Kiruna, Sweden

Wednesday Aug.14/12

I started a little later in the morning with the Sami Museum. It only had some English pages and there was literally no one else in the museum. So I read and learned what I could.

As early as the 9th Century, Sami people had hunting techniques for wild reindeer.  They used domesticated reindeer as a lure. They also used pits, where they would dig a hole and cover it to look like the rest of the ground.  During the 16th and 17th centuries the supply of reindeer decreased dramatically and the Samis found other means for survival, such as farming and fishing. The Sami people were exploited and often subjected to racism and enmity. In 1993 a Sami Parliament was established in Sweden, which served to protect the rights of the Samis to land and water.

Next, I went to the Kiruna iron mining exhibit. In Kiruna, the ore body consists of a giant tilted disk of magnetite that slopes under the city centre. "Without the mining, Kiruna would not have existed, and without Kiruna, we would not be able to mine the ore." They city and the company are dependant on each other and have been since 1890 when LKAB (the iron-ore mine company) began.
LKAB currently produces 28 million tonnes of iron-ore products annually and it's the largest underground iron-ore mine in the world.  It accounts for 90% of the total iron production in the European Union. The ore is extracted using sub-level caving, so when it is blasted, the ore falls to underlying levels. I can expand on this is someone is interested.

Anyway, Kiruna grew up as a result of mining activities and now, as mining continues the city must be moved. Over the next 20 years an estimated 3000 buildings will be affected and moved to another location. When I was there, they were already building new schools to replace the schools they are going to have to destroy due to the mining.

I walked around the town and enjoyed the day.

I saw the town hall.

The Kiruna church, which was built from 1909 - 1912 in the form of a Lapp Cottage.

The bell tower was constructed first in 1906.











I then caught the bus to the ice hotel, which is currently melted but the area was still gorgeous. I just took a bit of time there to learn about how it's built and maintained.

Several hundred tons of ice is borrowed from the Torne River. As soon as the river freezes up, the section to be harvested is marked and kept clear of snow throughout the winter.  Harvesting takes place from mid-March to April when the ice is about 80 cm thick. It's the depth of the ice that creates the crystal - clear ice form. The ice field is divided into a grid pattern and very carefully using machines blocks of ice, weighing 2 tonnes per piece, is sawed and lifted out of the river.

The blocks are stored at -5 degrees Celsius until the following autumn when they start constructing the new ice hotel. The ice hotel opens in December while construction is still in progress and it not usually completed until January. NIBE ground source heat pumps are used to heat the hotel while maintaining the ice form (I can't explain this farther).  It's kind of neat. It would have been nice if it was winter and I could actually see and explore the hotel.. maybe someday :)


Back into town I met up with the host, Niklas.

He cooked me dinner then took me up a hill to get a great city view!
We had a beer and chatted then to sleep early.