Ress Spa

Spaces – Hotel Føroyar – Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Above Tórshavn, where the grass roof of Hotel Føroyar meets the slope, a new spa house has been cut into the hill. Its pools look out over the town and across the sound to Nólsoy.

The entrance to Ress Spa, a corten doorway set into the turf of the hillside above Tórshavn, the harbour and Nólsoy beyond

The curved walkway to the spa house, cut between walls of rock below the turf

You reach Ress along a curved timber walkway sunk between walls of rock, a few metres below the surface of the hill. In winter the snow lies on the turf above and along the boards, and the wind drops as you go down. By the time the path opens into the spa house the town has fallen away, and what is left is water, stone and the light off the sea.

Snow on the rock and the corten entrance of the spa house

The walkway to Ress Spa in snow, Tórshavn harbour beyond

The house is built into the terrain rather than on it. The facade is stacked rock, the roof is grass, and the glass walls are tall enough that the pools seem to run on into the landscape. Inside, the heated pool passes under the glass and out into the open air. On the roof an infinity pool holds the harbour and the coloured houses of Tórshavn, with Nólsoy lying low across the water.

A bather at the edge of the infinity pool, Tórshavn and the snow-covered hills beyond

The pool meeting the glass wall with the town below, and the dark water of the indoor pool

Tórshavn seen through the timber louvres of the spa house

There are two saunas, a steam bath where the vapour rises from volcanic stone and falls back as a fine mineral rain, a cold plunge, and two hot tubs outside, where the weather is part of the bathing.

The dark timber sauna, and steam in the stone-clad steam bath

A bather at the glass wall of the pool, looking out over the snow

The pool seen past a bather's shoulder, and the walk from the shower to the pool

I photographed it on a digital Hasselblad. The medium format sensor suited the place: wet basalt, steam and the slow gradients of a northern sky sit in one frame without strain. A lot of the work was waiting for the steam to thin, or for the water to lie still enough to mirror the glass.

The light in the Faroe Islands changes by the minute, and a glass house changes with it. I kept to the natural light throughout.

A bather on the sauna bench by the window, the snow-covered town below

Ress is the only spa in the islands, and TIME has put it on its list of the World's Greatest Places for 2026. What the building does is simple. It gives the hill back its roof, and it puts the pools where the view is.

The terrace of Ress Spa above Tórshavn, the sea and the islands beyond

Tórshavn from the hill above Hotel Føroyar, Nólsoy across the sound

When you come up out of the water, the hotel's restaurant is a short walk along the same hill. Guests of the spa can go straight from the pools to a table, with the same view of the town through the glass.

The restaurant at Hotel Føroyar, woven pendant lamps over the tables

Ress Spa at Hotel Føroyar, Gilsvegur 10, Tórshavn · Digital – Hasselblad