Ice Hotel in Sweden
The Icehotel is a hotel built each year with snow and ice in the village of Jukkasjärvi, in northern Sweden, about 11 miles from Kiruna. It is the world’s first ice hotel.
Description by Yngve Bergqvist
ICEHOTEL is the world’s first and largest hotel built of snow and ice and it is situated in Jukkasjärvi, a small village in Northern Sweden with 1,100 residents and 1,000 dogs.
Each winter, some 50,000 visitors from all over the world come to see ICEHOTEL to experience the tranquility, the northern lights and all of the activities offered in Europe’s last wilderness 200 km north of the Arctic Circle.
ICEHOTEL covers 5,500 square meters and is constructed from 1,000 tonnes of Torne River ice and 30,000 tons of “snice”, a mixture of snow and ice that strengthens the structure. Around 100 people are involved in the construction of ICEHOTEL, half of which are artists especially invited to design particular areas of the hotel. The construction is a year-round process. Between March and April, 5,000 tons of ice is harvested from the Torne River and kept in cold storage during spring and summer. Construction takes place in November and December and the entire ICEHOTEL is then open between December and mid-April, when everything begins to slowly melt and return to the Torne River.
ICEHOTEL and its structures are protected under Sweden’s Copyright Act.
Photography by Paulina Holmgren
- by Matt Watts
