Culture
Culture
Welcome to enjoy Heart of Lapland, where every season is a story waiting to be told. Fill your days with the wonders of nature, whether it's the enchanting midnight sun or the dancing northern lights. Discover our cultures through immersive experiences, embark on outdoor adventures, and let the sauna rejuvenate you. Heart of Lapland offers both tranquil relaxation and thrilling experiences. Explore what to do in Heart of Lapland – beyond the obvious activities.
Try Swedish Fika
Swedish Fika is much more than a cup of coffee and baked goods. Fika is about being in the present with yourself, your partner, family, friends, or new acquaintances. Fika is a moment of bliss at the dinner table, on the cross-country ski tour, outside by the fire, on the couch, or at a cozy café. Sometimes you only have 15 minutes, sometimes it turns to hours. Try Swedish Fika in Heart of Lapland.
Walpurgis night
The arrival of spring is celebrated on Walpurgis night. Here in the heart of Swedish Lapland, the neat garden piles from the autumnal yard cleaning are uncovered as the snow is thawing and becoming the spring-winter bonfires. Walpurgis night is a holiday celebrated with family or friends. Some villages have a communal bonfire where the locals gather for grilling sausages.
Experience international art and design
Lean back in a designer armchair with a book, surrounded by art pieces and paintings made by international artists. Arthotel offers a warm and beautiful atmosphere where you can feel at home, even if you don't know anything about art. With some luck, you can time your visit with one of the art gallery Konsthall Tornedalen's exhibits in the village, or the opportunity to experience mind-bending performance art by Institutet. The surrounding landscape in its spring-winter costume is as dramatic and wonderful as the art. Welcome to a place filled with contrasts.
Building traditions
Small barns scattered across the fields, big linseed oil-painted Torne Valley mansions with Finnish-Russian influences and classic farmhouses in timber are all part of the quintessential landscape in Heart of Lapland. Wood and timber houses have always been common building styles through the different eras. The classic farmhouses were built in a square with the residential house on one side, barns and outhouses wrapping around the yard – something that made work easier at the farm back in the day. At the driveway, you can spot an aitta. It's a tall and timbered storage shed, which historically was a symbol of wealth. Today, many are still using their aitta as storage. The aitta is both a cultural bearer and beautiful to take pictures of. Most fields are used to this day, creating an open landscape that offers amazing views over the cozy villages and buildings in our river valleys.
The history of skiing
The world's oldest preserved ski, the Kalvträsk ski, was found here in Swedish Lapland and is 5200 years old. The Sámi were described as skiing people back in the 500s and skis used for hunting are carved on runestones from the Viking age. Skis have always been a great way to travel across the frozen landscape. The first cross-country ski competitions were held in the 1800s. Up until 1970, cross-country skis were made from wood. Modern skis are light and made of plastic and/or fiberglass.
