The Arctic Lifestyle Magazine #4

e define Swedish Lapland in a hundred ways or more. For the mountains, forests and wetlands, and for the major rivers flowing continuously into the archipelago of the Baltic sea. For the people who live here and for the broad, untouched expanses of nature. For the art, music and literature. For a cultural landscape and for wildlife.

Naturally, our everyday life defines us as people. The seasons, the distances and the climate up north have not only dictated a special way of life, but also a life in which nature is a major aspect, almost like a religion.

The destination Swedish Lapland is a common brand used by the northernmost municipalities in Sweden, making it Your Arctic Destination. For us, at Swedish Lapland Visitors Board, the quality of life in the region is more important than its boundaries. And what we are trying to describe is an Arctic soul. But what is that?

Indigenous people lived here long before any king moved the boundaries for his domain farther north. The king’s men called them Lapps, but they called themselves the Sámi and their homeland Sápmi; a borderless land that stretches across the Nordkalotten region, from northernmost Norway, over northern Sweden, into northern Finland, all the way to the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

Today we refer to this region as Arctic Europe. It is a part of the world that has become increasingly interesting for political powers and foreign investors. A place in love with the open and welcoming society, sometimes referred to as “swedishness”, but always on our own terms, under hail or mosquito swarms, snowstorms or sun blisters. Today this northern region is the most progressive in Europe.

Naturally, Swedish Lapland, is a vital part of the global fabric, that has been shaped since time immemorial. Via our neighbours – Finnish Lapland and northern Norway – we are the only part of Sweden to share national boundaries with two countries. And, somewhere at this intersection, there is something that we wish to define as a unique lifestyle.

We dry our meat in the spring, smoke our fish in the summer and boil our coffee over an open fire all year round. And we put ‘coffee cheese’ in our boiled coffee because we love the taste and the squeaky sound it makes between our teeth. Throughout history, amid the clatter of reindeer hooves and life in weathered log cabins, something very exciting has emerged. A destination, of course, but also a place to call home is evolving under northern lights or midnight sun. An everyday Arctic lifestyle deeply rooted in nature that we wish to share.

For us, Swedish Lapland is not really a place, but rather a way of life. And you are welcome to share our Arctic lifestyle.

swedish lapland

SÁPMI

map

Swedish Lapland Sápmi

Swedish Lapland represents the Swedish part of the Arctic region, shared with seven other countries: USA (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Finland, Russia, Canada and Iceland.

How far north is Swedish Lapland actually? For example:

• Whistler in Canada has the same latitude as Frankfurt in Germany at 50° north.

• Hokkaido in Japan has the same latitude as Rome in Italy at 43° north.

Photo: Linnea Lundkvist

THE COVER

Reindeer are iconic to the Arctic. This magnificent bull was portrayed by award-winning photographer Andy Anderson at Nutti Sámi Siida in Jukkasjärvi, where you can learn all about reindeer and Sámi lifestyle. Read more about this amazing animal at page 50.

EDITOR’S NOTES

At the editorial office of this magazine we know that we are fortunate. Every day, we wake up in one of the best places in the world, to live and visit. And that because of all the hard-working entrepreneurs and enthusiasts that make this place ticking. Thanks!

We would also like to acknowledge that all our work take place on the traditional grounds of the following reindeer husbandry associations, the indigenous Sámi people, of: Könkämä, Lainiovuoma, Saarivuoma, Talma, Vittangi, Muonio, Gabna, Laevas, Girjas, Baste earru, Tärendö, Sattajärvi, Korju, Unna Tjerusj, Sirges, Jåhkågaska tjiellde, Slakka, Gällivare, Ängeså, Pirttijärvi, Kalix, Liehittäja, Tuorpon, Luokta-Mavas, Semisjaur-Njarg, Ståkke, Udtja, Svaipa, Maskaur, Västra Kikkejaur, Östra Kikkejaur, Gran, Ran, Mausjaur och Malå. Giitu!

This edition wouldn’t be possible without the contribution from some of the industry’s finest: Andy Anderson, Linnea Lundkvist, Anna Nygren, Per Lundström, Magnus Winbjörk, Carl-Johan Utsi, Hans-Olof Utsi, Asaf Kliger, Mattias Fredriksson, Tobias Hägg, Konsta Punkka, Eeva Mäkinen, Frauke Hameister, Marco Grassi, Andres Larrota, Johan Ylitalo, Anders Lindberg, Adam Klingeteg, Mattias Hargin, Viveka Österman, Josefin Wiklund, Thomas Ekström, Lucas Nilsson, Sven Burman, Peter Rosén, Daniel Holmgren, David Björkén for your amazing work with the cameras. Lisa Wallin for your beautiful illustrations. Mark Wilcox, Mia Linder and Jesper Sandström for spot-on translations. Finally, if we hadn’t been so busy having fun, we would have finished this edition last year – or even the year before – so we won’t promise when the next issue will appear. But somehow it will. Until then, stay safe and see you soon.

THE ARCTIC LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

The Arctic Lifestyle Magazine is a standalone publication, published by Swedish Lapland Visitors Board – the regional representative of the tourism industry in Sweden’s Arctic destination, Swedish Lapland. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author, or persons interviewed and do not necessarily reflect the view of the editors.

EDITORIAL Swedish Lapland Visitors Board: Anna Lindblom, Art Director. Josefine Ås and Håkan Stenlund, Writers. Contact us at redaktionen@swedishlapland.com

PRINT Lule Grafiska, Luleå.

SWEDISH LAPLAND® is a registered trademark used as destination brand of Sweden’s northernmost destination. The region includes the municipalities of Arjeplog, Arvidsjaur, Boden, Gällivare, Haparanda, Jokkmokk, Kalix, Kiruna, Luleå, Pajala, Piteå, Skellefteå, Sorsele, Älvsbyn Överkalix and Övertorneå.

Photos: Asaf Kliger, Carl-Johan Utsi, Per Lundström, Konsta Punkka, David Björkén

Illustration: Lisa Wallin |

IT’S TIME TO

celebrate

Every day in life is a reason to celebrate, but some days are even designated holidays in the calendar. We have listed a few favourites that tell a bit of our story.

Photo: Anna Nygren

Lucia

Every year on December 13, Sweden wakes up to the sound of angelic voices in the winter cold. The northernmost part of the country is no exception. The Lucia celebration is widespread and something everyone looks forward to. Perhaps it is because we get to light candles, listen to the hymns, and eat buns made with saffron, which makes everything a bit extra special. Why else would we so eagerly celebrate a Catholic saint? Lucia of Syracuse became a saint because she provided food and assistance to Christians hiding in the catacombs of Rome. The crown of candles she wears is purely practical – to be able to carry food and supplies with both her hands. In times past, according to the Julian calendar, December 13 was the shortest day of the year. In many ways, this is when you feel like the year is turning.

facts: A Lucia celebration can be found in any church or school on December 13.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, December 24, might be the biggest holiday of them all for Swedes. The kids are off school, and everyone is enjoying sweets, food, and Christmas gifts. The main Christmas celebrations have already been preceded by a kind of overindulgence known as Christmas smorgasbord. All through December, restaurants serve traditional Christmas buffets, and in Sweden everyone relishes it. Christmas food in the destination Swedish Lapland is rich in game and fish. There is no getting away from elk roasts, reindeer tongue and cured Arctic char. Not even if you actively try. Jellied meat and Christmas ham are other central items. And don’t worry – there are lots of vegetarian options.

facts: A traditional Christmas buffet can be savoured at many restaurants and hotels throughout December, but be sure to book in advance!

New years eve – do it twice!

New Year’s Eve has its own, specific traditions. Promises are made – and hopefully not broken on the same day. If you love toasting with bubbles and experiencing New Year fireworks, Tornedalen is the place to go. In Finland, on the other side of the river, the clock strikes midnight an hour earlier. If you are quick about it, you can toast, make promises, and watch fireworks twice this evening. First in Finland, then in Sweden.

facts: Celebrate New Year’s twice at the twin cities Haparanda in Sweden and Tornio (Finland), with two different time zones! At Victoria square in Haparanda people from near and far first cheer for the Finnish new year and one hour later the Swedish.

Photo: Anna Nygren

Brändön Lodge

Illustration: Lisa Wallin

Sápmi celebrates

February 6 is celebrated as the Sámi national day, commemorating the first Sámi congress that was held on that day in Tromsø in Norway 1917. The land of Sápmi extends through Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. On this day the national anthem Sámi soga lávlla is sung, and you can also hear the unofficial national jojk Sámiid eatnan duoddariid , by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, all over Sápmi. The Sámi are the indigenous people of northern Europe, and one of Sweden’s five national minorities.

Jokkmokks marknad

For almost 420 years, on the first week of February, the Jokkmokk market has been a unique part of the Sápmi experience. People from all corners of the world meet for this special occasion, and foremost all relatives and friends from the geographically dispersed indigenous Sámi. Ask anyone in Jokkmokk and they will tell you that there is a before and an after this unbroken tradition. It is the real beginning and end of the year. The market showcases the best Sápmi has to offer in terms of culture and design. You do not want to miss the art exhibition at Sámij åhpadusguovdásj, the handicraft exhibition at Ájtte, the inauguration, the meat soup at Akerlunds and the Sámi Duodji exhibition, and more.

facts: The Jokkmokk winter market is inaugurated the first Wednesday of February each year an goes on for another three days in the town of Jokkmokk. jokkmokksmarknad.se

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Photo: Carl-Johan Utsi

Easter

Easter is celebrated in the north, of course. But when the rest of Europe is harvesting asparagus and going to mass, we go to the mountains and dig out a ‘solgrop’ in the snow. This ‘sun pit’ is a word as well as a phenomenon, as embedded in Arctic culture as fatwood and coarse-ground coffee. This is the best of times. The sun is warm again, and the days are longer than the nights.

facts: The sun is getting stronger this time of the year – don’t forget your sunscreen!

Fat Tuesday

Fasting is something we are not very good at. But the day before Ash Wednesday of the Christian tradition, all Swedes are chomping at the bit, feasting away on Fat Tuesday. The Swedish bun ‘semla’, the epitome of a prelent pastry, is found on every coffee table and every local newspaper crowns the best semla of the year.

facts: A semla is a delicious cardamom bun with a marzipan type filling, lots of whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar.

June 6

We have a national holiday in Sweden too. They say it is celebrated because Gustav Vasa took to the throne on June 6 in 1523, but the new constitution adopted by King Charles XIII on the same date in 1809 may also have played a part. The day which used to be known as the Swedish Flag Day, became a national holiday in 1983 and a bank holiday in 2005. As you might have gathered, there is not a lot of fuss surrounding the national holiday – people just appreciate having a day off in the beginning of summer.

facts: Buy a picnic and go out into nature to enjoy a good moment amongst friends.

Photo: Per Lundström

Photo: Sofiia Popovych / Adobe Stock

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Huuva Hideaway

Midsummer

Perhaps we exaggerated when we said Christmas Eve was the most important holiday in Sweden. Midsummer Eve is just as important. Midsummer is the weekend when every Swede escapes to the countryside, to a little red cottage in a peaceful forest, or an island in the archipelago. The fact that this happens to be when the year takes yet another turn and it starts getting darker again is something we forget in the middle of schnapps, pickled herring, and some

dancing. What we still fail to understand is why a song like Små grodorna , The small frogs, became so important? Borrowed from the French – originally about onions – an ironic song about the French in the UK ended up as a family song in Sweden to be sung dancing around a maypole.

facts: Midsummer eve is always celebrated on the Friday in June that is closest to summer solstice.

Photo: Anna Nygren

The Day of the Tornedalians

Tornedalians, the inhabitants of Tornedalen, celebrate their national day on July 15. It is all about the bottomless longing for home, longing for roots, your place, and your family. It is celebrated it in July, because that’s the most beautiful time of the year. Meänflaku , meaning our flag, is hoisted, all for a place with its own unique culture. Even though it is a melting pot of two countries, several cultures and languages it come together as one. Tornedalians are one of Sweden’s five national minorities.

Fermented herring

There are two kinds of people in the north: those who eat Surströmming and those who don’t. To some, this fermented fish is more than disgusting. To others, it is the very essence of umami. Its history can be traced back to the 16th century and the Bothnian Bay, but the art of storing food by fermenting is much older than that, all around the world. First the herring is put in concentrated brine for a couple of days, to extract the blood from the fish. The fish is then moved to a less concentrated brine, to be fermented, for six to eight months before served.

facts: On the third Thursday in August, a characteristic, easily recognisable smell permeates the north. Local producers in Swedish Lapland are Storön, Kallax and Bockön.

The Crayfish Premiere

The Crayfish Premiere used to have a set date, August 7, but since a few years back it is up to local fish conservation areas to set the rules. At some point in the beginning of August, is the general guideline. The earlier prohibition was mostly in place to get cray fishing under control, so it would not be a drunken party the entire summer long. Article 9 of the Fisheries Act stated: “Crayfish are not to be caught during the months of June and July.”

facts: Crayfish parties are celebrated all over Sweden with funny hats, songs and a fair amount of schnapps.

Photo: BD Fisk

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Photo: Magnus Winbjörk

The genius OF THE PLACE

Photo: Asaf Kliger

Tjåsa Gusfors and Ulrika Tallving have a long-time relationship with Jukkasjärvi and Icehotel, creating art sculptures and fairylike rooms in the ephemeral material of ice.

For those who are blind to the experiences close to home, it can be difficult to assign a value to a nearby place that has intrinsic beauty, quality and taste. We asked some of the world’s foremost creatives in food, design, art and architecture to explain their relationship with Sweden’s arctic destination, Swedish Lapland.

artists tjåsa gusfors and Ulrika Tallving pause from building a suite at Icehotel No. 33. Outside, it’s -20 degrees Celsius, a light westerly wind is blowing and early traces of the Northern Lights begin to fill the sky. But inside the suite it’s a mere minus four and, for Tjåsa and Ulrika, returning from their break, it’s like coming indoors.

“Yes, for me, this is like coming home,” says Tjåsa, laughing.

For more than 20 years Tjåsa has created rooms, suites and art at Icehotel. She speaks of her first meeting with the place; she was here with a theatre group, visiting Icehotel just to see an exhibition. She says that it was as if the ice was speaking to her. She knew she must return. The following year she built her first room. Since then, she has returned again and again. Artist Ulrika Tallving now lives in The Hague. Ulrika normally creates artwork that doesn’t melt, often sculpting in stone. She built her first suite at Icehotel as early as 2007. Working in ice, letting art emerge from a natural material that will transform itself over the season and eventually melt, is very special.

“But that’s what I like most about Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi. You literally ‘dig where you stand’. And next year, we’ll do it again.”

Guide Michelin chef Niklas Ekstedt’s first encounter with Riksgränsen was on a snowboard, years ago. Back then, he barely cooked at all. And, well, food was whatever it took to keep him snowboarding. 25 years

later, standing in a full-blown snowstorm, he is preparing one of his signature dishes for aprés ski, oysters flambadou. Not exactly Swedish Lapland, if not for the weather, of course. Niklas Ekstedt smiles. He’s pleased. But you probably guessed as much.

“Many of Sweden’s classic ingredients are to be found here in the north. Ingredients that we are proud of, also in the south. Löjrom and reindeer, moose and cloudberries and all those sorts of things. But for me personally, when I come up here, it’s the snow and snowboarding I love the most. So, you don’t need to ask me how good the food and ingredients are. Ask me how good the powder was today. ”Then he laughs and serves another oyster.

a few months later, at the closure of the summer season, outside Harads, stands another Guide Michelin chef, Nicolai Tram, from Knystaforsen in the southern county of Halland. Here, under the flaming Northern Lights, he is also serving up a flambadou dish. But, instead of beef tallow and oysters, Nicolai lets melted moose fat dribble over a grilled fillet of reindeer. The flavour is sensational.

“We’re like bears,” says Nicolai, continuing, “We really just go out into the forest and gorge on everything we can find.”

Nicolai Tram was one of eight Guide Michelin chefs guesting the event Stars du Nord, which took place in the woods outside Harads, not far from Treehotel and Arctic Bath. The idea behind Stars du Nord is to assemble some of the very best Nordic chefs for a cook-along beyond the ordinary, and the real stars are the ingredients.

“Sweden’s far north seemed like the obvious location for our second Stars du Nord,” explains founder Caroline Thörnholm. “The region is central to the New Nordic cuisine. Not only is this where the chefs gather and prepare the ingredients, it also has a lot to do with the techniques they use to prepare them. Cooking over an open fire, smoking, brining and pickling are also very much a part of the Nordic context.”

Many northerners have a freezer filled with berries, fish and meat – whether it be moose, reindeer or free-range lamb – yet they fail to comprehend what a bounty this is. They tend to see it as work; picking, butchering, sorting and packaging. It’s a never-ending

job that follows the seasons. Like Sisyphus, rolling his boulder up the hill for all eternity, the northerners resign themselves to the fact that nature’s bounty simply must be harvested and the freezer must be filled.

kent lindvall probably knew there was a fine forest in Harads before he built his Treehotel. Nowadays, Kent finds it hard to understand what good a forest is unless you can live among the treetops. Yngve Bergqvist certainly knew you could sleep in a snow cave without freezing to death, but that was hardly his reason for building Icehotel.

After doing stints at two prestigious eateries, Noma and Oaxen, it became quite obvious that Piteå chef Johan Eriksson understood a thing or two about the quality of food; however, that he would miss outsmarting wary trout and living the simple life in the north, only he could know. And that’s why he opted for a fine-dining bistro in Piteå and opened Centrum Krog, instead of pursuing an international career.

Failing to see the wonders around you, in the place you call home, is one thing. Feeling homesick is quite the opposite. And homesickness is a powerful force.

As much as Michelin star chef Niklas Ekstedt loves cooking, he’s an avid snowboarder and Riksgränsen is one of his favourite playgrounds.

The story of Moses, who must return home at all cost, parting the sea on his way; or Homer’s hardships on his journey back to his beloved Penelope, after the war, are myths that speak tellingly of what homesickness can mean. Sometimes, one simply must return home again, even if building a restaurant, a hotel or an art gallery has to be part of the equation.

As poet and clergyman Alexander Pope wrote, to Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, in his Epistle IV:

To build, to plant, whatever you intend, To rear the column, or the arch to bend, To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot; In all, let Nature never be forgot. But treat the goddess like a modest fair, Nor overdress, nor leave her wholly bare; Let not each beauty ev’rywhere be spied, Where half the skill is decently to hide. He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds, Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds. Consult the genius of the place in all.

“We’re like bears, we really just go out into the forest and gorge on everything we can find.”

Danish chef Nicolai Tram, who runs a Michelinstarred restaurant in southern Sweden, visited up north to cook a feast with fellow star chefs for the gastronomic Stars du Nord event long to be remembered. On local ingrediencies, over open fire in the woods of Swedish Lapland.

Johan Eriksson

Stars du Nord

Arthotel Tornedalen like an Italian

incredible art collection.

a unique cultural institution with galleries for the finest art in the world as well

“We need an art gallery in the north. Not only should we who live in the north also have access to art, but we should also be able to exhibit all of the fantastic art that we have here but might be a bit neglected.”

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Illustration: Oopeaa, art by Esko Männikkö

Konsthall Tornedalen will be

as a farm with local produce.

Gunhild Stensmyr runs

Albergho Diffuso, with an

many verses of Alexander Pope’s epistle have become famous, but the line “consult the genius of the place in all” stands out. Every place has its beauty, its intrinsic quality, its genius. Actually, it’s not so much about sustainability or preservation; it really has to do with letting the character of the place, its own true nature, come to the core. When Gunhild Stensmyr moved home to Risudden, in Tornedalen, it was with that feeling in mind. She wanted to bring some life back to the village with her Arthotel project, which can be likened to an Italian Albergho Diffuso. But then, the idea to create Konsthallen just fell into her lap.

“When I stand down here on the meadow, looking out over the Torne River across to Finland, I feel the same sort of sensation as I do when standing outside Louisiana, in Denmark, gazing over the Öresund Strait at Sweden. We need an art gallery in the north. Not only should we who live in the north also have access to art, but we should also be able to exhibit all of the fantastic art that we have here but might be a bit neglected. Why are Nils Nilsson Skum’s paintings hanging in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, or in Göteborgs konstmuseum, but not in a Konsthall in the place where he actually worked?”

israeli asaf kliger is a photographer and artist with an uncanny ability to enable the ice at Icehotel to speak to us through his images. The first time he landed in Kiruna and made his way from the aircraft to the arrivals hall he thought he would freeze to death, although the walk was a mere 25 metres. Now he loves the cold and light of the hotel, which this season as well has been built near the shore of the Torne River.

“With my photo art I want to give the world a bit more ‘wow’. That’s my style; more colour and more life in the images.”

Asaf’s career began with studies at the art academy in Jerusalem before he found his niche in travel and sports photography. While on a trip in Asia he met Josefin, who worked at Icehotel, and he decided to tag along. When asked about his first impression

of Icehotel, he is quick to respond, “It was cold.”

But after the initial shock, Asaf felt as if he was in a fairytale world. Meeting Icehotel was the best thing that had happened in his career. He runs galleries in Lund and Jukkasjärvi, but his images are exhibited all over the world. You’ll see them at Arlanda, on your way to the F gates in Terminal 5, or even on one of this year’s Swedish postage stamps.

“The whole idea behind Icehotel, the fact that it is reborn each year, makes it a wild playground for artists. Interacting with others who set no boundaries, even in snow and ice, has helped me enormously.”

Photo: Asaf Kliger

Photographer Asaf Kliger has a rare eye for capturing the magic and details of the constantly changing ice art at Icehotel. In 2022 one of his photos from Icehotel was reproduced on the national postage stamps.

niehku mountain villa has been described by American journalist Leslie Anthony as the world’s best heli-ski lodge. But for alpine guide and hotel owner Johan Jossi Lindblom, the thought that such a place could ever exist never occurred when he was slogging it out as a ski patrol at the nearby resort Riksgränsen. It took several years abroad, and a few clients and investors, who remarked, “You don’t realize what you have here.” Niehku is the North Sámi word for dream. Of course, Jossi had dreamt of building something special, of giving something back to the place and the environment that had in so many ways shaped him, but he had no idea that it would become one of the world’s coolest ski-resort hotels. Erik Nissen Johansen, designer and owner of design agency Stylt Trampoli, understood this well when he and his colleagues decided to enter Niehku in UNESCO’s Prix Versailles, a sort of Oscars for interior design architects.

“What makes this project special is that its point of departure is in a human need, something that drives a particular group of visitors – those who come here to ski or hike. That has enabled the creation of a five-star product. Something we in Scandinavia have very few of.

For many, the meaning of the term ‘luxury’ has changed radically over the past 30 years. Instead of collecting Rolex watches and Ferraris, we gather poetic experiences that we can recollect and share around the dinner table. It’s beautiful.”

Erik Nissen Johansen is sitting by the fireplace, savouring a pinot noir. He and his friends at Stylt

Trampoli have won UNESCO’s Prix Versailles twice. They are the only team to have done so. And the interior of Niekhu Mountain Villa was one of their winning entries.

“The entire building has been built solely to meet the needs of quality consious outdoor-leisure enthusiasts. At the same time, it can escape no one’s notice that the heritage of Ofotenbanan, the railway line, has been carefully preserved. The instant you step through the door you feel an immediate sense of calm and contentment. I hadn’t been here in three years but, upon entering, the smiles on the faces of the staff and the welcoming sound of a crackling fire seemed to share a common DNA.”

At the border between Sweden and Norway, Niehku Mountain Villa combines a stunning nature experience with high-end living and fine dining.

bjarke ingels has been called a genius, and justifiably so. Born in Copenhagen in 1974, he began university studies in architecture because he hoped it would make him a better cartoonist, which had always been his dream career. But architecture grabbed hold of him and he furthered his studies in Barcelona, at Técnica Superior de Arquitectura. After working in, among other firms, OMA in Rotterdam and PLOT, the latter of which he co-founded, he started Bjarke Ingels Group in 2005. BIG would become a major success. The firm now has offices in Copenhagen, New York and Barcelona. The Biosphere room at Treehotel was

the first project to be realized by his Barcelona office. From concept, to sketch to a unique hotel room surronded by 350 birdhouses amid the treetops.

“I am pleased by how we managed to achieve the spherical effect, despite the fact that the actual room is a cube; all of the birdhouses on the exterior create the impression that the interior is a sphere. And we really have achieved a harmony between interior and exterior. In principal, that’s what architecture is all about.”

Four years after starting BIG, Bjarke Ingels wrote his ‘yes is more’ manifesto. When asked if it is a reflection of his own personality, he explains that it has more to do with an attitude. It is important that we embrace the bigger context. Saying yes for your own gain is easy; but saying yes for the betterment of society, the ‘more’ in the manifesto, is more demanding. As Bjarke sees it, architecture has largely become stuck in two parallel ruts. On the one hand; avant-garde, with deranged, radical, oppositional architecture, which can at best be described as an oddity; on the other hand, traditional functionalism, which produces nothing more than what is expected – a rather boring box.

“These two streams have dominated architecture, but for us at BIG, the interesting thing has been to see what happens when the two meet and interact. We’re drawn into the no man’s land where they should overlap.”

Bjarke leans back in an armchair with a cup of coffee. A little bird flies up behind him and lands on one of the nesting boxes. It’s as if it has come to check the neighbourhood, to see who has moved into the biggest of the birdhouses today.

“Oh, look at that little bird.”

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels enjoys his creation, Biosphere, the eighth and latest tree room at Treehotel, a remarkable room perched among treetops in the woods of Harads.

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Acne + Kero = True. A sustainable affair

World famous Swedish fashion brand Acne Studios teamed up with Kero, the northernmost Swedish shoe maker, for a unique collaboration on a modern yet sustainable take on the Sámi-style ‘beak’ shoes “näbbstövlar”. Seeking roots in local heritage, Jonny Johansson, creative director at Acne Studios, was looking for the language of clothing that evolved in the nomadic communities – how a style evolves with its own logic.

facts: Kero, a Swedish heritage brand based in Sattajärvi in Swedish Lapland, is known for its unique craftsmanship. Sustainability and local produce has always been key. As co-owner Emma Kero puts it: “At Kero, we have always been sustainable, ever since 1929. Nowadays we just need to tell it as well”. www.kero.se

www.acnestudios.com

SWEDISH LAPLAND IS THE TALK OF THE TOWN

Bastard Burgers

From Luleå to New York with Swedish burgers: Bastard Burgers celebrate their one-year anniversary in the Bronx. Really good smash burgers, beer from the Bronx Brewery and a small part of Sweden – this is what you get at Bronx Brewery East Village & Bastard Burgers, in New York.

facts: When in Swedish Lapland you can visit Bastard Burgers in Boden, Luleå, Piteå and Skelleftå. In New York you find the restaurant at East Village, 64 2nd Ave. www.bastardburgers.com

130 years anniversary

The first Lovikka mitten was knitted in 1892 by Erika Aittamaa. The story goes that the customer was not happy at first with the thick wool yarn that stiffened in the cold. But once Erika had washed the mittens and brushed the yarn again, the mittens were a success and a classic was born.

tips: Nowadays you can buy Lovikka mittens in most souvenir shops throughout the region.

Photo: Ted Logart

Photo: Bastard Burgers

On food

A SEASONAL ADVENTURE

Photo: Per Lundström

The seasonality of Arctic cuisine has created a unique food culture. In line with other parts of the green transition – where technological innovations are improving the future – sustainable cultivation methods are emerging in the north. From superberries and game to free-range cattle, during blizzards as well as warm summer nights.

seasons are important. Patience Gray writes in her now classic cookbook Honey from a Weed that “Good cooking is the result of a balance struck between frugality and liberality... born out in communities where the supply of food is conditioned by the seasons.”

What happens when you lose touch with the seasons is that you lose touch with life itself. Enjoying an unlimited supply of goods, from every corner of the world, at the supermarket is not natural. Autumn’s underground storehouse, on the other hand, filled with potatoes, turnips, carrots, and pickled and canned goods is part of something bigger. It is no coincidence that the people of the books would slaughter a spring lamb for Easter as a symbol of resurrection, of life returning, and fresh food once again being part of everyday life after the hardships of winter. Something just as natural as the Sámi tradition of sacrificing a white

reindeer to the godess Beaivi at Midsummer, ensuring that darkness would not prevail and the midnight sun would return the coming year. It is all part of the circle of life. Nothing comes in abundance except for intense periods – in the middle of the season, in autumn, during harvest time, when everything is gathered and stored in barns. It might seem surprising that so many households in the north have four freezers in the basement – one for meat, one for fish, one for berries and mushrooms and then one for discounted goods that will come in handy when there is something to celebrate – but this is actually part of everyday life. Hold on, did we mention the freezer for baked goods?

tasty food is eaten twice. First at the table, then in your memory. At Centrum Krog in Piteå, you eat a perfect Surf and Turf, perhaps not a classic Arctic dish

Traditionally grilled whitefish at the Kukkola rapids.

but still heavenly, that will awaken memories and make you dream of returning. When Jón Óskar Arnason at Bryggargatan in Skellefteå serves an elk-heart carpaccio from the animal he shot himself a few days earlier, it is also a memorable dinner you would like to relive time and time again.

A stop at Princess Bakery in Sorsele; where you buy laugenbrot sandwiches, just because the Swiss bakery by route E45 will take you to another place; is also an everyday occurrence these days.

When you find out that the man from Öland at Niehku Mountain Villa in Riksgränsen, Ragnar Martinsson, is serving elk sausages, you just get in the car and drive. Spending a few hours in the car is nothing when it comes to good sausages! It is also difficult to imagine a summer without netted whitefish at the Kukkola rapids, served fresh at the restaurant, 50 metres from where it was caught.

It is very easy to fall in love with vendace roe, but it might be an even clearer sign of the season when Simon Laiti once again starts serving fried vendace with mashed almond potatoes in September, at his restaurant Hemmagastronomi down by the northern harbour in Luleå.

finding ingredients from the north of Sweden in starred restaurants in the south of Sweden is a given, but the chefs we have mentioned have decided to move to – or back to – the ingredients they like working with. The Arctic part of Sweden features locally produced and wild ingredients Of course the destination is famous for its game and local fish, but also for free-range animals. This, however, does not mean that Europe’s most progressive destination is blind to other trends. Bistron in Luleå is a green oasis, at the Christmas smorgasbord at Brändön you find more and more vegan dishes, and Miss Voon in Skellefteå serves reindeer as sashimi – but you also get tuna and scallops. The new Nordic cuisine is celebrated for components that are smoked, pickled, salted, and freshly prepared over an open fire. Even if that is the traditional way in an Arctic context, the cuisine has always changed in line with how the world changes. Johan Eriksson at Centrum Krog says, when asked:

“Locally produced is our base. We get more or less all our meat from Nyhléns Hugosons in Norrbotten. But I love making good food, that’s why I became a chef, so taking ideas from elsewhere and adapting them to your own conditions is something natural.”

Bistron in Luleå.

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

“Swedish Lapland has become Scandinavia’s most interesting dining destination.” condé nast traveler

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

When Johan makes his umami-rich XO sauce he skips the dried seafood and uses dried reindeer as the main ingredient instead. Something traditional from the Asian cuisine suddenly becomes Arctic. This was picked up on by American food writer Lane Nieset when she visited Piteå, and she asked a bashful chef for the recipe.

a few months later both the sauce and the destination were celebrated in Condé Nast Traveler. Lane Nieset’s headline “Swedish Lapland has become Scandinavia’s most interesting dining destination” sums up a food spree through the destination ending at Eva Gunnare’s place in Jokkmokk. Eva has become a household name over the years when it comes to foraging. She moved from Stockholm to Kvikkjokk some 25 years ago, which was where she first encountered traditional Sámi cuisine. A few years later her curiosity inspired her to look for the more forgotten Arctic cuisine. What herbs, plants and berries did the Sámi and settlers depend on? Today in Eva’s home, during a 22-course spread called Njálgge, you will be presented with alpine bistort, wood sorrel, dandelion buds, and angelica. You will drink mulled wine made from meadowsweet and cordial made from willowherb. The stem from willowherb is even served as a kind of tasty asparagus to complement the freshly slaughtered reindeer. The superberries are present, of course: lingonberry, blueberry, cloudberry, bilberry and hagberry in various forms.

the concept superberries was a hot topic some years ago. In the north, there is nothing strange about superberries. Studies have shown that both lingonberries and sea buckthorn berries help keep your weight in check. Blueberries, given their blue colour from the antioxidant anthocyanin, are credited with all kinds of good qualities – among them improved vision. Even without dissecting these berries and plants into smaller parts, we can state something very important: they

are very dependent on sunlight! In an arctic climate the growth period is short, and therefore extremely intense. The world’s northernmost mustard farmer, Per Pesula in Kukkola, might explain it best as he states:

“In summer, thanks to the midnight sun we have three months of growth during two calendar months. It’s bound to do something to the plants.”

In Norsjö outside Skellefteå, Rålund produces a wine from lingonberries and blueberries that has been well received, and in Öjebyn they make Svart, a bubbly made from black currants. We will get back to that.

rural development specialist Jenny Bucht in Bertnäs outside Piteå used to work for the Norrbotten County Board, coordinating the region’s food strategy. These days Jenny is both a sheep farmer and a consultant focusing on sustainability issues. She continues where Per Pesula left off:

“Thanks to our midnight light we have a very intense growth period, that brings out the best in the produce. Anyone who remembers photosynthesis, from their biology classes, knows that it is the sun that is driving the process. What happens during this growth period is that plants, grass, trees, berries and more are filled with a lot of energy during a short timeframe.”

Then she sums up: “Well, in short you could say that we have the best grass in the world and that’s why we produce the world’s best fodder, which naturally would lead to the world’s best meat.”

Jenny Bucht concludes that the northernmost region has not always been that good at understanding or communicating the unique, sustainable environment and its effect on food quality. Look at wild animals and freely grazing reindeer, how they spend summer and autumn eating and then starve in winter. This means the reindeer recycles its fat during the course of a year. In turn, that gives you a meat that’s been minimally affected by the environment. Jenny’s lambs, by the way, make an appearance every now and then at Johan’s restaurant Centrum Krog.

Lingonberries

Photo: Per Lundström

in recent years, fire has started to play a more prominent role in the kitchen. No, we are not referring to the constant smell of barbecues filling camp sites and neighbourhoods as soon as summer approaches. Instead, fire has become part of the identity for famous Michelin-star restaurants and your local pizza place.

In the north, cooking over an open fire is something completely normal. If you take a walk in the forest, you make a fire and boil some coffee. If not, almost no one would count it as having been outside properly. Even in the middle of town, houses will often have a fireplace or barbecue hut outside to experience outdoor life without even leaving home. Fire is central to the dream of a good life in the north – for cooking, or for a sauna. These days it is part of the current trend at Michelin-star restaurants featuring the new Nordic cuisine. And during the ambulating food festival Stars du Nord, celebrated under the northern lights outside Storklinten in autumn 2022, nine of the best Nordic chefs showed how to make good food using fire, no electricity, and no running water. An amazing experience in every way.

hushållningssällskapet, The Rural Economy and Agricultural Society, runs an experimental farm in Öjebyn outside Piteå where research is carried out. In cooperation with SLU, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 400 different varieties of turnip rape have been cultivated to see which variety likes it best here in the arctic climate. But even more interesting is the trial using pheromones to combat pests. Mikael Kivijärvi, former CEO of the society and currently project manager for its innovative and land-based fish farms, says:

“Hushållningssällskapet has tried using various forms of biodynamic pest control,

“Fire is central to the dream of a good life in the north – for cooking, or for a sauna.”

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

even coating black currant plantations with turnip rape oil, but this project where pheromones are used among the berries has shown exciting results”.

The organic black currants from Öjebyn are actually worth another mention. They are used to make a sparkling wine from black currents according to the ‘méthode traditionelle’, the same way champagne and cava (among others) is made, which requires a lot of labour and precision. But the result is, according to the wine expert at Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, a “dry and refreshing wine... with notes of iron, raspberry and tart berries”. Just perfect for the Christmas smorgasbord, according to the same expert.

From blackcurrents that become bubbly and turnip rape that could turn into farm-produced oil, we move on to Michael’s core activity: fish farming.

“Everything suggests that there will be land-based fish farming in the future. Simply because you can regulate the process in a different manner. With land-based farming you can control animal health, the spread of diseases, the water environment, escapees and so on. You can also use the water for irrigation, so-called aquaponics, or use the residue after water treatment as a base for feed or fertilizer.”

at the old military site AF1 in Boden, home to Boden’s Army Air Battalion until the beginning of the 21st century, there is a kind of winter garden. The 300-square-metre building is heated by residue heat from a data center where they mine cryptocurrency using blockchain technology.

“This is just a test facility. The idea is having a much larger greenhouse,” says Håkan Nordin, business developer at Boden municipality and continues:

“It wasn’t profitable before to use the residue heat from the server farm for district heating. The temperature of 40 degrees Celsius just wasn’t enough. But this, using it for a greenhouse, means it’s warm enough”.

In Boden they experiment with what will be, or could be, grown. The idea is to try to grow mango, banana, passion fruit and more, to see how it goes.

“The idea is simply to try to grow everything here that Sweden is importing at the moment, to see what works. It’s a way of improving our degree of self-sufficiency without having to forgo what we’re used to eating these days.”

If everything works out well at the old military base they will continue and build a 3,000-square-metre installation that will also work as an aquaponic farm. As mentioned, a kind of farm where nutrient-rich water from land-based fish farms is circulating around vegetables being grown. The greenhouse is cutting-edge not only because it uses residual heat, the AI-based growing technique that continuously checks the plants is also expected to reduce cultivation losses by up to 30%.

this future scenario gets even more exciting when considering the investments made in Boden. H2 Green Steel’s new hydrogen-producing steel plant is Sweden’s largest industrial project: a 600-hectare area – the largest development plan in Sweden – with 70 hectares set aside for further development of greenhouses and cultivation. But Boden sees this cultivation as more than just a sustainability project in environmental terms – which it is, of course, as Dutch tomatoes transported by lorry to north Sweden in winter are grown in greenhouses heated by foreign gas and then driven 2,000 kilometres north using

Håkan Nordin

Svart

diesel. It is as important that this large-scale project that will bring both social and financial sustainability: creating entry-level jobs and increased self-sufficiency. Perhaps this creates a discrepancy in our story, that started with the advantages of the midnight sun and the seasonality that has created an Arctic way of life and constitutes the base of the new Nordic cuisine, to talking about large-scale greenhouses of the future. But on the other hand: development does not cease on the outskirts of the modern world. Rather, it could be driven from here.

in piteå, at the parking area by Västra kajen, a number of food artisans gather on a Wednesday night in February. This is a kind of farmers’ market known as Reko-ring, and people from near and far come to shop for locally produced products. Anders Skum and his Fjällvilt from Ammarnäs is here. The award-winning food artisan says that during the pandemic this Reko-ring saved his finances. Similar setups to Rekoring are available in many other locations now. This evening the farm Strömnäsgården from near Harads is present too, with chickens and eggs from Norrbotten’s

first foraging chickens, as well as outdoor pigs from Järvtjärn and Vuollerim’s Mathantverk.

Reko-ring is a concept that has grown using social media and current awareness of what constitutes good food. In Burträsk village, the farmers have started their own farmers’ market where members take turns during opening hours. You can find everything there, from cutlets from outdoor pigs to rabbit fillets and Kielbasa sausages made using original Polish recipes. In Boden there is another farmer’s market.

Åsa Lindman and Magnus Eriksson who run Strömnäsgården say the reason why they began to keep chickens and later cattle was simply that they wanted to know what they were eating. And conclude:

“But we also love living in the countryside”.

Less than an hour’s drive from Strömnäsgården, up the Lule River towards Jokkmokk, is Vuollerims Mathantverk. They produce an award-winning cheese using milk from mountain cows.

This region, with the world’s best grass, or fodder, has many products to offer with clean water and an air of world-class quality. A lot of it thanks to the summer season under the midnight sun.

Photo: Carl-Johan Utsi

Photo: Carl-Johan Utsi

Photo: Bryggargatan

Bryggargatan

Kalixlöjrom

Sweden’s first food product to receive a protected designation of origin was Kalixlöjrom, Kalix vendace roe. Other examples of famous products around the world with designation of origin could be Bayonne ham, Champagne, and Stilton cheese. The vendace, a small fish in the salmon family, provides us with the gold from the sea. Every female produces some 3–5 grams of roe. The vendace fishing starts on September 20 and lasts for about five weeks. The fishing has been MSC-certified since 2015 and is regulated by the Norrbotten Coastal Fishermen’s Association in cooperation with the Agency for Marine and Water Management. Kalix Löjrom is a delicacy, and the fish itself is just as tasty.

Cheese

Västerbotten cheese, ’Västerbottensost’, is Sweden’s most famous cheese. The dairy company Norrmejerier produces this delicacy at a small dairy in Burträsk. The characteristic flavour is said to be the result of dairywoman Ulrika Eleonora Lindström forgetting her chores – that is, keeping the curd at a consistent temperature –because she was busy having an affair. We are not sure what happened to that love story, but we do know that we love Västerbottensost.

Mustard

Sweden’s – and probably the world’s – northernmost mustard farmer is found in Kukkola, at Pesula Lantbruk. The rich soil along the Torne River and the abundance of light during the midnight sun period make mustard seeds flourish here. There is also a wonderful rapeseed oil for sale in the farm shop.

Beer

Three friends in Piteå wanted to change beer culture in town. So they started a micro brewery and just to make things clear they named it ‘This is how’. From the start, it was obvious what it was all about: ‘This is how to just pick one PILS’ and ‘This is how to get it foggin’ right’. But when they made the beer for the Nobel Prize banquet after party, the name was obvious: ‘This is how to not spill it’.

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Gin

When Café magazine asked their expert Emil Åreng – Sweden’s best bartender and author of the world’s best cocktail book: ‘Salongs i Norrland’ – to name Sweden’s top ten gins, three of them were from the destination Swedish Lapland. Gin Gin from

Piteå came in at place nine as a “work horse” for your dry martini or GT. Ógin by Jón Óskar Arnarson in Skellefteå was placed number six. Jon Oskar is rightly called a genius, for his amazing take on gin and because there is, according to Åreng “frightfully honest

Jokkmokkskorv

stuff” in the bottles. Highest on the list we find Norrbottens Destilleri from Töre, where former poker pro Dennis Bejedal makes ND Forest Dry Gin. According to writer Åreng: “one of my three absolute favourites in Swedish gin history”.

Chocolate

Why not treat yourself to some Arctic Treats. Chocolate pralines made in Kalix with flavours from all over Swedish Lapland. No wonder it tastes like true chocolate and pure joy, or as it says on the box: “heartfelt tasty handmade pralines, just for you”.

The story about the Swedish sausage Falukorv, now with protected designation of origin, is connected to the Falu copper mine, in Dalarna. The mine required large amounts of leather, to make ropes. The by-product, the slaughtered animals, needed to be stored and that led to the sausage. Today, the company Jokkmokkskorv has taken Falukorv to a new level (we recommend the sauna-smoked version). You can also find the Jokkmokkskorv logo on air-dried products such as bresaola, coppa, lomo, pancetta and prosciutto in well-assorted food stores up north.

Emil Åreng

Photo: Jokkmokkskorv

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

magical light of the midnight

Photo: Per Lundström

The

sun on the bridge connecting the mainland with Seskarö, in the archipelago of Bothnian Bay.

IN SAUNA VERITAS

IN THE SAUNA, BE ONLY TRUTH SPOKEN

Tornedalen, the borderland between Sweden and Finland, is in many ways unique. The Torne River has never really been a border. Instead, it has tied the two countries together; never dividing, only uniting, to the benefit of sweethearts, smugglers, spies and sauna-bathing travellers. This summer take a road-trip through the promised land of the sauna.

if you believe in the motto of Svenska Bastuakademien, The Swedish Sauna Academy, only truth prevails in the sauna. Then perhaps you have asked yourself this question: Can one find oneself in the sauna?

Let’s say that the whole trip starts on the bridge between Seskarö and the mainland. There’s a fabulous sunset and, since there is no traffic in the middle of the night, you allow yourself to pause and enjoy. In some way, it feels as if the bridge is elsewhere, not in Sweden. Your colleague says, “it’s almost as if this bridge was in Norway.” And someone else even likened Seskarö to a Swedish Key West – which may be a bit of an exaggeration. Meanwhile, you sit still in the car,

marvelling at the light of the midnight sky. This is one of the summer’s many enchanting white nights and, even though it may feel as if you are somewhere else, in Norway or Florida, here is where you want to be. Perfectly still in the summer night.

Haparanda and the neighbouring Finnish border town of Tornio named themselves Eurocity. Here, the river is no border, but the tie that binds. You’ll see, hear and experience this all along your journey westward from the islands of the Bay of Bothnia to the mountain landscape surrounding Riksgränsen. Today you’ve been out to the National Park of Haparanda Archipelago, revitalized in a spa at Sweden’s easternmost mainland point, dined and slept at Stadshotellet, which dates from 1900, and taken a car ride out to Seskarö under the surreal light of the northern summer.

the following morning, you will saunter over the bridge to Tornio. Near the church is a monument commemorating Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve’s expedition to chart the Geodetic Arc. This World Heritage site, the path of Struve’s survey expedition, with triangulations stretching from Odessa on the Black Sea to Fuglenes on Norway’s North Atlantic coast, tells a fabulous story that you will follow for virtually all of your trip.

Here, by the church, King Karl XI might also have seen the midnight sun in 1694. But at the stroke of midnight, clouds rolled in and blocked the sun, so the king missed the show. However, he decided to try his luck the following year and in preparation for his return, the round so-called ‘King’s Window’ was installed on the church tower. Unfortunately, the king died before he was able to return and missed out on both the midnight sun and the window.

After a morning stroll – nowhere on the scale of Struve’s expedition – breakfast and careful consideration of whether a new item from IKEA’s northernmost outlet might be needed, your travels continue. Not much distance will be covered today. First, in

that afternoon, after a sauna and a dip in the river, you continue upstream to Risudden/Vitsaniemi. Here, entrepreneur Gunhild Stensmyr, inspired by the Italian Albergho Diffuso concept, has built one the destination’s most interesting hotels; Arthotel Tornedalen. With a flair for exciting design she purchased and renovated a few of the old homesteads, bringing new life to the village. Upon reaching Arthotel, you’re in no hurry and decide to linger a while. Your next destination is Luppioberget and the recently built Lapland View Lodge. You’ll stop over, here on the mountain, admiring yet another captivating view from the comfort of yet another sauna. However, before checking in you decide to take in a few more sights.

Kukkola, some mustard is procured from Pesula, the world’s northernmost mustard grower, after which you take a jaunt to Struve’s Geodetic Arc before pausing for lunch: fresh-smoked whitefish at Kukkolaforsen. Bag-netting for whitefish in the rapids of Kukkola is a cultural heritage, and a more locally sourced lunch can seldom be found. Fresh fish, caught in the river, some metres away, prepared in the adjacent smokehouse and served with fresh potatoes. In addition to rapids and fishing, Kukkola has everything you desire if you’re a sauna aficionado. This is the home of Sweden’s sauna academy, and holds at least thirteen different saunas, among them, two smoke saunas. In times past, the smoke sauna, antibacterial and cleansing, was the undisputed answer to all ills. Children were born in the sauna and the departed rested here, awaiting burial. In mid life, evenings were spent here.

Lake Armasjärvi is interesting from a military history point of view as the site of a major disaster in peacetime. In October 1940, 46 people (44 recruits and two civilians) perished here. They drowned in the frigid water when an overloaded ferry capsized. Historically, Tornedalen has not been far from the scene of conflict. And, although Sweden has not been at war for more than 200 years, our neighbouring countries have not been unscathed. After Armasjärvi you venture into Finland, crossing the bridge at Övertorneå to Yle-Tornio on the Finnish side, and then up the rugged Aavasaksa Hill. Here, you meet Struve once again, and you can also see Tsar Alexander II’s imperial hunting lodge, which was drawn by architect Hugo Saurén. The retreat was built for the Russian tsar, who wished to get away and enjoy the pleasures of hunting in his northern domain. But the Emperor of Russia,

Haparanda Stadshotell

Kukkola rapids

Photo: Per Lundström

King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland never got a chance to see his newly built timber lodge. At home, it was a time of turmoil, with the Crimean War raging and other problems brewing. Finally, Tsar Alexander was unlucky to die after the fourth assassination attempt succeeded.

the next day also starts off at a relaxed tempo. Dinner and a sauna take their toll. And the view from the room on Luppioberget makes your bed an even nicer place to be. A fascinating view. You eat breakfast and pack your stuff. The journey proceeds upstream along the river. At Särkilax a chapel has been built anew after the original was washed away in the spring flood.

Here, you might even climb a bird watching tower to do some birding. You drive past Svanstein, where Struve continued recording his measurements of the curvature of planet Earth up on Pullinki. But, since you’re planning to see a few more sights, the hike up Pullinki will have to wait. Just before reaching Pajala, you make a brief stop at Kengisforsen. Kengis bruk, the site of an old ironworks, offers world-class salmon fishing, but is also part of the local industrial heritage and history, together with places such as Svanstein, Masungsbyn and Melderstein. It is a history that is filled with visions, as well as tribulations. After visiting Kengis, you pause for lunch at Bykrogen in Pajala, beside the world’s biggest sundial. That afternoon takes you out to the wetland meadows of Vassikavuoma, and on a short amble up the green hill of Jupukka, the fifth point of measurement on Struve’s expedition along

the river valley. After a visit up on Jupukka, you drive to Arctic River Hotel in Tärendö. And, yes, there is a sauna, a tub and a whole river to bathe in.

the tärendö river is an attraction in itself – the world’s second-largest bifurcation, after Casiquiare in the Amazona. And what, you may ask, is a bifurcation? This means that the Tärendö receives its water, its origin, from the national Torne River, and then discharges it into another national river, the Kalix River. Beyond Pajala, there are actually two alternative routes for your onward journey through Tornedalen. But at Junosuando you take a right and drive northward, crossing the Torne River and proceeding towards Kangosfors, reaching Rd. 99 south of Muodoslompolo. This takes you past the exit to Tynnyrylaki, the northernmost Swedish point of measurement on Struve’s expedition,

Arthotel Tornedalen

Lapland View Lodge

“It’s hard to take in the magnitude of the entire urban relocation; to comprehend how a whole town can pack up and move to a new site. But that’s exactly what is happening.”

Arctic River Lodge Lapland View Lodge

Camp Ripan

Scandic Kiruna

Kristallen

Photo: Scandic

which then continued into Finland, and then to Fuglenes, in the Norwegian municipality of Hammerfest.

In Sweden’s northernmost church village, Karesuando, you visit both the church and a building referred to as Laestadius’s pörte. In the church, you see Bror Hjorth’s classic altarpiece. Priest Lars Levi Laestadius from Jäckvik, in Arjeplog, grew up in a dysfunctional home. After he was ordained he eventually ended up in Karesuando, where he would fight a battle against the alcohol abuse and miserable conditions which plagued many Sámi and settler families. Often, this was a result of their having been tricked into disadvantageous agreements by public officials, the clergy and unscrupulous merchants, who sweetened many a dubious deal with liquor. The revival movement, started by Laestadius, would have a deep and lasting social impact on the entire community. In Laestadius’s pörte (a kind of utility building which doubles as a smokehouse), not far from the beautiful church with Bror Hjort’s famous sculpture, you feel a sense of the simplicity of life as it once was lived here. Then, heading due south, you pass several old, and well-preserved stone bridges beside the E45 on the way to Kiruna.

it is difficult to understand ‘the new Kiruna’. It’s hard to take in the magnitude of the entire urban relocation; to comprehend how a whole town can pack up and move to a new site. But that’s exactly what is happening. Summer 2022 saw the relocation of Kiruna’s old town centre. You meet a fascinating new urban setting as you approach along the E10. You check in at Scandic Hotel, which was designed by architects SandellSandberg. On one side it’s a bit edgy and angular; on the other, more rounded. Somewhat reminiscent of the north and south sides of Giebmegáisi/ Kebnekaise. Or, perhaps, one side of the building can be likened to Giebmegáisi in profile, and the other side is much like the iconic Lapponian Gate, Čuonjávággi. The top-floor bar commands a magnificent view of both the city centre and the surrounding landscape. This is such a very distinctive part of Sweden that it is in some way a provocation to lump it together with the much-clichéd term ‘Norrland’. As a place, the Arctic mining town of Kiruna really is incomparable to anything else in Sweden.

you stay a couple of nights in the newly reawakened town. You’ll visit Nikkaluokta, and then swing by Icehotel later in the day. Eat dinner at Mommas, have a coffee at Spis and walk through the new town which, in a way, is still a construction site and a fresh urban centre. It’s a completely different world. In the new city hall, Kristallen, drawn by architect Henning Larsen, you take the opportunity to visit Länskonstmuseet. The whole building is a great expression of architecture and culture. At Camp Ripan you experience the pleasures of an award-winning spa and enjoy a meal prepared in one of Europe’s most sustainable kitchens. Over dinner, you ponder this sauna sojourn.

From Cape East on the coast via Kukkola, Arthotel Tornedalen – whose sauna by the way was created by designer Christian Halleröd – to Luppioberget and Tärendö, you have landed in Kiruna, and had a sauna at both Scandic and Camp Ripan. Tomorrow you’ll continue westward to Niehku Mountain Villa, where, of course, yet another sauna with a view awaits you.

Here, in the sauna, you realize that the end of your journey is approaching. From the coast to the high country, from sandy beaches to mountaintops, your roadtrip has been magical. 800 kilometres later,

Lapland View Lodge

Abisko Canyon

having enjoyed fabulous hospitality, sightseeing and a northern culture. You’re feeling the physical effects of the day’s hike up to Rissajaure (known locally as Trollsjön – Troll Lake), through the amazing Geargevággi, or Kärkevagge. But, aided by the sauna, your aching muscles start to loosen up. Making no haste, you speculate on the next day’s possibilities. You’re considering a day trip up to the mountain Njullá, with Sweden’s most iconic view of Čuonjávággi and a walk down the mountain via the canyon, in Abisko National

Park. Perhaps, then and there, you’re inspired to stay just one more night. You might check in at Abisko Mountain Lodge and sit down to dinner at Fjällköket. Who knows?

The choice is yours; it’s your vacation and this journey is slow travel at its best; an opportunity to take the day just as it comes. You toss a scoopful of water on the hot stones and let the heat pinch your cheeks. Only truth prevails in the sauna and, truth be told, life is really very good right now.

On the road to Abisko from Riksgränsen, you will get the chance to see uonjávággi, the Lapponian Gate, one of Sweden’s most iconic panoramas.

Geargevággi

Niehku Mountain Villa

Photo: Per Lundström

Keep the fire burning

the swedish sauna academy was founded in Jukkasjärvi in 1988, but now has its home in Kukkolaforsen. In no way does it come as a surprise that the base for the Swedish sauna culture is found in Tornedalen. On the other side of the Torne River, in Finland, sauna culture now counts as a Cultural World Heritage. That really ought to be the case on the Swedish side of the river, too.

Here in the Tornedalen a sauna is an essential part of live. Earlier on, the smoke sauna (because it was

germ-free) was where the people of the Tornedalen gave birth as well as stored their dead until the burial could take place.

There are sauna cultures in other parts of the world: Turkish hamams and Russian banyas, and perhaps you could add places with hot springs too. Rituals and cleanliness are important. So is ‘löyly’, a Finnish word to describe the feeling, or that special heat, that you get from the steam as you throw water on the sauna stove. The effect should be slow, like being enveloped

in an embrace. The steam bouncing off you like a ricochet is bad löyly. Also, a well-designed sauna consists of many parts. The choice of wood for its different components is one of them. Spruce and pine have been used for the walls but is rarely a good idea. There will be resin, and pine tends to warp. Aspen and alder are traditional choices for the benches because they do not secrete resin; alder in particular is at the heart of the sauna culture that has become a World Heritage.

Photo: Ted Logart

The sauna at Båtsuoj near Slagnäs, Arjeplog, is one of many great sauna experiences around Swedish Lapland.

Sápmi tales

The story of Sápmi is a colourful one, and an Arctic lifestyle without Sámi knowledge is inconceivable. Manifestly, as bearers of the cultural heritage, Sámi artists of today have a firm footing in the protection of the indigenous people’s land. But from a world in which even subtle details as bootlaces carry a history, we have a great deal to learn.

on display at the 59th La Biennale di Venezia, as part of the exhibition “Il Latte dei Sogni – Milk of dreams”, are works by Britta Marakatt-Labba. The classical sculpture Brickhouse, by Simone Leigh, greets you as you enter the exhibition venue. But barely metres behind Brickhouse, hang Britta’s works. It feels like pausing fo a breath of fresh air. It is austere, unpretentious and strongly symbolic. Britta’s stylistic resistance art, embroidered one careful stitch at a time, is like slow-motion graffiti. People stop in their tracks. They absorb and are absorbed. Approaching the art, they examine the style of the work at close range. Moving a few steps back, they take it all in. In Badje Sohppar, in the Municipal-

ity of Kiruna, Britta has been creating resistance art for more than 40 years. Only in recent years has she gained wider recognition in the art world. Her work Historjá, in the collection of the Arctic University of Norway, in Tromsø, is a 24-metre-long embroidered epic of Sámi history and beliefs. The artwork caused a sensation at the Documenta 14 exhibition, in Kassel, in 2017 and has been compared to the Bayeux Tapestry, another embroidered encyclopaedia. Historjá is also the title of an awardwinning documentary about Britta, by Thomas Jackson. All of a sudden, it is apparent why the world’s most significant art show, has allowed her work to become part of the greater story.

Photo: Carl-Johan Utsi

britta marakatt-labba was not the only artist from Sápmi at the Biennale. The Nordic pavilion, which traditionally shows the works of artists from Finland, Norway and Sweden, is devoted this time entirely to Sápmi. Pauliina Feodoroff, Skolt Sámi from Ivalo, gave a performance called Matriarchy at the Biennale. It had to do with healing, both in relation to nature, and in the relation between Sámi and non-Sámi. Máret Ánne Sara’s art takes its point of departure in her personal experience of how the Norwegian state forced her family to slaughter their reindeer herd. Máret Ánne asks the question: what happens when the laws of another culture are forced upon you and you must break the moral and ethical rules you live by and hold to be true? For a Sámi, the forced slaughter of reindeer goes against all logic. Reindeer are the very foundation of Sámi life. But if this is questioned, what is left? The third artist in the Sámi

Pavilion was Anders Sunna from Kieksiäsvaara who now lives in Jåhkåmåhkke (or Jokkmokk, if you will). Just as it is for Máret Ánne, his art is based on personal experience. It may not seem quite right to call Sunna a street artist, but there is something graffiti-like in his style.

Outside of Krog Lokal in Jåhkåmåhkke, where we eat lunch one day, stands one of Sunna’s works. It is a reminder that the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No.169 was never ratified by the Swedish state. The symbolic value is always recurrent in the Sámi context. It is still a place where the struggle between origins and colonial power persists. Quite simply, the conflict of land-use issues, reindeer grazing lands versus raw materials, becomes increasingly clearer in the everyday lives of the Sámi people.

“Of course, the Biennale was important for me. But I believe it was equally important for the Nordic pavillion.”

Britta Marakatt-Labba in her studio in Badje Sohppar.

Felled by Britta Marakatt-Labba.

The work Illegal Spirits of Sápmi, which Anders created in Venice in 2023, has been purchased by Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Since before the museum carries other work of Anders. I ask him if he is always so ‘angry’. He laughs and says:

“I am seldom angry. On the contrary, actually. Imagine being able to speak all the world’s languages without saying a sound. To reach people’s hearts first and then their consciousness. The anger you are carrying suddenly finds a way to emerge, but in a more creative form, stronger than iron. Art is that.”

the sámi tradition is largely one of oral history. Sámi, as a written language, did not emerge until the 1950s. Early on, there was nothing written to fall back on; written historical accounts were nothing but interpretations about the Sámi but they were not by the Sámi. There have been exceptions, though almost always at the discretion of church or state. Naturally, this has impacted everyone’s chances for learning and understanding.

Even if you live here, in the middle of Sápmi, it’s quite possible that you know the names of more indigenous peoples of North America than you know the

names of samebyar (reindeer husbandry associations) in your own region. In school you may never have been taught about forced relocation or assimilation, even if you are well aware that some of your classmates’ forbears had to go through all of that. And to complicate things even more, that there is a common Sámi story is never straightforward; instead, there is one story for every individual who tells it. This is complex, in every way that life is complex. Britta Marakatt-Labba says:

“It’s double, in some way. In Kiruna, when I went to the nomad school, I was just a ‘Lappdjävel’. Something undesirable. In Gothenburg, when I studied art and design at Konstindustriskolan, I was ‘the Sámi’. My origin was exotic and exciting.”

and, for outsiders, it is sometimes difficult not to focus our attention on the exotic and exciting. In the colourful stories, the colours and designs of garments reveal a person’s origins. It is a place where simple artefacts, utility items such as knives, become incomparable works of art. How fascinating it is when everyday, practical items such as bootlaces are also part of a story. The obviously colourful and the pride and beauty implicit in the Sámi story often take second place

Photo: Hans-Olof Utsi

behind stories of struggle and resistance in today’s media stream. And it is also often difficult for an outsider to comprehend the struggle and anguish that are never very far away in the day-to-day life. Naturally, you have no special emotional attachment to the steak you pick up at your grocery store. But if you have marked the ear of a reindeer calf, and then followed the animal across the grazing lands for the rest of its life, things are different.

To that, add the historical Christianisation and Swedification of a people whose identity was thought to be of little value. Then, add the outcomes of modern forestry practice, hydroelectric power development, urban development and climate change, and you will begin to understand the sense of vulnerability that these works of art embody, whether they be artefacts, songs or writings. The nationally and internationally award-winning film Sameblod, by Amanda Kernell, exposes this era of racial biology and cultural assault. We have all been young and occasionally lost, and young people have always wondered what they will be when they grow up. But in Kernell’s film this longing also becomes a longing to obliterate one’s identity, and a disdain for one’s origins and history.

Photo: Andy Anderson

“Imagine being able to speak all the world’s languages without saying a sound. To reach people’s hearts first and then their consciousness.

The anger you are carrying suddenly finds a way to emerge but in a more creative form, stronger than iron. Art is that.”

anders sunna

Anders Sunna

in the early 1900s a newly awakened Sámi identity began to emerge in the public sphere. As an example, the Sámi National Day is held on February 6th to commemorate the first Sámi political congress, which took place in Trondheim in Norway, in 1917.

Of course, the Sámi story is also its vocal music tradition – jojk. During the 1960s, when interest in their own culture blossomed, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää revived the jojk and brought it to the modern society. His first record, Joikuja, was released in 1968. The multifaceted artist Valkeapää, or Áillohas, as he is known, created music for the film Vägvisaren in 1987, performed at the 1994 Winter Olympics, in Lillehammer, and was awarded both the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Prix Italia.

Among Sámi, Valkeapää’s Sámi eatnan duoddariid is considered a national jojk and has in some way become Sápmi’s unofficial national anthem. That the jojk now features on the modern Nordic music scene, and that Sámi rappers and other artists have introduced the jojk into popular culture is self-evident and appreciated. When artist Sofia Jannok, from Seidegavas, in the Luokta-Mavas sameby, was awarded an honorary doctorate from Luleå University of Technology, in 2021, she said in an interview with Swedish Radio that she wished her grandparents were still alive.

“I would have liked it if they had known that we could receive honorary doctorates. It would probably have been inconceivable for them.” But someone always has to be the first to break a trail.

britta marakatt-labba began her career as an artist during the Alta uprising in Norway. It took many years to resolve the conflict; just as her embroideries take many years to create. In 1981,

when Britta completed her studies at the University of Gothenburg School of Design and Crafts (HDK), she journeyed to Alta to join the protesters and was arrested. Of course, it could have been worse. The Norwegian government wanted to send in the military against the demonstrators, but the defence minister, Thorvald Stoltenberg, threatened to resign if that happened. One of Britta’s first works, Gárjat (The Crows), is from that time. In Sámi mythology the crow represents the authoritarian power, something that grabs things for itself. When the crows flew in over the demonstrators in Alta, they were transformed into policemen.

The protests had to do with grazing lands, the flooding of communities for hydropower projects, the migratory salmon, etcetera. The importance of biological diversity, as expressed in the Rio Convention, wasn’t acknowledged until several decades later. And more than 40 years later, at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, in 2023, world leaders spoke of the importance of including indigenous peoples in corporate decision-making. Simply daring to hurry a bit more slowly. One third of the world comprises areas that have traditionally been inhabited by indigenous peoples or local communities. The surprising thing here is that 91% of this land shows good or very good quality in terms of ecology and biology. It could be as simple as this: perhaps people who live with nature understand its value. Maybe we can all learn from this.

ædnan means ground or land in the old Sámi language. And the land is what it’s all about. Following the reindeer migration is the creation story of the indigenous Sámi people. This nomadic lifestyle is the foundation of the very

Traditional Sámi bootlaces were used to lace up the shoes in such a way that powder snow couldn’t enter the shoe, and the bearer would stay dry. They also tell a story of who you are.

existence of the reindeer herding culture, migrating between summer and winter grazing lands, but also of the land-use – the Sámi hunting grounds and fishing waters for subsistence.

Author Linnea Axelsson’s epic Ædnan won her the August Prize in 2018. A bit of world history captured in 762 pages of prose. Here, we follow two Sámi families through the eyes of three generations in a story that is almost incomprehensible; because subjects like skull measurements, closed borders and the flooding of ancestral lands are seldom easily digested. But Ædnan is also an interpreter for the landscape and the surrounding life: the lay of the land.

While the book Ædnan is a nearly 800-page-long epic, the sequel Magnificat, published in 2022, feels like a 150-page pamphlet. The story in Magnificat takes place in Paris. Even here, the story is about home, about our place on Earth. At the end of the book, everyday racism rears its ugly head once again when, at a simple dinner gathering, the principal character is described as belonging to: “a group of people who cling to a few local customs and had their reactionary ideas legitimised by the state”.

according to the Swedish state, the Sámi are, per definition, reindeer herders. Legislation concerning

reindeer herding is based on the question: are you a reindeer owner, or not? This has not only given rise to conflict between indigenous people and settlers, but also within the Sámi community itself. If you are Sámi but have no rights, then what is it worth?

When Ann-Helén Læstadius wrote the book Stöld it aroused powerful emotions. It is a strong book that takes up strong subject matter: dead reindeer, harassment and a patriarchal world. Book reviewer Gunilla Bodrej, of the Swedish daily paper Expressen, wrote that she was ashamed (for her own sake) while reading Stöld. In an earlier review of the French-Swedish TV series Midnattssol, Bodrej had concluded her text by expressing her doubt that: “a Sámi in Kiruna could be called a ‘Lappdjävel’ simply because he shows up late for work. Racism doesn’t look like that”. But everyday racism is like that, and in Stöld, this is obvious. The book was designated Book of the Year by Bonniers book clubs, is a bestseller in Europe and will be adapted for the screen by Netflix.

In 2023 Ann-Helén Læstadius will release a new book, Straff, about the nomad-school system. If Stöld felt like a punch in the face, then the new book, Straff, will knock the wind out of you. The nomad schools were a form of institutionalised assimilation. Swedification was explicit policy. Sámi children were sent to

Award-winning stories from Sápmi

Ann-Helén Læstadius book Stöld was Book of the Year by Bonniers book clubs.

Linnea Axelsson’s epic Ædnan won her the August Prize in 2018.

Sameblod by Amanda Kernell is an internationally award-winning film.

Historjá is an awardwinning documentary by Thomas Jackson.

Photo: Albert Bonniers Förlag

Photo: Nordisk Film

Photo: TriArt Film

Photo: Romanus & Selling

Hearrát dat bidje min, The masters put us here, by Elin Anna Labba.

Photo: Norstedts

faraway residential schools; sometimes as far as from a sameby in Härjedalen in southern Sápmi to Gällivare. Southern Sámi children could not speak the northern Sámi language and none of them could speak Swedish, so distrust flourished.

Finally: the book Herrarna satte oss hit (The masters put us here), by Elin Anna Labba, from Giron (Kiruna), is also well worth mentioning in this context. While, for example, Ædnan, Sameblod and Historja are reaching a wider audience, owing to their artistic merit, Elin Anna’s historical account is making an impact in a different way.

Elin Anna writes: “Our book is the sign that nobody posted, the chapter that never fit into the history textbooks”. A book about the forced relocation of the Sámi people is not easy to digest. And, although this has had such a profound effect on the lives of people today, surpris-

ingly little is said about it. In an interview with the host of Swedish Television’s programme, Babel, Elin Anna elaborates on this:

“This [forced relocation], with so much racism and nationalism, is not a particularly pleasant chapter in the history of Sápmi. It happened concurrently with racial biology and language policy. What started it was the dissolution of the Nordic Union. When Norway became a country in its own right”.

the dissolution of the union in 1905, which brought about the establishment of a border between Norway and Sweden, made it impossible for the Sámi to move with their herds between the summer and winter lands as they had done for generations. An ‘imaginary’ border, drawn through nature, put a stop to freedom of movement for reindeer as well as the Sámi.

Photo: Carl-Johan Utsi

“Somehow, it’s up to me, as a reader, to understand; and not up to the Sámi to explain.”

Elin Anna worked on the book for seven years. When asked what it was like to dig through her own family history in the archives of the State Institute for Racial Biology, and to do hundreds of interviews with people who had been forced to leave their homes and endure separation from their families, she replies:

“But oddly enough, it has been rather enjoyable, since we have discussed a lot of other things as well. We’ve talked about everyday life, relationships, parting with boyfriends and finding new ones… so much of it has been wonderful.”

One thing that makes the book so gripping is that, in the Swedish translation, many Sámi words have not been translated. Much of it can be understood in context; other parts may have to be googled. However, all of the jojks included in the book have been written only in Sámi.

Culture programme Babel’s host Jessika Gedin, at Swedish Television, summarizes it best when she says: “Somehow, it’s up to me, as a reader, to understand; and not up to the Sámi to explain.”

A few facts about Sápmi

sameby

You might come across the Swedish word ‘sameby’, which literally means ‘Sámi village’. But there is no point looking for an actual village as such. A sameby is more of an association, in an economic and administrative sense, made up of a number of reindeer owners and reindeer herders within a certain geographical area (reindeer grazing land) where reindeer husbandry is carried out. So, a sameby is more an assembly of reindeer owners. The area of the sameby varies in size. There are 51 of these reindeer husbandry associations in Sweden.

language

In Sweden there are five different orthographies (written languages) in a Sámi context: Southern Sámi, Ume Sámi, Pite Sámi, Lule Sámi and Northern Sámi. Generally speaking, the Sámi languages have been written languages since the 1950s, even if Ume Sámi only got an approved orthography in the 21st century.

There is no uniform written language, because the languages themselves differ from each other. Between Southern Sámi and Northern Sámi the difference is comparable to the difference between Swedish and Icelandic, while the difference between Ume Sámi and Lule Sámi is perhaps more like between Swedish and Norwegian. The comparison has its limitations, but just as a way of explaining.

the flag

The Sámi National Day is celebrated on February 6, commemorating the first Sámi congress in Trondheim in 1917. It is a day when the Sámi flag is flown. Astrid Båhl from Skibotn designed the flag, where the circle is a symbol of the sun and moon – red representing the sun, and blue the moon. The background colours also feature in the Sámi costume. The flag is inspired by the poem Päiven Pardne , Sons of the Sun, written by the poet and priest Anders Fjellner in Sorsele.

Photo: Adobe Stock

Muzzle

SWEDISH LAPLAND/ ILLUS_V1

The muzzle is a highly efficient heat regulator. When humans exhale in low temperatures a cloud of warm vapour forms and freezes on our faces. As the reindeer exhales, its muzzle lowers the temperature to avoid warm vapour and therefore circumvent being covered in frost all whilst minimising heat loss. The muzzle also functions in the opposite way, the reindeer can ’open’ its muzzle and release heat, for example, if it is being pursued.

Eyes

The reindeer’s eyes change colour with the seasons. This change helps reindeer to see better during the continuous darkness of winter, when the eyes are blue, and in the continuous daylight of summer, when the eyes have a golden colour. The blue-eyed winter reindeer can see ultraviolet, which is abundant in arctic light, allowing them to find food and see predators

Tongue

Like dogs, reindeer have large tongues and panting regulates their body temperature and helps them lose excess heat.

Antlers

Unlike many other antler-bearing animals, both male and female reindeer have antlers. But, while the bulls shed their antlers in late autumn, the cows keep theirs.

The mother must be able to protect her calf from predators. Her antlers also help her to keep bulls away from her fodder. In winter, heavy antlers are an encumbrance for bulls after the rutting season. They must conserve energy.

Veins

A cooling system has evolved for the warmer summer months, that allows blood to be circulated out to the legs, where a lack of subcutaneous fat means that the blood is cooled when needed.

Fur

The reindeer’s winter coat provides highly efficient thermal insulation. Cold weather poses a problem only if the animal has developed its summer fur and summer is delayed.

Legs

It is not by chance that the reindeer on Svalbard are short legged, while the reindeer of the Sápmi woodlands have longer legs. Long legs are a disadvantage on mountain slopes swept by winds coming off the Arctic Ocean, but a great advantage in deep snow.

Adapted for the Arctic

the existence of the reindeer is under constant threat. Global warming is now a reality, just as the Ice Age was a reality, about ten thousand years ago. The reindeer adapted to the expansion and retreat of the ice cover. That is how evolution works; over millennia. The reindeer is ideally adapted for life in the Arctic.

But in the wake of climate change, when one might imagine that the reindeer will slowly adapt to new conditions, a question arises. Is it possible for the reindeer to do this in times such as these?

All factors considered, including the busy, modern lifestyle of the Sámi, the answer is probably no. On the other hand, the impact of

a growing society, with highways, railways, power lines and hydro dams, is probably a much greater problem than whether or not, due to a changing climate, the reindeer will have time to change their migratory paths. One problem gives rise to the next, even for an animal that uses its nose to regulate its body temperature.

Illustration: Lisa Wallin

INFLUENCING THE WORLD

These days the famous Shakespeare quote: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”, has never rang truer than in the world of photography. And some of the industry’s finest often find their stage up north.

name: Tobias Hägg

instagram: @airpixels

followers: 668,000

country: Sweden

why swedish lapland: It holds a special place in my heart because of the incredible range of natural beauty it offers. Every season presents a unique set of charms, ensuring that there is always something new and exciting. As a photographer, I'm not sure there is any place that has given so much in return as Swedish Lapland.

favourite moment: Choosing a single moment from all the experiences is challenging. But I spent an unforgettable night atop a stunning 2000m peak under the midnight sun. A memory I’ll keep forever.

name: Eeva Mäkinen

instagram: @eevamakinen

followers: 129,000

country: Finland

why swedish lapland: Swedish Lapland is close to home and you can hike in one of the most beautiful views on earth. Wilderness areas are large, nature is fascinating and for photography it's a dream destination.

favourite moment: The sixth and last morning on our autumn hike in Sarek when we decided to stay one extra night to see if snow would cover the mountains overnight, and it did.

name: Konsta Punkka

instagram: @kpunkka

followers: 1,3 mn

country: Finland

why swedish lapland: The variety of Arctic wildlife and vast landscapes bring me back every year. Midnight sun to extreme winter conditions, you can experience it all here.

favorite moment: My favorite moment has to be after days of roaming around the pristine landscape I got a chance to observe an Arctic fox on a hillside.

instagram: @frauki

followers: 616,000

country: Germany

why swedish lapland: I remember looking through an old travel magazine and it had an article about hiking in Sarek Nationalpark. Ever since, visiting the north of Sweden was on my bucket list. I am so glad I got to see this wild place. favourite moment: Playing scrabble in a mountain hut, waking up to a lake covered with tendrils of fog, the first layer of ice on the tent, the bright blue stains on my hands from eating too many wild blueberries, and the peacefulness you can still find here. There are too many favourite moments to just tell one.

name: Frauke Hameister

name: Marco Grassi

ig: @marcograssiphotography

followers: 325,000

country: Germany

why swedish lapland: I first visited the area in September 2020, and spent a whole week hiking through endless fields and camping among reindeers in the peaceful Sarek National Park. I believe it is a place of ethereal beauty – serene rivers and valleys, all surrounded by Alpine mountains.

favourite moment: On my way back from the hike, I took a scenic flight to capture some of the most breathtaking views from above. Initially, the sky was overcast and the clouds thick, but the moment when the light shone through the clouds, the valley came to life.

Finding trails

“Between

why we walk is something very individual. Some might be looking for a mountain to climb, others an oasis, and yet others are in pursuit of their true selves. That path that diverges in the wood leads to different things, and not all of us will make the choice described in Robert Frost’s classic poem

“… and I—I took the one less travelled by”. We do know that Kungsleden, the King’s Trail, is worth its name. It is an epic hike along the Swedish mountain chain from Abisko to Hemavan. But we would also like to mention some other choices that might not be as well-known, but still world class.

every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.”

john muir

Photo: Per Lundström

The Nordkalott trail

One of the real thru-hikes in the Arctic: 800 km from Kautokeino to Kvikkjokk or Sulitjelma, respectively. You pass through three countries and the Three Country Cairn is where the borders of Finland, Norway and Sweden meet. Sometimes this trail joins Kungsleden and sometimes the Padjelanta trail. A common detour here is to hike through Sweden’s northernmost national park Vadvetjåkka down to Abisko. But that is if you are not a true thru-hiker. Wellknown locations along the trail other than the Three Country Cairn, is the Imfossen waterfall, the Dividal national park and the Sårjåsjaure cabin. bit.ly/nordkalott

The Solander trail

The latest addition to the longer hiking trails is the coastal trail between Jävre, south of Piteå, to Kallax airport in Luleå. This 220-km hike offers experiences with a distinctive character, from the coast to the forest. At the start in Jävre you walk a coastal landscape formed by the Ice Age. Further north the hike will take you through both deep forest and pastureland, including several nature reserves and historical locations. It is a route that takes you from one town to the other as a tribute to Linnaeus’s disciple Daniel Solander. Solander, a botanist from Piteå who sailed with captain James Cook. solanderleden.se

The Padjelanta trail

Starting from the north, the beginning of the Padjelanta trail is smooth sailing: by boat from Ritsem to Änonjalme. Then it is shank’s pony to get to the Higher Land, which is what Badjelánnda means in Sámi. The trail runs alongside the imposing Áhkká mountain range by summer residences like Árasluokta and Stáloluokta at lake Virijávvre. Even if Carl Linnaeus grumbled about the fish not being salty enough, he loved the catch straight from the lake. And so will you, along your hike from Ritsem to Kvikkjokk. padjelanta.com

The Vindelvaggi trail

This trail is a tribute to the wayfarers who traded at the the ice-free harbour in Mo i Rana, Norway. The hike follows in their footsteps from Ammarnäs to Krokstrand/Mo i Rana. The trail takes you through the Vindel River Valley past Rävfallsstugan, Mankeforsen and Vindelkroken. A popular loop is around the majestic Ammarfjäll mountain: turn south in Dalovardo and go past Skidbäcken and Aigert on Kungsleden to get back to Ammarnäs. The sauna in Aigert will reward you with a magical view. bit.ly/vindelvaggi

Photo: Magnus Winbjörk

Konsul Persson’s stuga by Sårjåsjaure.

The bridge over Vuojatädno next to Áhkká.

TOWNS MOVING

one afternoon in october, I’m stopping at what was once the model community of Laver, in the Municipality of Älvsbyn. In the middle of the forest stand what remains of an industrial project that was at the absolute forefront of development, but was soon dismantled and vanished.

Laver, which existed from 1936 to 1947, was one of Sweden’s first communities with district heating, running water and electricity in every home. A sign in the woods proclaims: ‘Community Centre’. Another sign tells us where the school once stood. All that remains of the model community are the foundations upon which the houses once stood. When the ore wasn’t profitable to mine anymore, the mining company quite simply moved the village of Laver. The village’s community centre is now in Överklinten, outside of Robertsfors. Homes were loaded onto trailers and

People here in the North are accustomed to change; we even move entire towns now and then.

At the moment, this region is in the middle of the biggest industrial transition in living history. One could wonder what that does to the people and the place.

hauled to the led mine in Laisvall, farther inland.

In some way, this is a sign of a functioning circular economy, but in many other ways indicative of the price people pay for living on a frontier. On an information board in the forest are the words of the former site manager, Eric Wesslau:

“Now, the company does not exist any more and the forest will reclaim its lost domain where, for a few restless years, so much laborious work was done. One may hope that the closure will not leave too many scars.”

new development and decommissioning, start and finish, open and close; always on the move as resources dwindle and projects reach completion. Life as a railway navvie or a miner, a lumberjack or a hydrodam worker; at the centre of the action, if only for a moment, but also on the far reaches of civilisation.

From Gammelstad in Luleå to the urban relocation of both Kiruna and Gällivare, Arctic Sweden has become accustomed to the creation, moving and shutting down of communities. Perhaps this is a price that must be paid? Could this have influenced the temperament of the people who live here? Its ranking on the EU Social Progress Index attests to the high level of social progress among the people who inhabit the region known as Övre Norrland. While the EU SPI average is 66.7 and Sweden as a whole ranks 82.4, Övre Norrland, Sweden’s Arctic region, scores an impressive 85.1.

Dieter Müller, professor of social and economic geography at Umeå University, comments:

“Of course these kind of changes have an effect on people. The pioneer spirit which exists, but which does not always establish something permanent, gives us a proclivity for change. My colleague, Professor

Photo: Andres Larrota

Roger Marjavaara, often also contends that people in the north are progressive. Just to attend secondary school, most youths from the interior of the region must leave home when they are barely 16.”

over a cappuccino in Luleå, architect Charlotta Selberg, from Stark Arkitekter, recalls how it felt upon entering Kiruna when the new city centre opened in September 2022. Architects normally draw buildings, but they don’t often draw large areas of an entirely new town. Charlotta and her colleagues have drawn several urban quarters of the new Kiruna; she has been responsible for block nr 8.

“Of course, it was very special. Stark has designed much of the new Kiruna; three adjacent blocks. But also the fire station and other buildings. That’s usually how it is. You do one building, or parts of a building. Right now, for example, I’m drawing a nightclub. Entering an entirely new city centre is an incomparable experience. It’s a place where a new life will begin.”

Charlotta’s grandmother was from Kiruna and her mother grew up there, so she has strong ties with the place. How did it feel then, at the official opening?

“Special in every way. Well, you know how it is with an assignment; you go around checking to see if everything turned out as you planned. For example, you might ask yourself, will snow removal function as it should? You always wear you’re critical glasses when looking at your own work. Will the snow accumulate on the rooftops where we expected and fall to the ground at the right place?”

the urban plan for the new Kiruna, produced by White Arkitekter, sets out a city for a century to come, or quite simply for the future. Even in the late 1800s, when the wealth of the mineral deposits became apparent and a town was to be built, plan-

Photo: Johan Ylitalo

ners approached the task with no small ambition.

Hjalmar Lundbohm, the first managing director of the Kiruna mine, asked his friends architect Gustaf Wickman and city architect Per Olof Hallman to design the town. Hallman is credited with the actual layout of the town; he wanted nature and town to live in symbiosis. But the idea to build the world’s most modern town – and not a shanty town, like most mining communities – was Lundbohm’s.

The objective was for the urban architecture to respect to the ‘genius of the place’. Everywhere the views of the surrounding mountains flow into the old cityscape, which actually was the world’s first urban development adapted to the climate. Modernities such as electric street-lighting, instead of gaslights, was also a novelty. The town established itself and expanded. Well into the 1970s, in terms of land area, Kiruna was the world’s largest city.

kiruna has always been a town on the periphery. You cannot escape the effects of the climate or the location, or the legacy of Hjalmar Lundbohm for that matter, when you approach Kiruna. About himself, Lundbohm often said, “I’m the boss.” A boss not shy of controversy but also a man with a network above the ordinary.

Satirist Albert Engström was a friend, as were artists like Prince Eugen, Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn. We have already mentioned architect Gustaf Wickman and city architect Per Olof Hallman. Others included Swedish sculptors Christian Eriksson, Carl Eldh and Ossian Elgström. Here, in the middle of a mining town, they represent a cross-section of what was then Sweden’s cultural elite, and nearly all of their accomplishments is still found around Kiruna Church, which is scheduled to be relocated in 2025. A town founded in another kind of Sweden, now on the move.

albert engström’s epitaph on Lundbohm’s gravestone near Kiruna Church reads: “For the benefit of the fatherland he revealed the treasures of the mountain and founded the town”. It will have escaped nobody’s notice that iron ore from northern Sweden has contributed to economic growth for all of Sweden. But we tend to forget other gains.

On December 9th, 1969, 35 men sat down in the truck workshop at the Leveäniemi mine in Svappavaara. They had had enough. Two days later the message had reached all of Malmberget and 4,700 miners now sat down in a wildcat strike.

The conflict had arisen as a result of dissatisfaction with the recent piece rate, excessive control and pressure to improve efficiency. A common picket-sign slogan read: ‘miners are not machines’. A wildcat strike gets enormous media attention. When the trade union confederation, LO, turned against the workers, as did prime minister Palme, the Swedish people did the exact opposite. During the 57-day strike, donations amounting to between four and six million Swedish Krona flowed in from Sweden, keeping the workers from starving.

When the conflict ended, the consequences for the workers in the orefields were marginal or indirect. But for Sweden and for the legislation that still protects Swedish citizens (the Employment Protection Act, the Work Environment Act and the Co-Determination in the Workplace Act), this strike was monumental. In many ways, it was here that the modern Sweden was born. The strike laid the groundwork for benefits including a longer vacation and 480 days of parental leave. The people of Sweden and, perhaps citizens of other countries, can thank the 35 miners who sat down in a truck garage in Svappavaara for much more than contributing to the state coffers.

A house on the move is not an unusual sight. For many a lifetime memory.

Photo: Anders Lindberg

glada kocken, a restaurant in Gällivare, was always on the edge of town, on the way out to the ski hill, Dundret, beside a group of holiday cabins for sale. Not much happened. Miners or skiers stopped in for lunch. Today the restaurant is virtually in the middle of the newly built residential district Repisvaara. Laughing, owner-chef Olof Lehrman explains:

“Normally, you establish an eatery in a part of town where people live; but in this case, they built Repisvaara around my restaurant.”

As we dine on fillet of beef from the grill, we wonder why so much more has been written about the relocation of Kiruna than that of Gällivare-Malmberget. In Malmberget, more or less a whole town has had to pack up and move somewhere else. Malmber-

get and the area surrounding Repisvaara in Gällivare are separated by a considerable distance, but Kiruna’s urban centre has moved barely a kilometre. Perhaps it has been easier for the media to illustrate the relocation of Kiruna than that of Gällivare-Malmberget – or easier for us to comprehend. Or maybe it is as simple as the fact that the first press-release, that was picked up by all the major media in Sweden, had the headline: “We are moving the town”, when the mining company started talking about the expansion of the mine.

no, urban relocation is nothing new in an Arctic context. That the community of Malmberget packs up and moves to Repisvaara, at the foot of Dundret, five kilometres away, is really nothing strange. That Laver and villages like Harsprånget and Messaure no longer exist other than memories and signs in the woods seems like a prize to pay. As early as 1622, Luleå packed up and moved from what is now Gammelstad to its present location on the coast. This was because isostatic rebound in the Bay of Bothnia (the phenomenon of the land rising after the last Ice Age) rendered it impossible for the ships to reach the harbour of Gammelstad.

Close to the harbour in the new Luleå there is a steelworks. Here, one of the most important transformations for the future will enable production of fossil-free steel. 400 years ago, it was silvery, bright salmon that filled the nation’s treasury and made transition possible. The uniquely well-preserved church village of Gammelstad has UNESCO World Heritage status. And the new Luleå is a welcoming city in an archipelago in the Bay of Bothnia, with a university and high-tech companies at the forefront of development. A place that is redefining what is possible. In every way, a 400-year-old tradition of relocating has fostered a progressive approach to dealing with the challenges of the future. Once salmon, now steel.

to understand the industrialisation of Sweden’s Arctic region, we have to appreciate the context. Early on, the solution to the the nation’s economic challenges was to be found in the north. In 1634

Carl Bonde wrote to Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna of the discovery of silver deposits at Nasafjäll, which, if properly exploited, could be a source of wealth like ‘the

Kunskapshuset, a new and award-winning architectural landmark in Gällivare, by Liljewall and MAF arkitekter.

West Indies’ for the Swedes. The image of a colony was apparent. That the mine at Nasafjäll was a failure and that the Sámi who laboured there were forced to work under slavery-like conditions probably concerned Bonde very little. Here, a long-prevailing image of northernmost Sweden as a source of raw materials, that fuelled the Swedish economy, was established.

Today, attitudes are in many ways quite different. Although discussions about ‘colonialism’ and urban versus rural are not going to disappear over night, the view is not simply that natural resources must be extracted at all costs. On the contrary; the green transition presents opportunities to create a better future, not just in terms of economic wellbeing for society, but for the world as a whole. Nothing is written in stone.

The green transition also influences the demand for a flood of new employees for the growing green industries, as well as in the civic sphere and in the tourism and hospitality sector. On the periphery and at the far edge of the social progress index, almost everything will be defined at a later date. The future is always happening here, but one move at a time.

Kiruna church is one of Sweden’s largest wooden buildings. The entire church is scheduled to be relocated in one piece during 2025.

The newly built centre of Kiruna. The bell tower is the remains from the old City hall. As a memory of everchanging times.

Photo: Andres Larrota

Photo: Johan Ylitalo

Photo: Per Lundström

Melderstein Herrgård

Arctic mansions

The Arctic region of Sweden, as seen as a place of great richness has a long history. Although the early industrial endeavors proved to be somewhat of an investor’s sufferfest, some of the remaining mansions still welcome you to a stay.

Kengis Bruk

In 1647, a furnace is opened in Masugnsbyn. Arendt Grape ran Masungsbyn, and started the ironworks in Kengis, downstream from Pajala. When Grape became too heavily indebted, the Momma brothers from the Netherlands stepped in. They found copper in Svappavaara, but that was no gold mine either. The brothers were raised to the nobility, under the name Reenstierna. Abraham Reenstierna was the last to run the works, but he died a pauper. Today the Solberg family runs Kengis, and every salmon fisher in the world knows that Kengis bruk is one of the best spots.

kengisbruk.com

Melderstein Herrgård

Towards the end of the 17th century, farmer Per Andersson from Råneå discovers the deposit at Malmberget. But mining in the area doesn’t really begin until 1735 when captain Thingvall gives it a try.

Fjällnäs Castle

Founder of Gellivare Malmfält AB and member of parliament, Carl Otto Bergman from Sandträsk in Boden, was known as the King of Norrbotten. His summer residence was Fjällnäs Castle in Gällivare.

Today rooms can be rented for short or long term. Carl Otto Bergman was a force of nature, working in the forest industry, the mining industry, with improving farming up north, as well as politics. Conveniently Carl Otto and his family could take the train from Sandträsk to Fjällnäs Castle. And one and a half century later, the same goes for us, almost all due to Bergman’s energy. fjallnascastle.se

Filipsborg Mansion

Filipsborg Mansion in Kalix was built for the district chairman and judge, but later forest industrialists lived here. The forest industry was of importance, with sawmills dotted along the Bothnian Bay. When Örjan Pekka bought Filipsborg Mansion, the house had undergone a huge restoration. He might not have taken it on otherwise. At its worst, people were driving snowmobiles through the building. The property was saved by inventor Jan-Erik Larsson who together with Östen Mäkitalo, from the village Koutojärvi, developed the GSM phone. And at Filipsborg the first prototypes were built. filipsborg.se

Today the captain’s great-greatgrandchild Katarina Thingvall runs Meldersteins Herrgård, a manor house by the Råne River. The manor house being the remains of what used to be a huge estate that actually

comprised all the land between the Lule River and the Kalix River, from the Bothnian Bay all the way up to Gällivare. In letters Melderstein was referred to as ‘the Duchy’. melderstein.se

Photo: All about Lapland

passion TWO PLANKS AND A

In Swedish Lapland, people have skied since long before the pyramids of Egypt were built. The world’s first known pair of skis was excavated from a bog in Kalvträsk. Skiing is just as big a part of the Arctic lifestyle as the northern lights, long johns and boiled coffee. This is the story of two planks and a passion.

Photo: Magnus Winbjörk

in may, in the lobby of Hotell Riksgränsen, the competitors are waiting with bated breath. The winner of this year’s SBMC will soon be announced. Celebrating 30 years, the extreme-skiing competition, Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships, has been held in Riksgränsen since 1992 and is the original international freeride championship. Ever since Lapplandia in Riksgränsen opened in 1928 the best skiers have gathered here for some of the world’s best spring skiing, to compete or just enjoy the camaraderie and good vibes. Under the returning midnight sun, it’s the perfect way to say thanks for another great winter.

Riksgränsen is home to Sweden’s first ski school. Ski touring has been a way of life since the railway reached the back country and you can often ski fresh powder in June. Likewise snowboarders began to show up in Riksgränsen in the late ‘80s. Every year, since 2013, Riks Banked Slalom, the world’s second-oldest banked-slalom competition has been held here. This event is more of a happening than a competition. Generations of snowboarders ride together and have the time of their lives. Back in the lobby of Hotell Riksgränsen, Robert Gustafsson prepares to address the waiting crowd. Speaking up, he announces this year’s SBMC winners, and sighs and cheers are heard among the competitors. The atmosphere is joyous and jubilant as congratulations are given and received. For those assembled, this is the highlight of the year and the banquet is about to begin.

spring is the season when skiing conditions are least challenging and you feel as if you are gliding on silk. The Sámi who, it is said, have hundreds of expressions for snow and skiing conditions, call snow crust tjarvva. It’s tough as iron and hard enough to bear the weight of a moose. Tjarvva is ideal for migrating reindeer and nomads. Back in the day, the snow and the frozen arctic landscape were the Sámi peoples’ motorway. Winter was a time when people relocated, taking with them everything they owned. Only

much later did the winter highway become a medium for sports and recreation. The people of the north have always welcomed the winter landscape, since it eliminates the obstacles of lakes and wetlands. Winter smooths everything out.

At night time, the sky is wide and naked. The Milky Way is frozen in the heavens. Among the Ostiak people of Siberia there is a myth about a god called Tunk-Pox, who went hunting. The hunt went on high in the heavens and the fleeing animal jumped to Earth. When Tunk-Pox followed, things went so badly that he broke one of his skis and was forced to continue the hunt on one ski. The moral of the story is: even godlike skiers can get into trouble. If you study the Milky Way, you’ll see that two ski tracks in the heavens merge to form a single track. References to skis appear in the earliest historical writings, but skis have been the stuff of myths that predate the written word.

the first traces of skiers are to be found in cave paintings in the Altai Mountains of Inner Mongolia, later in petroglyphs and runestone paintings in Scandinavia. Most discoveries of well-preserved ancient skis have been made in wetlands in Finland, but finds pre-dating these have appeared in Vis, in Russia. The very best find, however, can be seen in Kalvträsk, near Skellefteå. Three old-timers – Josef, Hugo and Tyko – were digging a ditch in a wet bog when they found the pair of skis. They thought this was rather exciting, so they excavated the skis very carefully, and then took them to a shed in Fäbodtjälen. The skis remained there until a forester named Högdahl, from Robertsfors, saw to it that they were placed in the care of Västerbotten’s Museum. They were labelled inventory number B 1377.

Initially, with the aid of pollen analysis, the skis from Kalvträsk were dated to 2000 B.C. Subsequently, thanks to the advent of the carbon-14 method, it became evident that the skis, made out of prime compression wood, were 5,200 years old. So, people

“The people of the north have always welcomed the white, winter landscape, since it eliminates the obstacle of lakes and wetlands. Winter smooths everything out.”

were skiing in these parts 500 years before the Pharaohs built their first pyramid. Naturally, skis are mentioned in the Finnish epic Kalevala and in the Nordic sagas. The god of winter and skiing, Ullr, had a female counterpart, Skade; here, classic Scandinavian gender equality dictated that, in winter, everyone had to be proficient at skiing. On a map dating from 1539, the so-called Carta Marina, drawn by exiled archbishop Olaus Magnus, three people hunting in the northern region of Europe are depicted. What makes it a bit special is that one of them is a woman. Later, it behoved the good bishop to add that there were also women in the north who stayed at home, tending the kitchen fire, and didn’t just go out skiing and hunting all the time.

The good archbishop Olaus Magnus ended up in Trentino, Italy, after the reformation of Sweden from Catholic to Protestant under

The old wooden skis found in Kalvträsk outside Skellefteå date back 5,200 years!

Below: Tunk-Pox’s hunting grounds somewhere above Laponia.

Photo: Ted Logart

Photo: David Björkén

Gustaf Wasa. There he sat, reminiscing about his homeland. In 1555 he wrote his masterpiece, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus – An account of the Northern people. The 800-page work was an instant bestseller and was translated from Latin to Italian. Olaus Magnus offered a description that dispelled the stereotypical view of the north as a wilderness peopled only by savages. The well-travelled Olaus was among the first to note, in writing, the wonder of the cold season, when the whole world suddenly became accessible. He remembered the crystal patterns formed by frost on cold surfaces, and how the northerners often adorned their finery and knitwear with representations of them.

The archbishop was reverential, almost idolising, when he spoke of the ‘close-to-nature lifestyle’ of the people of the north. He was also the first to write of the love of competing on skis. Others were to follow. Catholic priest Francesco Negri journeyed all the way up to Tornedalen, where Sámi taught him how to ski. Negri is thus the first person from a culture in which skis were not part of the heritage to record in writing that he had learned to ski. In other words, this makes the good father the world’s first documented

ski-school client, and he learned to ski in Tornedalen. Francesco Negri is also credited with having introduced the word ski into the Italian language.

the desire to compete, to pit one’s strength against that of another, seems to be in our DNA. And doing so on skis is no exception. As mentioned, myths and travel logs from the north have spoken of this. But skiing did not become an organised sport until the mid1700s, in the guise of a military exercise. General Carl Schack Rantzau commanded Norway’s army and, as you might have guessed, skiing was one thing the Norwegian military did best. Rantzau, however, wanted his men to be even better at it. In his desire to succeed, he opted for the time-honoured incentive of prize-money. In July 1767 he dictated rules for how the Norwegian soldiers were to compete in four classes: ski and shoot at targets; ski as fast as possible through a sparsely-treed forest; ski as fast as possible down a treeless mountainside and, finally, ski a two-and-a-half-kilometre stretch as fast as possible. In fact, you could say that Rantzau, in July 1767, laid the foundations for four classes of the modern-day winter sport: biath-

Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans, GE D-21806

The well-travelled, exiled, archbishop Olaus Magnus’ map Carta Marina, drawn in 1539, contains several skiers and among them, to the top left, a female skier.

lon, slalom, downhill and cross-country sprint. But it would be many years before skiing became a popular winter sport among the civilian population. In March 1843 an advertisement was published in a local newspaper, Tromsö-Tidene. A ski race would be held: from the town square to the well on Ebeltoft’s farm, across the peninsula, and back again. It was the world’s first civilian skiing competition founded by local priest and newspaper editor Otto Theodor Krogh.

the very first organised Swedish ski competition took place on April 3rd 1884, in Jokkmokk. And, still today, at 220 km, Nordenskiöldsloppet is the world’s longest ski race: from Purkijaur to Kvikkjokk and back. The first race was held because Baron Nordenskiöld had to maintain his honour. In his journals from the Swedish Greenland expedition of 1883, the baron reported that two Jokkmokk Sámi, Pava Lars Nilsson Tuorda and Anders Pavasson Rassa, had skied 460 km in 57 hours. To the general public, this all sounded too good to be true, and both the Sámi duo and Nordenskiöld were deemed liars. Honour had to be defended, so a ski competition was arranged. There would be

a 220 km long mass-start race with generous prize money. All eyes were on three top contenders; the above-mentioned Tuorda, Per Olof Länta and Apmut Andersson Ahrman. The three distanced themselves by a wide margin from all the other contestants for more than half the race. Apmut Andersson Ahrman, described as a poor settler in dire need of cash, decided when he was just ten kilometres from the finish line to have a shot of aquavit from a flask he carried, but the liquor went straight to his legs in a bad way. He fell asleep. Fortunately, he roused himself before the others caught up, so he was able to cross the finish line just a little over ten minutes after the victor, Tuorda.

Pava Lars Nilsson Tuorda had won Sweden’s first long-distance ski race. As is so often the case, his victory came after a sprinting duel on the final approach to the finish line. He beat Länta by only seconds. For Andersson Ahrman, who pocketed the third-place winnings, the day didn’t end there; he still had to return to his home, some ninety kilometres away, on skis. And as if that wasn’t enough, on his return his wife gave him a good scolding for having wasted so much time, explaining that, while he was away, a bear

Photo: Lotten von Düben, Nordiska Museet

Photo: Adam Klingeteg

Pava Lars Nilsson Tuorda, the first winner of Nordenskiöldsloppet in 1884, photographed by Lotten von Düben in 1868.

Photo: Mattias Fredriksson

A guide to skiing in Swedish Lapland

first snow: Usually, ski resorts Kåbdalis and Storklinten are the first ones to open. Thanks to snow stored from the previous year and the cold nights, skiers from the world elite can start their training here as early as the end of October. kabdalis.com • storklinten.se

deepest snow: The forest land keeps snow on the trees from November to February. Among the tree shadows, the snow retains its powderlike structure. ‘Upplega’ is the Swedish word for the phenomenon that turns trees into something more like snow sculptures.

Photo on the left:

last snow: In principle, you can ski all year round in Swedish Lapland’s mountains. But the last ski resort to close its lifts is Riksgränsen, at the end of May. To the world’s freeskiers and snowboarders, Gränsen is one massive closing party. riksgransen.se

Photo: Mattias Hargin

Photo: Ted Logart

had clawed its way into the paddock and killed the only cow they owned. Apmut Andersson Ahrman strapped on his skis, tracked the bear for 50 km, and then shot it. It is said that the bounty, together with the prize-money, sufficed to give Ahrman and his family a new start in life, and he and his wife lived well for the rest of their days. A just reward for skiing some 500 km (including transfer, ski race and bear hunt) in a couple of days.

in the north, skiing long distances was a part of everyday life. As mentioned, the frozen landscape became a motorway that eliminated the circuitous routes of summer. When lakes and bogs froze, they became a shortcut instead of an obstacle. Elin Pikkuniemi, a schoolteacher from Tornedalen, who taught in Vitsaniemi was Sweden’s first ski queen. From 1918 to 1922, right after the First World War, Elin won five consecutive Swedish Championship gold medals in women’s cross-country races exceeding 10 km. Elin usually skied to her sister, who lived on Seskarö, in the Bothnian Bay archipelago. The one-way journey to Seskarö was 30 km. The two sisters would chat for a couple of hours over coffee until it was time for Elin to lace up her ski boots and make for home. When the Swedish Championships were held in Boden, in 1921, Elin was ecstatic, now she wouldn’t have to buy an expensive ticket for the trip. Instead, she skied the 100 km to reach the event. Afterwards, wearing her gold medal, she returned home and went about her business. When Swedish daily paper Svenska Dagbladet and Riksidrottsförbundet (the Swedish Sports Confederation) celebrated their 50th anniversaries in 1953, more than 5,000 readers voted to select their favourites from among 150 athletes. Schoolteacher Elin Pikkuniemi, from Tornedalen, was the only woman on the list.

Virtually every village and town in Swedish Lapland has a story about a noteworthy skier. Kiruna has Kiruna-Lasse and Jukkasjärvi has Christer Majbäck. Of course, Charlotte Kalla will always be associated with Tärendö, and Luleå son Sven-Åke Lundbäck has even given his name to a part of the Vasaloppet course. Gällivare, with its Hellner Stadium, is known for a secondary school that specialises in skiing and, year after year, gives talented youngsters the chance to

become world champions. Arjeplog has Johan Abram Persson, winner of Vasaloppet 1929. The daily paper Stockholms-Tidning’s reporter was almost ecstatic on meeting Johan Abram:

“In front of me stands the hero of the day. Persson, standing there as if he just came from the primal forest. The eyes of a wolf, but a good, sympathetic wolf. If only I could imitate his song, for he sang when he spoke. He said they practically forced him to go to Mora. He didn’t want to go and he had never dreamt of competing in a big race. ‘I would never have believed that prize was for me’, he sang, and the tough, calloused hands wiped a bright tear from his wolf’s eye.”

Johan Abram Persson had first skied from his home in Arjeplog to Jörn, over 200 km, and then taken the train to Vasaloppet, which he won before returning by train to Jörn, where he stepped onto his skis and made his way home, 200 km through forests with no trails. That will definitely put calluses on your hands.

we’re much better off today. We have no real need to ski 200 km, making our own trail as we go. Swedish Lapland offers perfect ski trails – illuminated municipal trails for the sake of public health, or privately maintained trails – in virtually every village on the power grid. The region also has the longest season for alpine skiing. In October, Kåbdalis and Storklinten are usually the first ski resorts to open for the season, while Riksgränsen is normally the last to close, in late May. Eight months of Sweden’s best skiing – be it cross-country and/or alpine. Once upon a time, illuminated trails were for training future stars and helping people to stay healthy. Nowadays, people still hit the trails for fitness and leisure, but mostly to keep that dream of one day finishing Vasaloppet alive. Thanks to groomed slopes and ski-lifts, alpine skiers can master the art of carving the prefect turn. Skiing has always been about passion. Well, not unless the entire landscape freezes over with a snow crust strong enough to bear the weight of a moose, in which case, skiing is all about making new discoveries.

Footnote: The title is borrowed from Ronald Huntford’s book: ‘Two planks and a passion – the dramatic story of skiing’. A fantastic read for history buffs.

Elin Pikkuniemi, a schoolteacher from Tornedalen, was Sweden’s first ski queen.

Illustration: Lisa Wallin

FROM FACEBOOK TO

the future

From server halls dependent on fossil-free energy, cultural centres built out of wood, to enormous battery factories and even larger steel mills. The green transition in the Arctic part of Sweden, in many ways a perfect storm of development, is reshaping Sweden’s industrial landscape as well as the future.

Photo: Luleå kommun

“welcome to the future,” says Åsa Bäcklin, communications manager at HYBRIT in Luleå, as she parks her car outside the modular office in front of where the carbon dioxide-free steel of the future is being made. The pilot plant is located on leading steel producer SSAB’s premises, where the Lule River meets the sea. HYBRIT, short for Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology, is in addition to being a plant also a technology. A fossil-free steel technology that will contribute to a reduction of Sweden’s fossil footprint by up to 10%. The project, is a collaboration between three of Sweden’s largest industries, mining company LKAB, steel manufacturer SSAB and the electricity producer Vattenfall, has caught the eyes of the world.

“Steel production accounts for approximately seven percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and in Sweden it is actually as high as ten percent. So it’s clear, if the steel industry transitions to fossil-free production, it affects our footprint.”

The culprit is carbon dioxide. SSAB is already one of the world’s most modern steel manufacturers and does everything possible to reduce fossil emissions. In numbers, this means that SSAB’s facilities produce 1.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide, for every tonne of steel. At other steel mills, the average is closer to 2.2 tonnes. These are numbers that are a little hard to take in, but this is where the HYBRIT process supposedly comes in.

in short, there are three steps in iron and steel production where large amounts of carbon dioxide are released, where the HYBRIT process could have an impact. After mining ore, pellets are produced. Conventionally, fossil fuels have been used, but in this new process biofuel is used instead. Then comes the process of making iron. Normally, coal in the form of coke is used to heat the pellets in a blast furnace and produce a liquid iron, which then goes to the steel mill. This means that enormous amounts of carbon dioxide are released from the coal, as a by-product.

In the HYBRIT process, however, the iron pellets will be subjected to heated hydrogen, to produce sponge iron. To use the sponge iron in production, it is later melted in an arc furnace, using fossil-free electricity. Arc furnaces are already in use, for example in metal recycling. Soon, not only the hottest blast furnaces will be making the hardest steel. In the future fossil-free steel will be made with technology where water, not carbon dioxide, is the by-product. Martin Pei, SSAB’s CTO, was one of those who tried to figure out what to use instead of coal. His answer was hydrogen. When hydrogen meets oxygen, the residual product is water, which can be reused in the process. Martin says, in an interview on LKAB’s website, that the question used to be: “But is there a market?”. Nowadays, the question is rather: “Can we produce enough fossil-free steel, fast enough”.

In the same interview, Martin concludes: “In northern Sweden, we have the opportunity to create a fantastic future for our value chain and simultaneously lay the foundations for a welfare nation, sustainable in the long term.”

If SSAB can begin this transformation, 15 years earlier than previously thought, it will be significant. Because removing ten percent of Sweden’s fossil emissions earlier than estimated means something. And it is in this melting pot that we find ourselves. To build a global future, we will have to rely on local solutions. Although this part of the world is already one of the most sustainable, we must aspire to constant improvement.

fossil-free energy that creates opportunities for industry is an obvious choice. When Facebook decided to set up its European servers in Luleå, in 2013, energy supply was a key issue. At Luleå City Hall, decision makers were reviewing strategic steps to achieve sustainable investments. An idea about server halls had come up. In Finland, an international company had bought an abandoned industrial premises to turn into a server hall, and this had been covered by the press.

“Well-informed stories about the past help us think in new ways about the future. And sometimes it can be absolutely urgent, to find a new story about the future.”

Advantages were access to a clean and stable energy supply, and the fact that many cold months offered cheaper server cooling. Looking at it today, 10 years later, the establishment is a success. Facebook has just finished building a third server hall in Luleå and other establishments have followed in the region.

Luleå municipality and the consultants hired had perfect timing. Facebook grew rapidly, but storing information from all corners of the world on servers in America was not efficient. How much would the company benefit from having European servers for data collected in Europe? The proposal from the Arctic part of Sweden piqued curiosity at Facebook’s HQ and a meeting was called. A delegation from Luleå went to explain the city’s advantages. Land access was particularly important, as was secure energy supply. A server hall simply cannot lose power. The municipality could easily offer land, but explaining the electricity supply was outside their domain. This was a long time ago, smartphones weren’t in everyone’s pocket. Swedish state owned energy company Vattenfall was asked for help in explaining that there was enough fossil-free energy, but their representative was dismissive:

“Do you imagine us travelling to the USA to tell them we have enough power to store some pictures?”.

Today, that response seems a bit ignorant, but it

clearly shows how far we have moved. Currently, several officials work with these questions, at Vattenfall’s Luleå office alone. Facebook is also not the only server hall in the area. Cryptocurrency mining and game development is ongoing businesses.

during summer 2022 , in a talk show for Swedish Radio, professor in the history of environmental field sciences Sverker Sörlin says: “Well-informed stories about the past help us think in new ways about the future. And sometimes it can be absolutely urgent to find a new story about the future”.

For obvious reasons the next chapter in the story about the northernmost part of Sweden will see its challenges. As mentioned, green electricity in enough supply is one issue for the future. There is no doubt that questions are being raised regarding sustainable management of the forest industry, wind power parks as well as developing new mines. Exploiting natural resources will be necessary, but will come as expense of the land and the peoples’ way of living. Also a big challenge for the equation in the region is to attract more people. A lot more people. So, when challenges will regard all the four classic elements; earth, air, water and fire, the hopes will be that human endeavor will fill the void (fifth element) and manage to move mountains.

Photo: Viveka Österman

Photo: Josefin Wiklund/Bodens kommun

Photo: SSAB

“In northern Sweden, we have the opportunity to create a fantastic future for our value chain and simultaneously lay the foundations for a welfare nation, sustainable in the long term.”

Martin Pei

Claes Nordmark

mayor claes nordmark, an 11th generation Boden resident, meet me in his office on the fourth floor. Politics was not an obvious choice for him. First he took an interest in sports, then he started studying molecular biology at the University of Uppsala.

“After two semesters I quit and took a study break, but then when I started to study again, it was political science and eventually I joined the party.” Later on he worked as a political advisor for the Löfven social democratic government. Then he adds:

“Molecular biology, on the other hand, is very useful when you have to see context and calculate things”.

Boden is the site of Sweden’s largest industrial investment ever. The construction of the green steel plant H2 Green Steel, is an industrial investment bigger than the Öresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark. H2 Green Steel is also a steel plant based on hydrogen technology. To get an idea of how big it is in terms of volume, the zoned area for the factory is almost twice as big as Central Park in New York. You can entertain yourself by taking a walk in the park from one end to the other, and back again, just to imagine this industrial establishment. Or you can ponder the fact that when H2 Green Steel starts delivering, it should, according to the forecasts, add 30 billion SEK to Sweden’s net exports.

Claes is not only the mayor of Boden, he is also chairman of the confederation, Norrbotten Municipalities. So what will these investments mean for the region as a whole?

“From the beginning I understood that there was a certain concern for these large establishments. A fear that some municipalities would cannibalise others, but now I rather feel that the whole region is buzzing.”

As an example, Claes mentions Övertorneå, which has the strongest growth in the entire region of Norrbotten – in addition, the municipality’s school has been named the best in Sweden for a number of years – but also the westernmost municipality Arjeplog, which has never seen a greater demand for holiday home accommodation than now. In Arjeplog, politicians have also decided that the holiday homes can be converted into permanent residences. People will increasingly be able and willing to work from home.

“I think it is important to understand that we are a connected region and that decentralisation is also an important issue. Of course, modern communities and small town charm are important attraction factors, but we have to accept that nature and countryside can be truly attractive too, not least to the people who move here from other countries. For them, a city might not be their first choice.”

Photo: Viveka Österman

Åsa Bäcklin

from boden to skellefteå it is just under two hours’ travel as the crow flies. The Lule River is Sweden’s largest “producer” of hydropower and flows through Boden. An hour south, on the road to Skellefteå, lies Markbygden, Europe’s largest land-based wind farm. And when you arrive in Skellefteå, you are on the banks of yet another river that produces large amounts of hydropower.

Few cities in northernmost Sweden have received more media coverage than Skellefteå in recent years. All because of its progressive investment in new, modern and environmentally friendly urban development. Time Magazine listed Skellefteå as one of the world’s 50 best travel destinations in 2022. The Guardian called the city “the miraculous eco-town” as they named the building with both The Wood Hotel and Sara Cultural Centre “the best architecture of the year”. Something that was then picked up on by the German Green Magazine which featured a 15-page article with the title: “The wood that the world needs”. But it’s not just the Sara Cultural Centre and The Wood Hotel by Elite, there is constant development in the city.

On the other side of the river, at Campus Skellefteå, a new wooden building is under construction making room for Arctic Center of Energy – a new competence centre aiming to accelerate the electrification of society. Through cutting-edge research and groundbreaking education, the Arctic Center of Energy creates the knowledge and abilities required to succeed with the sustainable energy transition. The initiators are Luleå University of Technology, Northvolt, Skellefteå Kraft, RISE, and Skellefteå municipality.

huge investments in renewable energy, including in wind farms and green hydrogen production, mean that Sweden now outperforms its EU colleagues with 56% of its energy consumption coming from renewables. This will inspire big projects, as well as smaller startups to use and develop more renewable products. Both research and trials have been ongoing at the airport with electric aeroplanes and electric helicopters. Green Flight Academy is the world’s first flight school for electrified aircraft. The Pipistrel, a small plane, at a mere 400 kilograms, being the star of the show.

The Artic Center of Energy at Campus Skellefteå, a new competence centre, is amongst the latest developments of the progressive city of Skellefteå.

Illustration: MAF Arkitekter

And in Jörn, some 60 kilometres inland, the entrepreneurial company Vidde Snow Mobility, together with RISE, Research institutes of Sweden, is developing the snowmobile of the future. A winter vehicle that not only runs on electricity but also has to be a circular production. Vidde’s CEO and co-owner Christian Lystrup says:

“Of course, snowmobiles with electric engines will be built. It is already being done. It is possible to replace the petrol engine with a battery-powered engine, but at Vidde we want to take it further and make the machine part of a circular solution. Instead of replacing your snowmobile, you may just need to upgrade it. And if the vehicle is completely run down, its materials must be reusable”.

Then he continues: “In the north, with the opportunities available for snowmobiling, snowmobiles actually account for approximately 7% of all carbon dioxide emissions in traffic. We can do something about that, while at the same time we want to make the production itself more sustainable”. Vidde’ aims to produce snowmobiles for the future, already during the winter season of 2025.

Photo: Thomas Ekström

Photo: Ted Logart

Green Flight Academy is the world’s first flight school for electrified aircraft and the Pipistrel Velis Electro is the first electric-powered plane to be approved by European flight regulator easa.

The “heart” in the Sara Kulturhus shows you if the building is storing, sharing or receiving energy in real time.

but back to the Sara Cultural Centre and the Wood Hotel. The building, 20 floors and 75 metres tall, is a tribute to Skellefteå and the region’s forestry traditions. At the same time also a carbon dioxide sink and part of the city’s modern electricity supply. From the beginning, it had not been decided that most of the building would be made of wood, but as time went on it turned out to be the most practical solution.

The construction industry accounts for almost 40 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, with cement being the largest source of these emissions. Wood, on the other hand, has the possibility of regrowth in the forest and wooden buildings themselves act as carbon dioxide sinks. According to the UN climate panel IPCC, wood is as much as 30 times less carbon dioxide intensive than concrete.

The architects behind the Sara Cultural Centre claim that the building itself will sequester nine thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide during its lifetime. Like a wooden lung in the middle of the city. But the strive for sustainability doesn’t stop there, it’s not simply a carbon sink, not just more environmentally friendly in the construction itself, the entire building functions as part of Skellefteå’s electricity supply. Power from the building’s solar panels is stored in batteries from Northvolt, located in the basement. Through an AI system, the Sara Cultural Centre constantly learns more about its own energy consumption and can now contribute surplus heat and energy to the city’s district heating system. Skellefteå Kraft has set up a “heart” in the Sara Cultural Centre where you can see whether the building is storing, sharing or receiving energy in real time.

in closing: With the eyes of the world on the Arctic, the challenges are great for building the community of the future, in line with the UN Agenda 2030. With the investments we touched on above, considering what has happened in the last decade and the construction of the future, it is easy to understand that the communities of northernmost Sweden are facing major transformation. A transformation that also affects the entire global fabric. To run newly built steel mills, as big as Kungsholmen in Stockholm, or twice as big as Central Park in Manhattan, requires energy but also more people moving here. And with all of our interviewees, these challenges come up in conversation. The energy supply for the electricity-intensive industry and the skills supply for all sectors of society. In order for the Arctic part of Sweden to remain at the forefront, the tide of migration must suddenly turn. It needs to go from being an area of depopulation, to one that people relocates to.

According to Time Magazine, “[Skellefteå is] a magnet for modern urbanites, those who want to live in tune with nature rather than in opposition to it. In recent years, creative types have emigrated from larger cities, peppering Skelleftea storefronts with art galleries and street food, warming the crisp Lapland air with an unexpectedly cosmopolitan vibe.”

Annika Fredriksson, CEO of the Swedish Lapland Visitors’ Board says: “People from all over the world suddenly have the opportunity to build a future with the smallest possible environmental footprint, while contributing to the development of one of the world’s most progressive and attractive places”.

“And, you know, it’s not only in the green transition that people are needed. The travel industry as well as other parts of the society are growing equally fast.”

Because just as with electric aeroplanes or snowmobiles or new modes of thought, we don’t have all the answers straight away. But still, the process has to start somewhere. Every journey begins with a first step, not least when you are headed for the future.

STOP. STAY. SETTLE.

You always need a good stop on the way. And at times you also want to stay for a while. One day, the art of slow travel could actually mean that you choose to settle.

Photo: Per lundström

STOP: JÄVRE

Just south of Piteå, along route E4, is Jävre – one of the best day stops in the north of Sweden.

the tourist office in Jävre was inaugurated in 1967 and is a magnificent work of architecture signed by Gunnar Lehtipalo. It had a record-breaking number of visitors that first year, but then Sweden changed to right-hand traffic and the building ended up on the wrong side of the road. It made access difficult, to say the least. Today Entré Jävre is both a tourist office and a nice-looking 1960s museum.

If you are planning on walking the interesting archaeological path – which is also the beginning of the 220 km hiking trail Solanderleden to Luleå – you can park here. Follow the circular archaeological path, a miniature High Coast with ancient ruins, burial sites and remains from the Ice Age. The view across the bay Jävrefjärden is beautiful and information points provide you with interesting facts about the landscape, how it has changed, and its history.

Down in the village, six kilometres later, you visit Jävre Kvarns summer

café. Rustic, cosy, interesting. Then you walk over to the harbour with a ceramics and art exhibition, a flea market, and a Heidenstam lighthouse to visit. The lighthouse is an example of Swedish engineering, improving safety in Swedish waters. But, more importantly, this is where you find Beas Rökeri och Hamncafé among the old, preserved fishing huts. When Beatrice Lindbäck was 14 she was looking for a summer job. Her dad Anders, who ran a fish farm, built a small smokehouse for her that they placed by the European highway. The first day she sold three fishes. Today the little smokehouse has become a summer café and a must-stop along route E4, where her dad Anders smokes seven tonnes of fish during a season, and Beatrice welcomes happy summer guests from near and far.

find out more:

Solanderleden is a 220 km long hiking trail from Jävre to Luleå.

Jävre Kvarn

The small but bustling Jävre harbour looks out on the bay of Jävrefjärden.

Beatrice Lindbäck runs Beas Rökeri och Hamncafé – a genuine café and restaurant among the well-preserved fishing huts at Jävre Harbour, serving Bea’s father’s smoked fish.

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

More than 300 birdhouses make the unique façade of Biosphere, Treehotel’s latest addition to the tree rooms, designed by architects Bjarke Ingels Group, BIG.

STAY: HARADS

The small village Harads along the Lule River, between Boden and Jokkmokk, seemed to be destined to fade away. That is, until some of Scandinavia’s most unique hotels were built in the village.

just after the turn of the millennium, Harads was a place people left. Britta and Kent Lindvall ran a smallscale guest house. Kent also had a travel agency helping fly fishers travelling to every corner of the world. He found it hard to believe anyone would come to Harads. The village café closed, and the church was the only building in the area that was designed by an architect – by John Åkerlund in fact, who also designed the mountain stations in Abisko, Kvikkjokk and Saltoluokta.

During a fishing trip, it all changed. Some of Sweden’s best architects promised to designed a tree house each for Kent, that guests could stay in. That was the beginning of Treehotel, an architect-designed hotel with tree rooms in the pine forest, in Harads. Thomas Sandell, Bertil Harström, RintalaEggertson, Snøhetta, and Bjarke Ingels, among others, have all designed tree cabins. At the afterparty when Treehotel opened its doors, someone said to architect Bertil Harström that he “should build a sauna raft on the river”. Somehow that idea stuck and ten years later Arctic Bath was inaugurated, a floating spa hotel on the river, designed by Bertil Harström and Johan Kauppi. A world-class spa and cold bath.

Today Harads in Boden municipality is a central point, where other accommodation and activity companies have been established.

The skiing area Storklinten is investing heavily. Svantes Vilt has reopened the old café, as a gathering point for world travellers and those who never felt like leaving in the first place. And who knows what will happen next.

find

Above: Arctic Bath is a floating hotel, sauna and cold bath on the Lule River. The architecture is inspired by the old timber tradition.

Left: The Mirror Cube by architects Tham & Videgård is one special room at Treehotel, blending into the surroundings with its 4x4 metre mirror walls.

Photo: Daniel Holmgren

Photo: Daniel Holmgren

Arctic Bath

Mirror Cube at Treehotel

SETTLE: SKELLEFTEÅ

Costal town Skellefteå was listed among the 50 best places in the world to visit by Time Magazine. But perhaps it might even be time to settle here?

few buildings in the north of Sweden have attracted more attention than Sara, the cultural centre also featuring The Wood hotel by Elite, in Skellefteå. Press from all around the world have written about the culture house: about the radically high wooden building itself and its ingenious AI-generated energy system, which in all its intricacy is part of the town’s own energy system, but also about the high quality of the restaurants and the spa on the 19th floor.

Wood is tradition, and in many ways what this town is built on. The more than 200 metre long bridge Lejonströmsbron across the Skellefte River is Sweden’s oldest wooden bridge, first used in 1737, and together with the church cottages in Bonnstan the bridge has been a listed site for a long time.

Skellefteå has always featured a very creative environment with a twist. This has earned the town a reputation as a Subarctic Twin Peaks, without perhaps delving further into the nature of that TV-series. But imagine artists, creators, ice-hockey players, and industrial workers that all of a sudden constitute the world’s coolest place to live (and one of the hottest according to Time’s writer).

More or less everything you need is a stone’s throw away, hotels bars and restaurants like Asian fusion Miss Voon at The Wood Hotel, classic Bryggargatan down by the river and the more casual Taps&, all found within a five minute walk. Skellefteå also hosts two gin destilleries.

On the south side of the river, where Campus Skellefteå is located, ACE, Arctic Center of Energy is being built, a research hub with academy and industry working together. On the way to Skelleftehamn, the battery factory Northvolt offers the world a better chance to a fossil-free life. More than 120 nationalities work at the factory.

Perhaps Skellefteå, or the entire area Swedish Lapland, is not just a place to visit but also a place to settle in. Especially if you want to be a part of the new green deal.

find out more: visitskelleftea.se

Photo: Sven Burman

Photo: Sven Burman

Photo: Sven Burman

This is us

What

is the destination of Swedish Lapland? Some quirky facts about the landscape and the folks living up north. This, a few bits and pieces on who we are and maybe even why.

Least populated

There are very few people living here. According to Wikipedia there are zero humans per square kilometre in large parts of the destination Swedish Lapland. To nature lovers it might feel good that Sweden’s three most sparsely populated municipalities form a podium here. Arjeplog is number one, counted as the most sparsely populated with 0.2 people/square kilometres. Jokkmokk and Sorsele are not far behind with 0.3 people on the same area.

Picasso in Kiruna

Art and culture have been part of Kiruna’s development. The old town hall – known as the Igloo, because of its closed-off shell that opened up its interior to become a living room for all Kiruna residents – was designed by architect Arthur von Schmalensee. In 1965 a Picasso exhibition was arranged in the town hall, with armed miners standing guard outside. Picasso was also meant to make a 33-metre-high sculpture for the museum that was planned for Kiruna, but for some reason that never happened. Today Kiruna’s new town hall is called Kristallen, ’the Crystal’, and Henning Larsen Architechts are the creators. Kristallen also features an open ’living room’ for Kiruna residents and others, showcasing part of the town’s amazing art collection.

Photo: Per Lundström

Photo: Börje Rönnberg LKAB

Giebmegáisi

Sweden’s highest mountain was always Kebnekaise/Giebmegáisi’s glacier-clad south peak. But global warming has melted the glacier in recent years, and since 2018 the north peak is Sweden’s highest with its 2,096.5 metres above sea level. And this is the first time since the Ice Age. Many also wonder if Lantmäteriet, the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority, used the correct name for the mountain. Or if there was a misunderstanding between the Swedish civil servants and the Sámi guides. But that is another story.

Cold dip

Sweden’s deepest lake is Hornavan, or Tjårvek in Pite Sámi, situated in Arjeplog municipality. It is 221 metres deep. Hornavan is dammed, and its surface area varies between winter and autumn. Hornavan is part of the drainage basin for the Skellefte River.

Salmon by the tons

The early riches in Sweden came in the shape of salmon. Salmon fishing in the northern rivers was an engine for the Treasury. Uppsala University was built with money from the Lule River, and the salmon in the Torne River lay the foundation for the Swedish Academy’s finances. In 1946 more than 100 tonnes of salmon were caught in the Lule River, but then things started to deteriorate. In 2016 the Baltic salmon was not far from being threatened with extinction, but a political decision in the EU turned that around by fixing quotas for salmon fishing in the Baltic Sea. Today the Torne River system might be the world’s most prolific salmon fishery.

The Arctic Circle

The northern polar circle is known as the Arctic Circle. Its position is 66˚ 33’ 38” N, but the truth is that the Arctic Circle moves a little bit every year because of the gravity of the Earth and the moon. You could say that the Arctic Circle is the place that defines the midnight sun and the midwinter darkness, based on the summer solstice or the winter solstice. In the destination Swedish Lapland, you cross the Arctic Circle in several places. You can swim, bike, hike or just enjoy the crossing through a train or car window.

directions: By car, you can cross the Arctic Circle just south of Jokkmokk on road E45 or 97, in Juoksengi on road 99, in Överkalix along road E10, in Jockfall on road 392 as well as in Merkenes on road 95. By train, you pass it in Murjek.

Photo: Peter Rosén

Photo: Ted Logart

Photo: Per Lundström

IN THE WORLD HERITAGE OF

LAPONIA

Laponia is unique in so many ways. A place of universal worth both in terms of its culture and of its nature. Looking back at its history, this Sámi World Heritage holds a story for all eight seasons of the future.

Photo: David Björkén

five in the morning, on a clear day in July. The view from Vákkudakvárátja, just above the STF cabin in Vákkudavarre, towards Áhkká, is glorious indeed. Still, the word glorious is not enough to describe the landscape that extends out in front of you. Could beauty and grandeur be almost deafening? Well, it makes me dizzy from where I am standing. Not just the view, there are other senses at play here. The quiet stillness and the scents of summer nights. For once the reservoir, Rijtsemjávrre, is calm as a mirror and the huge mountain range is reflected in all its splendour.

There is nowhere in Sweden where this kind of dramatic, nearly Alpine environment is as easily accessible as along the ‘Way West’ – a 145-kilometre-long, paved cul-de-sac that stretches from Luspebryggan on the road E45 to Ritsem in Gällivare municipality. The road leads straight into the heart of Laponia, one of Sweden’s 15 World Heritages. As we are writing this, in the end of 2022, there are 1,157 Word Heritage Sites and out of those, only 39 are designated as such for both their culture and their nature. Laponia in Swedish Lapand is one of them. This is something Lennart Pittja, the owner of award-winning glamping Sápmi Nature, loves to talk about.

“In a way it makes me extra proud that reindeer herding and the Sámi way of life in Laponia is, in fact, traditional knowledge of universal importance.”

In the beginning the application to become a World Heritage specified the reserve Sjaunja, but a marshland with plenty of mosquitoes traversed by the Inlandsbanan railway was not enough for UNESCO. Then the four national parks were added, an area measuring some 9,400 square kilometres filled with the most beautiful nature you can imagine – but that was not enough either. UNESCO, the organisation in charge of World Heritage applications, did not agree that the nature here was of universal value to mankind. But when reindeer herding and Sámi culture were mentioned – as this is one of the last big areas in Europe where people seasonally migrate with their animals – the value of the place became clear.

The reindeer is central to Sámi life, and in this area there has been a working migration route between summer and winter grazing for a long time. So, when Laponia was going to be protected for its culture, nature was brought along for the ride. The journey was not always in a straight line, but the process itself is very interesting, and something we will get back to.

lennart pittja’s camp is in Nábbreluokta, not far from where Gällivare’s first church was built in 1650. The church burnt down shortly afterwards, the introduction of Christianity in the area had its setbacks. Lennart belongs to the Sámi association Unna Tjerusj,

Photo: Magnus Winbjörk

‘the little village’. The reindeer herding land belonging to the association follows the northern part of Stuor Julevu (the Greater Lule River). Unna Tjerusj is one of nine Sámi associations whose reindeer herding lands are part of World Heritage Laponia. The other eight are: Baste čearru, Sirges, Jåhkågaska tjiellde, Tuorpon, Luokta-Mávas, Slakka, Udtja and Gällivare.

For most of us, it would be easier to come up with the names of eight North American Native tribes. This probably has less to do with us not being interested, and more with the fact that in school we were never given the opportunity to learn about our own native people. The story above, about the application to UNESCO, follows the same pattern. To Swedes, nature was the main thing, what first came to mind when applying; to the world as a whole, traditional knowledge was what was irreplaceable and of universal value.

from the beginning, the first inhabitants followed the movements of the reindeer herd in the area. And during the years, this gave rise to a particular lifestyle, whether the reindeer were wild or domesticated. The Sámi and the reindeer learnt to live side by side. A reindeer herding area is the area that the reindeer need as their grazing land.

A week or so before the Jåhkåmåhke márnán, the Jokkmokk Market, I speak with Per Kuhmunen. For more than 50 years he has walked through this world-famous event with his reindeer caravan. Per says that when he started at the nomadic school he protested loudly when his teacher claimed the Earth was round. Per knew, from his own experience, that it was elliptical and also how it stretched out between Vaisaluokta and Porjus, the migration cycle his family undertook every year with their reindeer, from the summer grazing land to the winter grazing land and back. Think about that when you hear the word ‘nomad’ – nothing is far away or somewhere else. They are in our midst, in the state someone once decided to name Sweden. I think about this conversation, Per feding his tame reindeer with lichen behind his house in Jokkmokk, waiting for the market to start. Once upon a time, his Universe was smaller than World Heritage Laponia. Today the world is a lot bigger, but Per Kuhmunen is still not entirely sure it is any better.

In terms of surface, by comparison, the World Heritage more or less equals the holiday destination Cyprus. Laponia’s borders hold four national parks – Muttos, Sarek, Badjelánnda and Stuor Muorke –and nature reserves Stubbá and Sjávnja, but also rich

“It makes me extra proud that reindeer herding and the Sámi way of life in Laponia is, in fact, traditional knowledge of universal importance.”

Photo: David Björkén

natural areas such as Ráhpaäno and Sulidälbmá. What kind of traces actually remain of the traditional livelihood in this area, sometimes referred to as ‘Europe’s last wilderness’?

anna rimpi worked as an archaeologist in Laponia for eight years. But now she is doing a PhD on trapping pits and hunting traditions. Anna says there are extensive human traces in Laponia.

“And since there is a massive number of trapping pits, the conclusion is that it was worthwhile.”

She states that these traces are present from around 5,000 BC to the Middle Ages. Trapping pits were used both for elk and reindeer, but here in Laponia reindeer was the main target. Reindeer used to be wild, once upon a time. There was also a transitional period when reindeer were both hunted and domesticated, and in our time it is all about herding and the reindeer has transitioned from prey to property.

Anna Rimpi is from Vitå, closer to the coast. Her own idea of Laponia used to be that classic image of the mountains, but once the area and the administration was her workplace, her view changed.

“I’m extremely fond of just travelling through the landscape. But I have to admit that because of my

profession I can’t help looking for the predictable wandering routes that must have been essential to the indigenous people and their everyday life. Suddenly, walking along, I get that feeling of ‘this is where it should be’. And often, I am right and come across traces of the indigenous people’s hardship.”

The trapping pits might be the most apparent monument Laponia’s first inhabitants left behind. They were large and took a lot of work, and that means the ravages of time have not been able to hide them.

“Unfortunately other remains along the Lule River, like people’s settlements, more or less disappeared when the hydroelectric power stations were built and the water was dammed. When it comes to settlements, we can simply state that the archive of knowledge that we had, has pretty much burnt to the ground.”

Thanks to Anna Rimpi’s stocktaking a lot more trapping pits have been discovered, even 500 metres above sea level. Still we keep learning more and more about Laponia’s history.

ájtte, the Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum in Jokkmokk, is another good place to start if you want to know more about Laponia. There are entrances and information centres to the great world heritage space

in Gällivare and at Naturum in Stuor Mourke/Stora Sjöfallet, and Ájtte, with its alpine botanical garden, is an amazing introduction in every way. The museum’s exhibition on handicraft is unique, and so is Fjällträdgården, the alpine botanical garden, and its recreation of the habitats found in Laponia.

In Fjällträdgården you will also find one of Axel Hamberg’s houses. Hamberg was a Swedish scientist who dedicated his life to research in Sarek. In 1895, when Hamberg was 32 years old, he was tasked with taking an inventory of glaciers in Sarek. He went on to make 35 summer visits and six winter visits to Sarek. The glacier inventory grew and became a mapping project for the entire area. Maps were scarce at best and Hamberg had to draw his own. He concluded his work on the map by stating “performing these measurements has been a never-ending struggle filled with difficulties”. After the first winter, when Hamberg and his colleagues lived in a

hut that did not quite manage to keep the heat in, he decided to build several cabins at different spots in Sarek. The five buildings, using his own patented design, were built as wooden structures clad with sheet metal and then insulated with cotton. They were located in Pårek, Pårtetjåkko, Litnok, Skårkas and Tjågnoris. The cabin from Tjågnoris has been moved to the alpine botanical garden, renovated and turned into an exciting exhibition.

today approximately a third of the planet is inhabited by indigenous people. They make up 5% of the world’s population but act as protectors of 80% of the world’s biodiversity. The viewpoint of indigenous people was a recurring theme during the World Economic Forum in Davos 2022.

Fast transactions, or decisions made based on yet another quarterly report is not a sustainable solution. Instead, many indigenous people around the

The yellow flowers reminding of giant buttercups has given Trollius europaeus the Swedish name Smörboll (Butter ball).

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

Photo: Carl-Johan

Utsi

world live by the seven-generation principle. Meaning that the decisions we make now will affect seven generations to come. A way more sustainable viewpoint. Laponia was established as a World Heritage in 1996 and the nomination process had been going on for several years before that. Once it became a World Heritage, the next question was how to manage it. ‘Tjuottjodit’ is the Lule Sámi word for administration. The organisation Laponiatjuottjudus, see laponia.nu, is simply ‘the administration for Laponia’.

The organisation Laponiatjuottjudus is the administration that formally took over management of the World Heritage from the county board in 2013. It is made up of representatives from all nine Sámi associations in the area, from the municipalities Jokkmokk and Gällivare, and from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the county board. One of the unique qualities of the decision-making in Laponiatjuottjudus is that decisions are taken by consensus. It is no good if 12 out of 13 think one thing. Everyone has to agree on a decision. It takes time.

the timeline, from a World Heritage appointed by UNESCO to a functioning entity, was no quick process. Bernt Wennström, who used to work for Gällivare municipality but is now retired, says being part of this process was something unique.

“UNESCO demanded both a management plan and a management organisation, of course.”

Around the turn of the century the county board had drafted a plan, but all nine Sámi communities thought it was not good enough. With that, we had to roll up our sleeves and create something that would last. The Sámi communities’

program for Laponia was later named ‘Mijá ednam’ – Our country.

Bernt and many others came from the public side, where majority rule was the norm – quick and rational were the guiding principles – and arrived in one where the participants took their time to make sure that everyone would agree.

“In that sense, the Laponia process was transformative. Just the fact that the Sámi communities decided that decisions would be taken by consensus was something new. The process taught me a lot. Sometimes time needs to be factored in to make sure the right decisions are made. Drinking coffee and having a chat fills a function.”

With the funding awarded by the government, the idea was that the process would be finished in three years. But it took practically twice that time, and the government had to award further funds. What was unique, apart from the consensus and the permanent Sámi chairmanship of the board, was also that local actors, nearly 100 of them, were invited to a consultation – ‘rádedibme’ in Sámi. These consultations still take place twice a year. There was also the fact that as a result of the process, an organisation outside of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency now manages national parks. In Sweden, this is not the norm.

“No matter how you look at it”, says Bernt, “the Laponia process has taught me that the decision method using consensus is a very potent method. It takes time, but the decisions are firm.”

the way west is a comfortable way of travelling into the World Heritage, and to Stuor Muorke/Stora Sjöfallet national park. To reach many other places you have to put on your hiking boots and put one foot in front of the other to get there. Naturum, at Stora Sjöfallet, is a

Driving carefully along the ‘Way West’ – Sweden’s longest cul-de-sac will give you time to enjoy all the scenery.

Photo: Per Lundström

Photo: Magnus Winbjörk

must-see. Hiking routes for day trips are found from the Way West out to many sights in the national park. Stora Sjöfallet Mountain Lodge is a great accommodation, just like the famous Saltoluokta mountain station on Kungsleden, the King’s Trail.

Seven of Sweden’s twelve 2,000-metre peaks are in Laponia. Together with Giebmegáisse, Sarek is Sweden’s alpine heart. But to get to the peaks in Sarek you need a whole other level of grit than for Sweden’s highest peak, because Sarek is a vast, wild landscape. Sometimes unforgiving. You better come prepared.

Muttos national park is the protected forest land. If you stop along the E45 and jog up to the viewpoint

at Oarjemus Stubbá, you are not only conquering the highest peak in the Muttos national park, you are also awarded with a gorgeous view of the vast forest land.

In the southern part of the park, you will find the famous waterfall Muttosagahtjaldak. The fourth national park in Laponia is Badjelánnda, which translates as ‘the higher land’. Up at lake Virihávrre, by the settlement in Staloluokta that Linné visited during his journey Iter Lapponicum in 1732, it is easy to understand the expression higher land. Air and ground, sky and water, all joined together in yet another pristine view. This is your time too, in Mijá ednam, even if you know it is just temporarily yours.

Outstanding universal value

Laponia, the church town of Gammelstad and the Struve geodetic arc are appointed by UNESCO.

Gammelstad church town

in 1996 the church town in Gammelstad outside Luleå was appointed a World Heritage Site. The church cottages are a legacy from a time when there was an obligation to attend church in Sweden. The farmers in villages around Gammelstad church town needed somewhere to stay the night to be able to attend service. Some of them lived as far as 40 km from church, and it took time to get there, even using a horse and carriage. That is why these red overnight cottages were built and created a little town of their own. There used to be 71 church towns in Sweden and only 16 remain. Gammelstad is the best-preserved church town and as such it has a unique universal value for humanity that is worth preserving.

FACTS:

• 520 culture-historically valuable and protected buildings, of which 405 are church cottages.

• The unique environment consists of the 15th-century stone church with surrounding church cottages,

a medieval network of streets and buildings stemming from the 17th-century burgher town.

• Gammelstad has been a World heritage since 1996.

A world heritage is an area, place or building so valuable that it must be preserved for the future. In Swedish Lapland

Photo: Ted Logart

Photo: Håkan Stenlund

The Struve Geodetic arc

in the beginning of the 19th century the German-Russian astronomer Wilhelm von Struve decided to use triangulation to establish the exact shape and size of the Earth. The measurements marked an important step forward for science and the development of topographic mapping.

Struve carried out his measurements between 1816 and 1855 and through them he could show that latitudes are longer in Scandinavia than by the equator. This proved

FACTS:

• The Struve Geodetic Arch runs through ten countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.

• There are seven station points in Sweden and four of them are on the world heritage list, situated on the mountains of Tynnyrilaki, Jupukka, Pullinki and Perävaara.

• The points are marked by drilled holes in rock, iron crosses, cairns or obelisks.

• World heritage since 2005.

that the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere, but rather an oblate spheroid, because the sphere is squashed by the poles as the Earth spins and the mass is pulled towards the equator.

Struve chose to follow the ’Tartu-meridian’ through 265 station points, with 30 kilometres in between, along a 2,821 km long stretch from Fuglenes in Norway to Izmail, Ukraine, by the Black Sea. 34 of the 265 observation points have been on the world heritage list since 2005.

The top of Jupukka outside Pajala is one of the observation points along the Struve geodetic arc. Nowadays a great coffee stop.

Illustration: Lisa Wallin

THE UNCOMPLICATED LIFE OF

Railway travel

Take the train! The call becomes all the more familiar. We choose train travel for many reasons; for the environment, of course, but also for the sake of the person within us. On the train we get the chance to sit for a while and do nothing more than admire the view falling away outside the window like a long row of beautiful new dominoes. As summer approaches, it’s time for you to embark on your own journey in northern Sweden.

somewhere beyond bastuträsk the train rolls resolutely into the destination known as Swedish Lapland. In Lillvattnet, alias Jörn, famous Swedish writer Sara Lidman’s Jernbaneepos begins. This is an area often acknowledged for its storytelling. It is said that Lenin, on his way home to the revolution, also stopped here and had a bath at Järnvägshotellet in Jörn, but that may be just hearsay. In some way it is rather surprising that, when the tale is told, so many are pleased that Lenin is the main character. On your journey northward, travelling on Tågsemesterkortet (the Train Holiday Card), you’ll hear about Lenin here in Jörn, see his image on a mural in Boden and then on a copper relief in Haparanda. That the Indian mystic and Nobel Literature Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore once stayed at the hotel in Jörn is a little-known fact. And now the memory of Tagore is as sleepy as the railway hotel itself.

The train arrives in Älvsbyn and you decide to hop off, so you can behold the spectacular Storforsen, Europe’s largest untamed rapids or waterfall, and a nature reserve that is well worth a visit. Later in the evening, you’ll be able to run up Hundberget for a fantastic view of one of Sweden’s National Heritage Rivers, the Pite River. You sit there on the high cliff overlooking the river valley with all its beauty. The cliff laid bare is a reminiscence of the ice age. The warm hard rock makes it easy to understand the saying that “a serpent on the rock” is a mystery.

A day later you continue onward towards Luleå and the coast, travelling with ease and arriving ideally in perfect time for lunch. You make a stopover in town where you choose between the open-air café at Hotell Savoy or the sushi restaurant Odod Art opposite. The latter becoming the winner, but as desert you get an affogato at Savoy.

University town Luleå is bathing in sunlight. And that’s not unusual. Luleå is often victorious when it comes to most hours of sunlight in Sweden. Back in

the 1950s, Swedes were surprised when the national daily newspaper Expressen announced that Piteå, between Skellefteå and Luleå, was Sweden’s best beach, with the warmest water – three years in a row. This meant that PiteHavsbad, ‘almost at the Arctic Circle’, would come to be called Norrland’s Riviera by Expressen. Nowadays Sweden’s Meteorological Institute measures the hours of sunlight, often with Luleå in the top.

Taking a stroll around town, you walk past Shopping, the world’s first shopping centre, which was designed by architect Ralph Erskine and inaugurated way back in 1955. It’s sometimes easy to forget just how forward-leaning this part of the world can be. Later on your journey you’ll be amazed to see the urban relocation and transformation of the mining communities of Gällivare and Kiruna. In Luleå, the town had to pack up and move already back in the 17th century to get closer to the sea. Isostatic rebound (the phenomenon of the land rising) made it impossible to pick up the salmon. The fish was vital for the nation’s economy and even helped in part to build the university in Uppsala. Thanks to the riches of the north, the town of Luleå had to be moved. The well-preserved old church town of Gammelstad is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and moving towns is happening again, 400 years later, in Gällivare and Kiruna, but this time for the sake of iron ore instead of salmon.

the bay of bothnia archipelago consists of at least 4,001 islands. It is a living archipelago, since isostatic rebound continues. New islands appear, while others merge to form single islands. On Hindersön in the Luleå archipelago an island culture persists, with permanent inhabitants and a hotel, Jopikgården. You stay for one night. Tomorrow you’ll board the tour boat to continue to the outer rim of the archipelago, and then head back to town. In Skellefteå, Piteå, Luleå, Kalix

Gammelstad

Brändöskär

Storforsen Shopping

Photo: Sune Sundahl/ArkDes

Swedish Lapland’s National parks

Europe’s first national parks were created in Sweden in 1909. Four of the originals, Abisko, Stora Sjöfallet, Sarek and Pieljekaise, were located in Swedish Lapland. Later, four additional parks, Vadvetjåkka,

and Haparanda, other tour boats are waiting to take passengers out to visit the gems of the archipelago. From Haparanda the boat sails out to various islands in Haparanda Skärgårds Nationalpark, the youngest National park in the region.

Padjelanta, Muddus and Haparanda Archipelago, were added.

In addition, there is the Vindelfjällens Nature Reserve. 5,500 square kilometres makes it one of Europe’s largest nature reserves.

Haparanda, close to the Finnish border, is your next destination. Your choice falls between Cape East, Sweden’s easternmost mainland point or Haparanda Stadshotell, the destination’s oldest hotel. You decide on Stadshotellet, but you treat yourself to a relaxing spa and sauna at Cape East. The sauna is said to be Sweden’s largest. Across the river, in Finland, sauna culture has been included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. You’re beginning to think that they should also have put the saunas in Tornedalen on that list. Here, the river has never really been thought of as a border, something that divides, but rather as something that unites. Around the First World War, when Haparanda bordered on tsarist Russia, as many as a quarter of the residents in Haparanda were foreign spies or locals making a fortune by smuggling.

Nowadays the national boundary is frictionless and almost symbolic. Here, as an example, the golf course is intersected by the border shared by Sweden and

“Here, the river has never really been thought of as a border, something that divides, but rather as something that unites.”

Cape East Haparanda Stadshotell

Haparanda Sandskär

Photo: Lucas Nilsson

Finland, meaning that you tee up in different time zones at every round of golf. Tornedalen makes for an exciting journey: a mighty river, two countries and several languages, all of which make it a unique region and give it a distinctive culture.

next, you head south again. You pass Kalix, which lends its name to Sweden’s first ‘protected designation of origin’, Kalixlöjrom – the gold of the sea and an incomparable delicacy that graces the table on the most festive occasions. This local golden roe is reverently harvested each autumn and the fishery is always carefully regulated.

You reach Boden. A garrison town that as late as in the early 1990s welcomed no ‘aliens’, The municipality of Boden is home to two of Sweden’s most wellknown destination hotels, Arctic Bath and Treehotel. From the train station to hotel Bodensia, you follow in author and Nobel Prize Winner Eyvind Jonsson’s footsteps and, the next day, you trek up to Rödbergsfortet to take in some military history before catching the afternoon train for the mountains.

By 8.30 p.m. you’re in Kiruna and half an hour later you settle comfortably into a chair at the modern-day version of Mommas Krog. When time-honoured Hotell Ferrum had to relocate, due to Kiruna’s urban transformation, the new Scandic Hotel was built. But there could never be any discussion about changing the name of the restaurant, Mommas.

It is said that when the first managing director of the Kiruna mine, the legendary Hjalmar Lundbohm, stepped down on the railway platform at the site of what would become Kiruna, the world’s most modern town, he burst out, “What godforsaken country”. There are many ways of looking at it. But from the rooftop bar at Scandic, when you see Sweden’s highest mountain, Giebmegaissi/Kebnekaise at sunset, you’ll say to yourself, “it certainly is beautiful, this godforsaken country”.

today hjalmar lundbohm’s Kiruna is being moved to a new location. The old city centre is gone for ever and a brand-new one has emerged. The original Arctic model town Kiruna, which was first with, among other modernities, electrical street lighting, promised not only work for the miners, but also a better life.

Standing in the rooftop bar with an IPA from Kiruna Bryggeri in your hand, you decide to head to the high country, to Abisko. One of Abisko’s many attractive features is a convenient lift that takes you up Mount Nuolja, saving you time and energy for a walk down the mountain under the Midnight Sun. Down through one of Sweden’s first national parks, along a famous canyon where clear, green waters flow, and always with a view of Čuonjávággi, Sweden’s most iconic alpine valley. And, since good fortune is with you on this journey, brasserie Fjällköket at Abisko Mountain Lodge has a table for you, and you tuck into yet another superb meal. The arctic char, served here, is a good reason to write home to your mother, perhaps just to let her know that you don’t eat only meat.

but you opt for meat again the day after when you come to Gällivare. First, a burger at Fat Tony’s to tide you over until, much later, you sit down at Steakhouse to savour a charcoal-grilled rib eye. Sometimes, life doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. For lunch a burger and a beer from the local microbrewery. For dinner a rib eye with béarnaise and fries. And in between meals a brisk walk towards the local mountain Dundret. But you needn’t worry; in Gällivare,

Fat Tony’s

the mining capital of Europe; there are other items on the menu besides steaks and burgers. The town has two sushi restaurants, a couple of nice cafés, the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants and two bars with their own microbrewery. On your way up to Dundret you gaze down over the emerging new residential area Repisvaara. If you are familiar with the old Gällivare, you’ll be astonished to see the new Gällivare, which has grown so rapidly. A town at the edge of the world, constantly preparing for change.

After Gällivare, you decide to travel southward on Inlandsbanan, the inland railway. Onward through Sjaunja and World Heritage Laponia, past Porjus, one of Sweden’s most monumentally vital hydropower stations, and then the beautiful Pakkobäcken before reaching Jokkmokk. If you want to learn about Laponia and Sámi culture, Jokkmokk is a good place to start. Laponia is world-heritage listed both for its culture and its nature. That the Sámi people, who have lived here for thousands of years, following the hoof prints of the migrating reindeer, yet had so little visible impact on the land, gives us good reason to examine our own footprints of the world.

At the Ájtte museum you gain insight into the Sámi

culture and, close by, an alpine botanical garden reveals the arctic flora of the region. Both of them are always worth a visit and you’ll enjoy your stay at Akerlunds, in the centre of town, where interesting shops, and the restaurant Krog Lokal will take care of most of your needs for an afternoon and evening.

and the train rolls southward. You stay the night in Arvidsjaur. If you time it right, you’ll see a steam locomotive running on the inland line – Inlandsbanan – courtesy of Järnvägsföreningen, the local heritage railway association. Otherwise, you can just enjoy a peaceful summer evening in the northern interior. Since you’ve been sitting still for quite a few hours, you decide to lace up your runners and challenge Kyrkstigen. Birdsong and mosquitoes are the music you hear as you run along fantastic woodland trails on the pine heath surrounding this garrison town. Although you’re enjoying a perfect summer, you remember that Arvidsjaur has turned the frigid winter to advantage. Personnel from several of the world’s armed forces train here in full winter at temperatures hovering around -30 degrees Celsius. And many of the world’s automakers test the performance of their vehicles under this

Photo: Per Lundström

Älvkungen

region’s ideal winter conditions. As an after-run, you enjoy a pleasant evening in the care of Hotell Laponia before continuing on to Sorsele the following day.

It’s the final stop on your two-week odyssey through Sweden’s Arctic destination. You step off at a station that doubles as a railway museum. Enquiring about things to do, you learn that the classic post boat Älvkungen is scheduled for a tour on the national heritage Vindel River, so you buy a ticket as well as a stay in a floating spa on the river. The following day you rent a fat bike to find out a bit more about one of

Sweden’s most sparsely populated municipalities. Where there are few people, there is always plenty of nature. Sorsele offers what is perhaps some of the world’s best fly fishing. In the brief hour you stay at Hook & Cup, for coffee and sandwiches, this becomes evident when you hear people buying fishing licenses, espresso and new waders in five different languages.

Later that day, when you pass the train station in Lomselenäs, near Juktån, the southernmost station in the destination of Swedish Lapland you start to wonder what it might be like to actually live here.

Haparanda Station

on the road. In his classic book On the road Jack Kerouac states: “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road”. We love the road, the possibilities ahead, but let us kindly remind you to take a stop. To enjoy what is off to the side. Please drive carefully! For

Photo: Per Lundström