Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
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Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík or MR is the oldest gymnasium (Icelandic: Menntaskóli) in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The school traces its origin to 1056, when a school was established in Skálholt, and it remains one of the oldest institutions in Iceland. The school was moved to Reykjavík in 1786, but poor housing conditions forced it to move again in 1805 to Bessastaðir near Reykjavík. In 1846 the school was moved to its current location, a new house built for it in Reykjavík. This was the largest house in the country at the time and can be seen on the 500 Icelandic krona bill. The school had previously been known as "Lærði skólinn" (the Learned School), or by the Latin title "Schola Reykjavicensis", but received its present name in 1937.
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík offers a four-year-long course of study. It usually ends with a degree (stúdentspróf) which gives the graduating student the right to advance to an Icelandic university.
Many Icelandic politicians, including former Prime Minister Davíð Oddsson and the current President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, either attended MR or taught there. Geir H. Haarde, Davíð's successor as chairman of the Independence Party, also took over from him as chairman of the student body ("inspector scholae") years ago. The President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, was also the president of the other student body, called Framtíðin ("The Future").
Some notable Icelandic authors have also attended MR, amongst them Tómas Guðmundsson, Guðmundur G. Hagalín, and Davíð Stefánsson. Halldór Kiljan Laxness, a Nobel-prize winning author, also attended the school for some time but dropped out. Another attendee, Niels Ryberg Finsen won the Nobel Prize in medicine.
Noted Icelandic scholar Sveinbjörn Egilsson served as rector from its founding in Reykjavík in 1846.
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