Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Located just north of the 67th parallel, Gällivare has a pretty severe
climate
: as you
stroll around the open centre, have a look at the double-glazed windows here, all
heavily insulated to protect against the biting Arctic cold.
The site the town occupies was once that of a
Sámi
village, and one theory has it that
the name Gällivare comes from the
Sámi
for “a crack or gorge (
djelli)
in the mountain
(
vare)
”. You may also come across the alternative spelling, Gellivare; pronunciation,
though, is the same - “yell-i-vaar-eh”.
Lappkyrkan
Lasarettsgatan 10 • June-Aug daily 10am-3pm
he
Sámi
church,
Lappkyrkan
, down by the river near the train station, is a mid-eighteenth-
century construction; it's known as the
Ettöreskyrkan
(“1 öre” church) after the sum
Swedes were asked to contribute to the subscription drive that paid for its construction.
Gällivare Museum
Storgatan 16 • Mon-Fri 11am-3.30pm; late June to early Aug also Sat & Sun noon-2pm • Free
In the town centre, in the same building as the
Vetehatten
café (see opposite), there's a
simple
museum
dealing with
Sámi
history and forestry. Keep an eye out, too, for the
curious exhibition about a local man, Martin Stenström, who lived his entire life alone
in a cabin deep in the forest.
Midnight sun tours
June to mid-July daily 11pm; mid-July to early Aug daily 10pm • 160kr return • Tickets available from the tourist office
Though there's precious little else to see or do in the town centre, do try to take a tour
to the top of
Dundret
hill, one of the two peaks dominating Gällivare, to see the
midnight sun
. Special taxis run from the train station to the end of the winding road
which leads up to the top of the hill. Remember that the sky needs to be free of cloud
for you to see the midnight sun properly; whatever the weather, though, there are free
waffles and ice cream available before the return down to Gällivare.
The mines at Malmberget
Iron-ore mine tours
Mid-June to mid-Aug daily 9.30am • 280kr •
Copper mine tours
Mid-June to mid-Aug Mon, Wed & Fri 2pm • 280kr
Tucked away at
Malmberget
, the other hill that overlooks the town, the modern mines
and works are distant, dark blots down which the tourist office ferries relays of tourists
in summer. There are two separate tours, both running from mid-June to mid-August:
one of the underground
LKAB
iron-ore mine
, the other to the open-cast
copper mine
known as
Aitik
, the largest of its kind in Europe (and also Sweden's biggest gold mine
- the metal is recovered from the slag produced during the extraction of the copper).
The ear-splitting noise produced from the mammoth-sized trucks (they're five times the
height of a human being) in the iron-ore mine can be quite disconcerting in the
confined darkness.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
GÄLLIVARE
By train
The train station is on Lasarettsgatan.
Destinations
Kiruna (5 daily; 1hr); Luleå (5 daily; 2hr
20min); Narvik (2 daily; 4hr); Stockholm (1 daily; 15hr
30min).
INFORMATION
Tourist o
ce
Storgatan 16 (mid-June to mid-Aug daily
9am-7pm; mid-Aug to mid-June Mon-Fri 9am-5pm;
T
0970 166 60,
W
gellivarelapland.se). A 5min walk from
the train station, with good free maps, hiking information
and internet access.
