Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gammelstad &
ACCOMMODATION
Amber
Aveny
Best Western Arctic
Elite Luleå
First Camp Luleå
Gammestad Gästhem
Park
LULEÅ
4
3
6
2
7
1
5
BARS, CAFÉS &
RESTAURANTS
Baan Thai
Bishops Arms
Bistro Bar Brygga
Cook's Krog
Corsica
Olivers
Roasters
Zan
4
6
1
3
7
5
2
8
Stadsviken
7
N
Gültzauudden
Norra Hamnen
Kulturens
Hus
Bus
Station
Boat
Trips
Train
Station
Konst &
Hantverk
RÅDHUSTORGET
Norrbottens
Museum
Domkyrkan
Boat
Trips
Södra Hamnen
(Boats to the archipelago)
0
250
metres
Although shipping is still important today, in recent years Luleå has become the
hi-tech centre of the north, specializing in metallurgy; it also has an important
university
. The town's wide streets and lively, friendly atmosphere make it immediately
likeable, and if you're heading north for the wilds of the Torne valley, Gällivare and
Kiruna, or to the sparsely populated regions of Swedish Lapland, Luleå represents your
last chance to enjoy a decent range of restaurants and bars. Be mindful of the weather,
though: Luleå is built on a peninsula which takes the full brunt of the northerly winds.
If you're here in summer, taking a boat out into the
archipelago
(see p.277), makes a
wonderful day-trip - departures are daily and there's a whole array of islands in the
Gulf of Bothnia to choose from: beaches, walking trails and plenty of peace and
solitude are the main draws.
Brief history
The harbour soon proved too small, thanks to the growth in business, and so, by royal
command, the settlement was moved to its present site in 1649; only the church and
church town, today part of Luleå's
Gammelstad
(Old Town), remained in situ. Up until
the end of the eighteenth century, Luleå was still little more than a handful of houses
and storage huts; indeed Linnaeus, Sweden's famous botanist, who passed through here
in 1732 on his journey to Swedish Lapland, described Luleå as a village. Though the
town had started to become something of a shipbuilding centre in the nineteenth
century, it wasn't until the construction in 1888 of the Malmbanan, the railway built to
