coordinates: 64.142952°N 21.915°W

Address: Laugavegur 116, Reykjavík, Iceland

Icelandic Phallological Museum map

Origin

The museum was founded in 1997 by Sigurður Hjartarson, a former teacher and principal at Reykjavík’s Hamrahlid College.

He was given a bull’s penis to use as a whip as a child, but didn’t start collecting until 1974 when a fried – who had learned about the bull’s penis – gave him four other penises. His reputation for being a penis collector spread, and acquaintances at whaling stations started bringing him whale penises. Before long, Hjartarson began receiving penises from fishermen and butchers too.

After the global ban on commerical whaling 1986, Hjartarson continued to build his whale penis collection by removing penises from stranded whales.

During his career as a teacher and principal, Hjartarson kept his penis collection in his office at the college. After retiring, he decided display the collection for the public. He received a 200,000 ISK grant from the city council and opened the museum in 1997.

Human penis pledges

Several men have pledged to donate their penis to the museum after death. One of them are writer and actor Johan Falcon, known for his unusually large specimen. After accepting the proposal to become a donor, Falcon suggested that his penis should be displayed alongside that of a sperm whale, naming the exhibit “Jonah and the whale”.