Rovaniemi is a Finnish city and the regional center of Lapland,
located near the Arctic Circle at the confluence of the Kemijoki and
Ounasjoki rivers.
Rovaniemi is the provincial center, a
university town and the center of trade, administration and
education in its region, as well as a sports and culture city.
Rovaniemi was separated as a township from Rovaniemi rural
municipality (the former Rovaniemi municipality) in 1929, and in
1960 Rovaniemi township became one of the first six so-called new
towns in Finland. Rovaniemi, which merged with Rovaniemi Rural
Municipality at the beginning of 2006, is the 17th largest city in
Finland in terms of population (in 2020), but the largest in Finland
and Europe in terms of area. The city is also the second largest
city in northern Finland in terms of population after Oulu.
Rovaniemi is the northernmost city in Finland, although the central
area of Kemijärvi is further north than the central area of
Rovaniemi.
Rovaniemi's neighboring municipalities are Kittilä
and Sodankylä in the north, Kolari, Pello and Ylitornio in the west,
Tervola, Ranua and Posio in the south and Kemijärvi and
Pelkosenniemi in the east.
The word rova means a wooded ridge
or sparsely wooded upland. The word is a loan from the Sami
language, where roavvi means an old fire area or a forested danger
or ridge. The name of Rovaniemi in Sami languages is: Ruávinjargâ in
Inari Sami, Roavvenjárga, Roavenjárga in Northern Sami and
Ruäʹvnjargg in Koltan Sami.
Rovaniemi operates, among others, a theater, the Lapland Chamber
Orchestra, the Lapland Military Band, the Lapland Student Theater, the
Lapland Music College, the Lapland Ballet College, the theater Lentävä
poro and, for example, the folk dance group Rimpparemmi.
The
Rovaniemi Art Museum is the regional art museum of Lapland and its
collections include 1,500 works of Finnish contemporary art.
Rovaniemi has a lively folk dance and folk music scene, the most famous
ensembles are probably Rimpparemmi and Siepakat. In March 2007, a large
folk music event, Samuel's Poloneesi, was organized in the city. The
international folklore festival Jutajaiset takes place in Rovaniemi
every year.
In summer, Konttinen's summer theater and the new
Flying Reindeer's Summer Theater operate in Rovaniemi. The Konttinen
summer theater was founded in 1996 and is located on the banks of the
Kemijoki next to the Konttinen field. Konttinen's summer theater has
performed plays for the whole family, such as Pekka Töpöhäntä and
Cinderella. The Summer Theater of the Flying Reindeer was built in the
summer of 2012 from forklift pallets and recycled wood on the upper
platform of the Pekankatu parking garage. In addition to theater, the
pop-up summer theater also organized other cultural programs, such as
live music evenings.
The city of Rovaniemi annually awards a
recognition award for cultural achievements. In Rovaniemi, the seven-day
newspaper Lapin Kansa is published, which can be ordered throughout the
province, and the twice-weekly city newspaper Uusi Rovaniemi and the
free distribution newspaper Lappilainen, formerly Roi Press, which is
distributed throughout Lapland.
Rovaniemi was nominated for the
European capital of culture for 2011. The other candidates were Turku,
Tampere, Mänttä, Oulu, Lahti and Jyväskylä.
Proceedings
Several large Christian summer events have been organized in Rovaniemi.
The summer clubs of the old stadium players have been organized in
Rovaniemi eight times, in 1912, 1925, 1931, 1936, 1951, 1965, 1979 and
1997.
In the summer of 2007, Simerock was organized for the first
time in the city, replacing the earlier Rovaniemi Rock festival. Down By
The Kemijoki festival was organized between 1992 and 2007. Down By The
Kemijoki made a comeback in the summer of 2012. In the summer of 2016,
the City Festival RolloPOP will be organized, which will bring the
biggest names of Finnish rock and pop to the renewed Keskuskenta.
Arctic Design Week has been an annual event since 2009.
Music
Rock and pop bands from Rovaniemi that have made more than one album and
achieved some degree of success have included Absoluuttinen Nollapiste,
Greenhouse A.C., Jalla Jalla, The Nightingales, Tulenkantajat and
Supperheads. Finland's first black metal band Beherit and rap duo
Hannibal & Soppa are also originally from Rovaniemi.
Rovaniemi is
also home to Linnunlaulupubi, an influencer of the new generation of
underground culture, whose leading figures include singer/songwriter
Jaakko Laitinen. In recent years, the Arctic Live Entertainment
association has brought numerous domestic top names in heavy metal to
Rovaniemi.
The history of Rovaniemi's settlement dates back to the Stone Age
8,000 years ago (around 6,000 BC). The 40-centimeter-long pine elk head
found in Lehtojärvi has been dated to nearly 8,000 years old, and is
thus the oldest wooden sculpture found in Finland; because its
hollowed-out neck is suitable both for its size, position and shape for
the bow of the ship, the hole on its side is suitable for a pin with
which the sculpture would have been attached to the log, and when the
ships in stone age petroglyphs usually have a deer's head as the prow,
it is assumed that the sculpture was once the prow of the ship. A
campsite has been held at Vaarala Matkavaara around the same time.
Discoveries made in Ylikylä (treads, scrapers and spearheads.) have also
been dated to approximately the same time. The current urban area, in
Valionranta opposite the center on the Ounasvaara side, has been
permanently inhabited in at least two periods: 2920–2690 BC. and around
1700 BC. – 300 shares. This result was reached based on the excavations,
related discoveries and analyzes carried out in Valionranta in 2013. It
is assumed that the inhabitants of the Stone Age supported themselves by
elk and deer hunting and fishing; After Lake Anclylus turned into the
salty Littoral Sea around 5500 BC. seals and salmon became important
sources of food. The objects preserved from the first 3,000 years are
made of stone, wood and bone, the most characteristic being the large
turas, or the so-called Rovaniemi turas. Pottery making was learned in
the Rovaniemi region around 4200 BC.
The first bronze objects
arrived from the east around 1300–1000 BC. The first signs of farming
are near Ylikylä, where a pollen analysis shows that seasonal activity
referring to hoeing or burning began between 750 and 530 BC. about. On
the east side of Ounasvaara, in Sierijärvi's Riitakanranta and
Kotijängä, approximately 2,000-year-old iron smelting furnaces have been
found, where iron was produced from local marsh or lake ore with the
help of charcoal.
Permanent peasant settlement of the area began
in the 12th–13th centuries, although the area has apparently been
continuously inhabited since the Stone Age. The strong Hämälä-Satakunta
element of the place name shows that the oldest new settlement came
mainly from there. Later, mainly Hämä people came to Rovaniemi as
settlers, but also true Finns, Karelians, Viennese, Swedes, Norwegians,
Kainuus and Germans. Due to this fact, the dialect of the Rovaniemi
region is a versatile mixture of different dialects and even different
languages. However, the migration has not been very large-scale, because
even in the 1540s, the population of Rovaniemi was just under 200
people, some of them descendants of Stone Age residents. Sami people
also lived in the area, as evidenced by nomenclature (e.g. Kolpene Sami.
Kolpa 'dry cloth'), artefact finds and genealogy. When Finland's local
administration was organized, the Rovaniemi region became part of the
Kemi region in the early 15th century; however, there was no permanent
state representative in the region, and official matters were still
handled in the 16th and 17th centuries, as a rule, in Kemi. Rovaniemi is
mentioned for the first time in documents on September 7, 1453, when the
Vout of Ostrobothnia confirmed the land deal concerning the properties
of Korkalo and Rovaniemi. Until the 18th century, the Rovaniemi area was
called Korkala.
From the time the administration was organized,
Rovaniemi belonged to the parish of Kemi. However, for a long time there
was not a single churchman in the area, and even in the 16th century,
the people of Rovaniemi still had to make a mandatory trip to church in
Kemi a few times a year. The Finnish ancient faith with its gods, elves,
spirits, ghosts and the dead flourished alongside Christianity for a
long time; as late as 1803, Jakob Fellman said that he saw a seida near
the Muurola salmon dam, to which food and tobacco were sacrificed. At
the beginning of the 17th century, a chapel congregation under Kemi was
formed in Rovaniemi, and the first church was built in 1605–1611. It was
destroyed by the people of Vienna in 1611. The new church was built by
1622, it was replaced by a new church in 1688, and this in turn was
later replaced by the church burned in the Lapland War in 1817. At
first, the vicar of Kemi held services in these churches a few times a
year, but in the late 1630s Rovaniemi got its first chaplain, Christer
Eric's.
In 1725, the population of the Rovaniemi area was around
450. Population growth accelerated in the 18th century, as in other
parts of Finland: the limit of one thousand people was exceeded in the
1770s and the limit of 2,000 people in the early 1820s. The Rovaniemi
region was separated from Kemi in 1785, when King Kustaa III confirmed
the status of independent Rovaniemi parish and Rovaniemi parish. At the
end of the 18th century, the current center, Korkalonniemi, started to
become the center of the keeper: the chaplain and the locksmith used to
live there, the border viscal came there, and the commission land
surveyor lived variously in Ylikylä or Saarenkylä. Craftsmen and
professionals also concentrated in the Korkalonniemi and partly
Saarenkylä area.
In the second half of the 18th century,
small-scale industrial activity also began to sprout in the area. The
demand for timber in Europe and especially in England grew, which
inspired two people from Oulu to apply for permission to establish a
sawmill on the banks of the Raudanjoki in 1779; the application was
accepted but the project failed due to lack of money. Lieutenant Magnus
Fredrik Clementeoff from Rovaniemi and chaplain Esaias Fellman applied
for permission to establish a sawmill on the banks of Sinetänjoki in
1780. The Royal College of Chambers confirmed the permit in 1782, and
the sawmill probably started operating in 1784. Getting a permanent
sawyer in 1790 made the operation more efficient, but the production was
still modest, hardly more than 5,000 boards per year. In the following
decades, the operation gradually became more efficient, and in the
record year 1856, 15,120 boards were sawn. In Raudanjoki, two merchants
from Ostrobothnia applied for a license to establish in 1837, and the
Finnish Senate granted it to them in 1839. The place was determined to
be Hakoköngäs in Raudanjoki, about 5 kilometers from Kemijoki. The
operation of the sawmill began in the fall of 1840. In the record year
1856, 23,844 boards were sawn there. The third sawmill at the mouth of
Meltausjoki, a few tens of kilometers upstream of Sinetä Ounasjoki, was
granted a foundation permit in 1846. In total, these sawmills employed
just over 100 professionals in the mid-19th century during the spring
and summer seasons.
Until the middle of the 19th century, Rovaniemi was a group of small
rural villages, whose few inhabitants (about 2,800 still in 1850 in an
area the size of present-day Rovaniemi) earned their living mainly from
farming and livestock farming, with fishing and hunting being the most
important side livelihoods. The prosperity of Rovaniemi began with the
rise of Finnish forestry in the second half of the 19th century.
Rovaniemi did not become a center of wood processing, although the
sawmills established in the area (in addition to those mentioned above,
e.g. the Pitkäniemi sawmill completed in 1901 on the site of the current
Arktikum in Sahanperä) had considerable local importance. On the other
hand, the central location in terms of log warehouses and the good
traffic connections for the time at the confluence of the Kemijoki and
Ounasjoki made Rovaniemi a significant traffic and trade center and
later also an administrative center.
The highway to Kemi in 1839
connected Rovaniemi to the road network of the kingdom. In the following
decades, road construction works that progressed slowly in Lapland
mostly connected Rovaniemi to various local centers. Log harvesting,
which began in the 1860s - the swimming of logs along the Kemi and
Ounasjoki rivers to Kemi - emphasized Rovaniemi's position as a
logistics hub. The railway completed in 1909 sealed Rovaniemi's position
as a logistical center. At the beginning of the 20th century, steamboat
traffic was an important connection between Rovaniemi and the tops of
the Kemi and Ounasjoki. Construction of Rovaniemi Airport began in 1939
at its current location, and the first two grass-covered runways were
completed in 1940.
Before the 1860s, there were no shops in
Rovaniemi, but the people of Rovaniemi made their purchases from each
other, from merchants in cities (e.g. Kemi) or from Viennese Karelia
street vendors called laukuroyssi. The first land store got its license
in the early 1860s, and the prosperity brought by forestry and the
convenient location of the church village as a transit point increased
the number of stores in the community to thirteen by 1877. The first
pharmacy came in the 1880s, and in 1898 the number of shops was already
27. In 1906, the people of Rovaniemi founded a cooperative shop for
themselves, and Työväen Osuusliike Lapinmaa started in 1922. At first,
shops were only established near the church, but soon they began to
appear in the countryside as well, and in addition, in connection with
the logjavotos, so-called savotta shops, where local residents could
also shop.
Along with the shops, the Rovaniemi market became an
important economic institution. In 1880, the church village received
market rights, and the first market was organized in February 1881. Soon
they began to gain national fame, and at the turn of the century the
market was already an important commercial event. They were held three
times a year: the week-long main market in February, the midsummer
market and the Mikkelin market in the fall. The market was a large,
multicultural and colorful event where people came from all over Finland
and even from neighboring countries. Among others, Russians, Norwegians,
Swedes, Jews, Romani and Tatars sold fabrics, household items, tools,
etc. to the residents who got rich from forest sales in the area or who
made an extra living by forest work, and the locals sold e.g. Mostly
furs for brokers from England.
In the wake of the economic
upswing, live farming also progressed. The first library was built in
1860 and the first bookshop in 1895. The first folk school began its
operations in the fall of 1870 in Rantavitikka; it was Northern
Finland's first public school established outside the cities of that
time. In Rovaniemi, there were far more children of public school age
than the school could accommodate, so in 1882 two itinerant school
teachers were hired, who stayed in each village for three weeks at a
time before moving on to the next; in this way, about two-thirds of the
Rovaniemi children of that time could be offered education. In 1902,
Jaatila, Namma and Saarenkylä public schools started, and in 1908 there
were already 10 public schools in Rovaniemi. The first middle school
(Rovaniemi Keskikoulu, later Rovaniemi Yhteislyseo, nowadays
Lyseonpuisto high school) started in 1908. The first newspaper,
Rovaniemi Sanomat, started to appear in 1909, but because it had to be
printed in Kemi, which was far from difficult transport links (printers
were only allowed to be in towns), only 34 issues were published. When
the law change allowed printing presses also in rural areas, the
Rovaniemi newspaper was founded in 1921, which appeared three times a
week. When it soon became connected to the coalition party, in 1928 the
rural allies of the locality founded the People of Lapland.
In
1867, Rovaniemi got its own municipal administration, separate from the
parish. The church village of Rovaniemi was founded in 1875. The church
village of Rovaniemi was formed into a densely populated settlement in
1901, and after a long struggle, it received township rights in 1929; in
the same context, the township was separated from the Rovaniemi rural
municipality, which surrounds the township on all sides. Kauppala became
the administrative center of Lapland County, founded in 1938.
In the subsequent war, Rovaniemi served as a garrison town for the
Germans. There was not a single building stock in the area suitable for
military use: the joint staff of the Germans and Finns was in the
national school, the German officers' club was in an almost
hundred-year-old farmhouse, and so on. Because of this, the Germans
began large-scale construction work and built a large number of
buildings (barracks, depots, warehouses, canopies, watch house,
officers' club, etc.) and land construction sites (sports fields, roads,
battle stations etc.) ), who quickly changed Rovaniemi's previously
small fragmented areas from a rustic cityscape to a small-town one in a
relatively large area in the current center and its outskirts. The
nomenclature used by the people of Rovaniemi has remained from that
time, for example, the sports field named after Erwin Rommel, which was
built by German soldiers. The Germans also cleared Ounasvaara's first
slalom slope in 1943; the commander of the German army, Eduard Dietl,
was an avid skier.
At the end of hostilities between Finland and
the Soviet Union on September 4, 1944, the requirement was to expel the
Germans by September 15, 1944. The residents of Kauppala and the rural
community went to the evacuation center with the help of the Germans.
The town had 8,233 residents at the time. Of these, 4,800 were evacuated
in Sweden, the rest in southern Finland.
In the war in Lapland, the German troops used scorched earth tactics when retreating. In the town of Rovaniemi, the Germans' own barracks were burned on October 7. The other buildings of the store were burned or blown up between the 10th and 16th. October, and the destruction was completed on October 14 by a 400-ton ammunition train that apparently accidentally exploded in the center of the railway station. On the same day, Suutarinkorva and Ounaskoski bridges were blown up. Just before retreating north on October 16, the Germans set the Rovaniemi church on fire with fuel bottles. The store was completely destroyed: an estimated 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed. On the countryside side, the Germans destroyed about 60 percent of the building stock.
The first residents who were evacuated on the Finnish side returned
right at the end of November. The post office was opened in the railway
station building on December 1, 1944. The temporary municipal office of
Maalaiskunna was opened on November 25, the equivalent of the township
in December, as well as the first shops. The first train from the south
arrived on April 15, 1945. The majority of the rural community's
residents had returned by September 1945, the majority of the township's
residents were in Rovaniemi in the fall of 1946. The county government
building was completed in 1947, the townhouse in 1948, and the new
church in August 1950.
After the war, Alvar Aalto designed the
new downtown Poronsarvi station plan, which was approved in 1947. The
reconstruction of Rovaniemi took about eight years, and its completion
was entrusted to KYMRO, the construction department of the Ministry of
Transport and Public Works. The most important international aid
organization during the reconstruction was UNRRA (United Nations Relief
and Rehabilitation Administration), which distributed e.g. foodstuffs,
textiles, medicines and household items. Most of the aid came from the
United States and Sweden. The Kiiruna neighborhood in Ounasvaara was
built with funds received from Sweden.
The first residents who were evacuated on the Finnish side returned
right at the end of November. The post office was opened in the railway
station building on December 1, 1944. The temporary municipal office of
Maalaiskunna was opened on November 25, the equivalent of the township
in December, as well as the first shops. The first train from the south
arrived on April 15, 1945. The majority of the rural community's
residents had returned by September 1945, the majority of the township's
residents were in Rovaniemi in the fall of 1946. The county government
building was completed in 1947, the townhouse in 1948, and the new
church in August 1950.
After the war, Alvar Aalto designed a new
downtown Poronsarvi station plan[29][30], which was confirmed in 1947.
The reconstruction of Rovaniemi took about eight years, and its
completion was entrusted to KYMRO, the construction department of the
Ministry of Public Works and Public Works. The most important
international aid organization during the reconstruction was UNRRA
(United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), which
distributed e.g. foodstuffs, textiles, medicines and household items.
Most of the aid came from the United States and Sweden. The Kiiruna
neighborhood in Ounasvaara was built with funds received from Sweden.
Settlement activities after the wars especially increased the
intermediate population of Rovaniemi rural municipality. Settlement
activity continued strongly until the mid-1960s. Based on the Land Use
Act of 1958, almost 200 new farms were established in the rural
municipality and additional land was given to 900 old farms. The
population was also increased by the construction of hydropower plants:
Petäjäskoski 1953–1957, Pirttikoski 1956–1959, Valajaskoski 1957–1960,
Permantokoski 1960–1961 and Vanttauskoski 1967–1972. The number of rural
construction workers increased tenfold during the 1960s.
In the
1960s, the complete transformation of agricultural policy to limit
agricultural production favoring the establishment of new farms and the
mechanization of forest work caused a great migration, a strong
migration from the countryside to the cities of Southern Finland and to
Sweden. The emigration loss of Rovaniemi rural municipality from 1965 to
1975 was 4,300 people. At the same time, service activities in the city
expanded in terms of state district administration, school work, social
work and health care. In 1970, an anti-aircraft battery from Kokkola was
transferred to the rural municipality, and in 1973, an air base from
Luonetjärvi to Häme, whose name was changed to Lapland air base. The
city's migration gain from 1965 to 1975 was 2,500 people.
Uitto,
which employed the residents of Rovaniemi, lived its heyday at the turn
of the 1950s and 1960s, when the forest industry in the north needed a
lot of raw material and the logging operations in Loka and Porttipahta
increased the amount of wood. The last swim took place in 1991.
Rovaniemi's cultural life has been lively in the post-war period,
compared to the size of the town, due to its position as a provincial
center. In 1949, a theater run by a support association was founded,
which operated in the old station restaurant until the completion of the
Lappia house in 1976. In 1962, the institution became a professional
theater supported by the state and the city, and in 1978, a permanent
regional theater.
At the end of the 1940s, a music college was
established in connection with the Rovaniemi free college, which
initially operated as a support association; however, after the end of
state aid, the college drifted into a crisis in the late 1960s, and the
city of Rovaniemi founded the municipal Lapland Music College in 1969.
The operation has since expanded so that the college has branches in
Sodankylä, Pello, Ranua and Posio. The music school has operated in the
Lappia building since 1972. In 1972, the Rovaniemi orchestra was
founded, where teachers and students of the music school and members of
the Garrison Band played. In 1973, the municipal string quartet started,
in the mid-1970s, the city established the position of a conductor, and
in 1982, the Rovaniemi city orchestra, with 13 players, started its
activities. The city orchestra initially performed in the church, the
Lappia house, the art museum and the Arktikum house, but today its home
is the Kulttuuritalo Korundi.
Literary life has also been lively.
Among the writers who started before the wars, A. E. Järvinen, K. M.
Wallenius and Annikki Setälä-Sundquist continued into the 1950s and 60s.
Prolific writers who started after the wars have been Annikki Kariniemi,
Jorma Etto and Oiva Arvola, in whose books northern themes have played a
significant role. Better known as a politician, Esko-Juhani Tennilä has
also written collections of poems and short stories. In the 1990s, Jari
Tervo brought Rovaniemi prominently into Finnish literature. Other
contemporary writers from Rovaniemi include Rosa Liksom, Paula Havaste
and Katja Kettu.
Rovaniemi Fine Art was detached from European
fashion trends for a long time, and the works were portraits painted in
a realistic style, Landscape paintings, etc. In the early 1960s, many
Lappish artists adopted informalism, which as a spontaneous style was
suitable for depicting Lapland's nature. In the same decade, other
abstract trends also entered the city's visual art life. However, with
the social upheaval of the 1960s and 70s, realism also reared its head
again, and artists depicted migration to Sweden, the desolation of the
countryside and unemployment. Significant visual artists who have
influenced Rovaniemi are Andreas Alariesto, Matti Saanio, Elsa
Montell-Saanio, Tapani Rantala, Toivo Turunen, Martti Isometta, Kari
Tuisku, Tuula Mukka, Otto Suutari, Seppo Öfverström and Eero Kumpula.
Administration
Rovaniemi was a town until January 1, 1960, when
it became one of the so-called "new towns" together with Hyvinkää, Salo,
Kouvola, Seinäjoki and Riihimäki. The University of Lapland (University
of Lapland since December 1990) was founded in 1979. In the same year,
the Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi started operating.
Rovaniemi and
Rovaniemi rural municipality merged on January 1, 2006. The name of the
new municipality became the city of Rovaniemi and its coat of arms was
the coat of arms of Rovaniemi rural municipality.
Near the center, on the south side of Veitikanharju, there is a
small, shallow and lush Harjulampi, one of the hundred best birding
spots in Finland. 85 species of birds have been found there, of which 32
(purlin, red-legged plover, little gull, etc.) nest regularly and 17
occasionally. Lammi's bird tower is located at the intersection of
Yliopistonkatu and Korvanranta, and there is a sign to get there from
the intersection.
About 100 kilometers east of the city area,
there is a waterfall called Auttiköngäs in the Auttijoki that flows into
Kemijoki, which is surrounded by a 3.5-kilometer long nature trail with
shelters. There are also historical floating dams and dams.
About
10 kilometers southwest of the urban area, on the slope of Sukulanraka
in Rautiosaari, near the Valajaskoski power plant, there are 14
hiidenkirnu. They were first explored and cleared in 1966-67, but local
residents have known about them for much longer. According to one folk
tale, the kirtu were made into defensive positions by a bishop from
Sweden who was coming with his entourage to visit Kemijokivarte. The
biggest butterflies got their names from stories. The biggest one is
about 15 meters deep and about 8 meters wide at its widest point,
Paholainen liemikirnu. The second big one is Hiiden's hidden cave, 9
meters deep and 6 meters wide at its widest point, located on the rock
above Paholainen liemikirnu. The third big one is Biispa Hemming's
kirnu, 10 meters deep and 2.5 meters wide. There is guidance for
Hiidenkirnu from the East side of Kemijoki.
In the Rovaniemi
area, there are more than a thousand lakes of at least one hectare.
Olkkajärvi, Norvajärvi, Vanttausjärvi, Sinetäjärvi, Perunkajärvi, Köyry
and Iso-Kaarni are among the largest in terms of surface area.
In
the southwest corner of Rovaniemi is the Pisavaara nature park, which
partly extends into the territory of Tervola municipality. Access to the
area requires a permit.
The area of the center of Rovaniemi in Korkalonniemi on the banks of
the Kemijoki has already had urban characteristics since the beginning
of the 19th century. In 1821, the vicar of Rovaniemi, Jacob Fellman,
described that small area as follows: "Looking from a distance at the
houses over the green meadows cut by the natural canals, they look like
a small town or market town. It is called the city of Pihkapor. I don't
know if the name comes from the wealth that existed in the village since
old times, where there have been 70 springs, or from the fact that the
houses there were clustered together, or from the fact that a market has
been held there since the days of the Pirkka people, or, most likely,
that it has been there for a long time made of resin and pitch."
Otherwise, Rovaniemi has been a rural landscape throughout almost until
modern times. Before the arrival of the Germans in 1941, Rovaniemi was,
with the exception of a few small areas in the center, a loosely built
entity resembling a country church village. Its wooden buildings were
Empire style peasant houses, or represented revival styles, art nouveau
and 1920s classicism. In addition, the town had quite a lot of
functionalist stone houses built in the 1930s. The site plan designed by
architect Oiva Kallio, completed in 1933, had begun to create an urban
look for the market; the site plan was based on large four-story blocks.
The large-scale construction works of the Germans compacted the
cityscape, and after they left, the compaction of the city continued,
even though they destroyed most of the buildings and structures when
they retreated. Today, Rovaniemi's cityscape mostly resembles an
ordinary densely built Finnish city. In addition to the architecture of
some key public buildings, the special quality of Rovaniemi is reminded
by the rivers and the surrounding gentle boreal landscape, as well as
the unique natural light, ice and snow of the north, which live with the
seasons.
The Rovaniemi urban area is located at the junction of
the Kemi and Ounasjoki. It is bounded by three high-rising dangers:
Korkalovaara in the west, Ounasvaara behind Kemijoki in the east, and
Syväsenvaara in the north behind the confluence of the rivers. In
addition, Pöyliövaara is located south of the city area along the
Kemijoki, and behind Korkalovaara is Vennivaara.
Three bridges
lead across the Kemijoki in the urban area. The southernmost of them is
the Ounaskoski railway and road bridge. The bridge was completed in
1934, and when retreating in 1944, the German troops destroyed it.
However, it was rebuilt after the war. To the north of this is another
bridge, Jätkänkynttilä, leading from the central area to the Ounasvaara
side. It was completed in 1989. The third bridge leading over Kemijoki
is the Suutarinkorva bridges leading from Ounasvaara to Saarenkylä,
which are located in Kemijoki before it joins Ounasjoki. There is a
railway bridge and a newer road bridge next to each other. The fourth
bridge crosses the Ounasjoki at the point where it joins the Kemijoki,
and connects the downtown area to Saarenkylä. It was completed in 1966.
A little outside the city area is the Saarenputaa bridge (built in 1925,
Kuusamontie).
The most significant concentration of public buildings in Rovaniemi
is located in the area bounded by Hallituskatu, Kemijoki, Jorma Eto tie
and Erottaja. The Lappia building (Jorma Eto tie 8 A), completed in 1976
and designed by architect Alvar Aalto, houses the music school, the city
theater and Yleisradio's Lapland regional office. The Lappia house also
hosts concerts and other public events. Aalto has also designed the
adjacent Rovaniemi city library, completed in 1965 (Jorma Eto tie 6),
which also serves as the provincial library of Lapland. The collections
of the library's Lapland section contain material about Lapland, the
Northern Cape, the Barents region and the Arctic regions. The department
houses the Finnish Sami special library and the Finnish central
collection of Greenlandic literature. Changing art exhibitions are
organized in the library's Lapponica hall. The third building in the
area is the town hall (Hallituskatu 7), completed in 1988, where the
town council holds its meetings; it was designed by Alvar Aalto's
architectural office. In addition, the center houses the police
department (Hallituskatu 1 A) and the office building. Between Valtakatu
and Ounaskoski, there is a building complex completed in 1947–1948,
which includes an office building, three three-story residential
buildings, and a two-story terraced house, which used to be the official
residence of the lord and representative offices. The swimming
association's house is also located in the area.
Kulttuuritalo
Korundi (Lapinkävijäntie 4) was renovated from an old post car depot and
opened in 2011. Korundi is a type of stone found especially in Lapland.
However, a part of the building has served as an art museum since
October 1986; the conversion of the premises from a post office depot to
an art museum was designed by architect Juhani Pallasmaa. Kulttuuritalo
is located next to highway 4, which cuts through the city center. There
are facilities for the Lapland Chamber Orchestra and the Rovaniemi Art
Museum.
The Arktikum house opened in 1992 (Pohjoisranta 4) is
located on the shore of Ounasjoki, where the University of Lapland's
Arctic Center, which popularizes northern science and research, and the
Lapland Provincial Museum operate. Arktikum also has a library open to
everyone. Next to the building is the science center Pilke, whose
special area is northern forestry. In Pöykkölä, about 3.5 kilometers
southeast of the center, there is the Lapland Forest Museum
(Metsämuseontie 7) and the Rovaniemi Homeland Museum (Pöykköläntie 4).
The Forest Museum describes the era of the great Savots in Lapland from
the 1870s to the 1960s and 1970s; in the museum area there are savotte
cabins, forest tools, floating equipment and forest machines from
different parts of Lapland. The main building of the Kotiseutu museum,
the shed and two sheds are from the 19th century and once belonged to
the Pöykkölä estate, and 13 log buildings from the Rovaniemi area have
also been moved to the museum area. The museum depicts a
hundred-year-old wealthy peasant house and its buildings.
Many of
Rovaniemi's significant public buildings are designed by Ferdinand
Salokangka, personal and original, and completed during the
reconstruction. These include, for example, a market building that is
now a hotel (built in 1949, Valtakatu 18), a fire station (1949,
Koskikatu 61), Ounaskoski secondary school (also known as a civic
school, 1954, Maakuntakatu 3-5, will be demolished in 2022), a central
school (1954, Pohjolankatu 23 ), teachers' residence (1954, Rovakatu 4),
Rantavitika school's teachers' residence (1950, Eteläranta 2) and the
former Vocational School and its dormitory (1961, Korvanranta 50).
The bus station (constructed in 1959, Lapinkävijäntie 2) is an
architecturally significant traffic junction, designed by architects
Kaarlo Leppänen, Niilo Pulkka and Pekka Rajala (architecture Aili and
Niilo Pulkka). Its architectural artistic main idea is the shape of a
fell in the roof structures and the entrance canopy, which describes the
city's identity; the same theme was later applied by Alvar Aalto in the
Lappia house. The station building and station yard were realized as a
result of an architectural competition, and the corresponding model of a
real estate company that gathers passenger services and the goal of
architectural quality were later followed in the Sodankylä and Kemijärvi
bus stations designed by the same architect office.
The Muurola
railway station, on the other hand, represented well the post-war
railway construction in the north. The unified whole of the station was
formed by the station building and two residential buildings with
outbuildings. The station building was destroyed in a fire in December
2014.
Rovaniemi Church, designed by architect Bertel Liljequist, was completed in 1950. It is located on the south side of the town hall, on the other side of the railway line. The predecessor of the current church was burned in the Lapland war on October 16, 1944. The church's red neon lighted cross aroused wonder and discussion long after the church was completed. Today, the cross is illuminated with red LED lights.
Most of the houses in the Rovaniemi urban area were destroyed when
the German troops retreated in October 1944. However, some significant
buildings remained:
the former station building (Poromiehentie 1)
was completed in 1909. After the completion of the new Kemijärvi line in
1934, the old station became a railway workers' apartment; in 1935, a
second station building was completed in Rovaniemi for the Kemijärvi
line, approximately at the current city library, but it was destroyed in
1944. After the war, the building has functioned as a post office, a
temporary railway station, a women's workshop, the Lapland Museum and
the Rovaniemi Art School. Nowadays the building is empty.
The station
master's house (Poromiehentie 6) was once located next to the railway
yard (today, the former railway yard is occupied by highway 4, which has
been dug into the ground). Today, a daycare center operates in the
building.
Alaruokanen's house (Valtakatu 8) represents typical
19th-century Peräpohja architecture. Originally, the red-mud house,
standing on stone blocks and with a log frame, was built by Aapo Frans
Ruokanen in the 1860s as his family's residence. Later, e.g. the stone
blocks of the foundation have been partially replaced with concrete and
three porches have been built into the house. In addition to the farm,
it has also operated, e.g. as a military drill, as a recruiting station
and during the Second World War as a German officer's club and command
post. Nowadays, it can be rented by the townspeople for their parties.
The post car depot (Lapinkävijäntie 4) was built in 1931–1933. As a
brick structure, it is a rarity in the architecture of old Rovaniemi.
After the war, the depot was expanded and apartments were also built for
the depot workers who lost their homes. Bricks collected from the ruins
of the city were used as building material. After the postal depot
ceased operations, the building was renovated to accommodate the
Rovaniemi Art Museum, which opened in 1986. The building changed to
Kulttuuritalo Korundi in 2011.
Marttiini's old factory (Vartiokatu
32) was built in 1940. It was partially destroyed during the wars, but
was repaired after them. It is the only old industrial building in
Rovaniemi that was spared from the destruction of the war. Today, the
building has office spaces, residential apartments, Marttiini's factory
store, and a medical center.
Tyttojen talo (Kansankatu 9) is a wooden
house from the beginning of the 20th century. The house once served as a
residence for the teachers of the nearby Kivikoulu, which was destroyed
in the Lapland war. Today, it functions as a space for gender-sensitive
youth work, which, except for open days, is only accessible to girls.
Raumankulma (Ainonkatu 3) was completed just before the wars as the
building of Ville Rauma's car shop. Today, there are shops and
restaurants in the building.
The building of Aho's car dealership
(Koskikatu 27) is still in place. Kukkola Yhtiöt OY currently operates
in Ahon Auto's premises.
Rautatieläinten talo (Poromiehentie 7) is
also known as the railway master's house, and it was completed in 1910.
Today, the house houses an interior decoration shop, and it is
surrounded by the Ratamasterin park.
The cooperative bank building
(Koskikatu 7) was built in 1936 as the building of Pohjola Osake-Pankki.
It burned from the inside in the destruction of Rovaniemi, but the walls
remained standing. There are business premises in the building, where
e.g. bank and real estate agent.
The steel stone house (Valtakatu 33)
was built in 1933. Its walls survived the war. The protected building
will remain part of the future "ten block".
The cooperative store
(Valtakatu 22) was built in 1933. It remained standing in the
destruction of Rovaniemi, destroyed from the inside. Sokos worked in the
building until 1993, after which there have been e.g. restaurants.
Kauppayhtiö's house (Valtakatu 24), the stone building of Rovaniemi
Kauppayhtiö Oy was completed in 1920 as a commercial building. It
partially burned down, but was rebuilt one floor higher than the
original.
The Uittoyhdisten house (Koskenranta 1) is located looking
north from the Ounaskoski bridge, behind the adjacent Niskanen house. It
was designed by Arkitehtoimisto Lappi – Seppälä – Martas, and it was
completed in 1937. The building is a gray two-story stone house and is
located in the district of the county government, which also has a
number of office and residential buildings built in the late 1940s.
Today, the building houses the Rovaniemi office of the Finnish Safety
and Chemicals Agency (Tukes).
The county hospital (Sairaalakatu 1)
was built in 1937 next to the old hospital. The old hospital was
destroyed in the winter war bombings on January 31, 1940. The county
hospital was also damaged in the war, but was repaired and today
functions as part of Sairaalakatu health center.
Nopanen's house
(Jyrhämänkuja 5) was the residence of Väinö Nopanen, who ran a goldsmith
and watchmaker's shop.
The Children's Hospital (Lähteentie 16) was
built at the beginning of the 20th century. It was damaged in the war,
but was repaired and served its original purpose for a long time. Today,
the Rovaniemi Steiner school is located in the building.
There are
some preserved buildings from the period before the Second World War in
the Sahanperä district.
The Communicable Disease Hospital
(Katajaranta 2) was built in the 19th century. The building has received
a demolition sentence.
Mylläri's house (Kiviniemenkatu 24) on
Katajaranna dates back to the 19th century, and is still owned and
inhabited by the family. The house with its courtyard is classified as a
significant cultural environment in the provincial plan. The yard circle
is characteristic of Perepohja style, bordered by buildings on three
sides. On its two sides are the former main building built at the end of
the 18th century (the oldest preserved building in the city area) and
the current main building (1820). The courtyard area also includes a
courtyard building built in 1939. The construction group is located
right next to the Kemijoki shore break.
Herva's house (Lukkarinkatu
16) was built in 1939. It is a three-story log house and contained
apartments for two families. More recently, one family lives in the
house.
Kallio's house (Kivikatu 6) is a four-apartment house designed
by architect Oiva Kallio, originally built in the early 1930s. In the
1980s, the house was renovated into a two-family house.
The district
of Kiiruna on the southern slope of Ounasvaara was born because the
Swedes donated 30 prefab wooden houses to the Rovaniemi township as a
result of a citizen's collection during the interim peace. When the gift
houses were completed in January 1941, plaques were attached to their
walls that told the origin of the houses. Most of the gift houses burned
down in the Lapland war along with the rest of Rovaniemi. Eight houses
were saved from destruction on Kiirunankatu and one house on Välikatu.
However, the nature of the area did not change after the war, as new
houses were built on the former stone foundations. The area between
Kiirunankatu and Laitakatu is currently protected by a plan.
Niemelä
talo (Pappilantie 75 A) in Viirinkanga was built in the 19th century as
the main building of the farm and represents the Perepohja style. Later,
the house served as a German military hospital during the Continuation
War, and as a public school until the 1950s. Today, the house is
available for rent for accommodation and various occasions.
Huvilatie
18 is a wooden house in Viirinkanga, built in the 1920s and used all
along by Mikko Heikinheimo and his family.
Pappliantie 56 was a
wooden house in Viirinkanga, its inhabitants were the Hyyryläinen
family. The house survived the war but burned down in autumn 2020.
Significant buildings and cultural environments have also been preserved
outside the urban area.
Hirvaa railway station was built in the
first decade of the 20th century. In addition to the stop building, the
building base of the former stop includes a residential building with
outbuildings. Birch groves lead from the stop to the nearby Hirva forest
school.
Körkö's group of houses in Lapinsuvanno on the Kemijokivarre
consists of three Pere-Pohjalian courtyards representing riverside
settlements, one built after the war, and a large number of sheds and
barns in an open agricultural landscape.
The village of Ruika is also
representative. One of the oldest farms in Ruika is Ala-Ruikka, whose
main building was built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Teljasuvano's floating base on the banks of Ounasjoki dates back to the
1920s. Close to the rocky beach, there is a pool for swimmers, a beach
sauna, a toilet, a storage room, and a litter box. The environment is a
modest reminder that Rovaniemi has been the "cradle of dude culture".
Marrasjärvi is an example of early villages built outside the main
riverbanks and routes, whose building stock dates back to the period
before the war in Lapland. The village's building base is mainly
inherited from the 1770s, but there is also the Nätyng shed, built in
1735 and moved from elsewhere. Ollila farm was founded in the 1790s. The
most unified building groups are Kenttälä, Kallio, Kaishannu, Rauhala
and Niemelä, as well as the separate Ylitalo. Many of these form intact
yard circles.
Located on the isthmus between Lake Olkkajärvi and
Olkkalammi, the courtyards of Kenttäharju and Keskitalo or Kenttälä
estates (founded in the 1850s) represent Perepohja peasant construction
at its most typical. In addition to residential buildings, there are
several farm-related buildings in Pihipiiri. Kenttäharju's main building
is from around 1860, and Keskitalo's mansard-roofed main building is
from the 1920s. In the Kentäkannas area, there is one of the largest
field ruins in Northern Finland. In the vicinity of the central
building, there is also a summer barn with a pyramidal roof, typical and
necessary for northernmost Finland. The area has been inhabited since
the Stone Age, and as a reminder of the fishing grounds built in the
17th century, there are remains of fish huts and their stoves. According
to tradition, the area was once the home of the Forest Sámi people.
After the Second World War, Rovaniemi has also demolished buildings
that survived the destruction of the war:
the station restaurant of
the railway station (Hallituskatu 9), completed in 1935, was used by the
Rovaniemi theater for a long time after the wars. The house was
demolished in the 1980s. Today, there is a grass field and a number of
flagpoles.
Along Valtakatu, Huhtala's house, Konttinen's house and
two other houses remained on the south side of Alaruokanen's house (see
above), and Ruokanen's house on the north side. Today, there are
apartment buildings in place of the houses on the south side, and the
Court of Appeal of Rovaniemi is located in the place of Ruokanen's
house.
Valtonen's house, pharmacist Valtonen's detached house with a
mansard roof, located at Rovakatu 26, was demolished in 1956 to make way
for a building called Kauppakero, which is located on the site today.
Ainonkatu 4, located opposite Raumankulma, the house of Aino Poikela
(from whom Ainonkatu gets its name) who owned the cinema Inaria (from
which Ainonkatu got its name) was also spared from the destruction, but
was later demolished and today there is an apartment building built in
the 1960s.
The Heikkilä house and the Vuoristo house were residential
buildings between today's Pekankatu and Ruokasenkatu, and they were the
few residential buildings in the area that were spared destruction.
Today, there are apartment buildings in their place.
Aho's houses,
both white in color, were located at the intersection of Rovakatu and
Koskikatu.
The Karjapohjola house (Koskikatu 25) was completed in
1939, and was demolished in 1986 to make way for the Revontulikeskus
shopping center located on the site today.
Autti's kaljatehdas
(Koskikatu 1) was located opposite the hotel Pohjanhov. It was founded
by Kalle and Siina Autti, but in 1933 it became part of the Tornio
Porter and Beer Factory, or Lapin Kulta. During the war, only the walls
of the building remained standing, but Lapland's gold rebuilt the roof
and the interior and continued making drinks into the 1970s. Today, the
hotel Rantasipi is located on the site.
The Saastamoinen house,
located on the northern edge of Vanhantori, was the main building of the
merchant Robert Saastamoinen's group of houses, in addition to which the
house's garage was also spared from the destruction of the war. The
house was demolished in the 1960s. Today, there is an apartment building
on the site.
On the western side of Vanhantori, the Handicraft School
and Gråsten's house were spared from the destruction of the war
(approximately at the current Korkalonkatu 37 and 39). The craft school
ended up being used by schoolchildren who returned from evacuation in
1945. Today, apartment buildings built in the 1970s and 1980s are
located in their place.
Close to Lainaanranta, the house of shoe and
clothing merchant Jussi Puhaka was preserved, as well as Eevi Ämmälä's
house between ferry beach and saharanta, where municipal meetings were
held at the turn of the 20th century.
The Rauhanyhdisten house is
still located on the site of the Rauhanyhdisten house (Ruokasenkatu 3),
but the current red brick apartment building was built in the 1960s.
A detached house with a mansard roof built in 1935 was located at
Vartiokatu 13. It was demolished in the early 1980s, and an apartment
building built in the 80s is located on the site.
Quite a lot of
buildings from the pre-war era were preserved in Sahanperä. On
Ounasjoenti, only a few houses at the beginning of the street were
burned. Preserved houses were e.g. Ounasjoentie 11 and 13 (Kähkönen's
house), where these are now apartment buildings; Heikkinen house group:
Ounasjoentie 10-12 (currently Pilke museum and parking lot); Niininen's
house (Ounasjoentie 9), now block of flats; Palmu house (Ounasjoentie
7), now block of flats; Tukkipojantie 17 (newer detached house on site).
Another of Kallio's houses (Kivikatu 8) was built of wood, designed by
architect Oiva Kallio and completed in the late 1930s. Interesting
details of the house were e.g. the round windows in the attic and the
original floor plans of the apartments. The house was demolished in
1985.
The General's House, located in Viirinkanga, built by the
Germans as a staff building during the war, fell into bad shape in the
1960s and was demolished in the 1970s because the city council deemed it
too expensive to repair.
Among the architects active after the Second World War, Alvar Aalto
and Ferdinand Salokangas have had the most significant influence on
Rovaniemi's building stock and streetscape.
Korkalonrinte's small
and high-rise apartment complex - known by local residents as Tapiola -
was designed by Alvar Aalto, built in the late 1950s and early 60s, and
consists of two four-story apartment buildings (Sompiontie and
Poroelontie) and three two-story townhouses (Sompiontie, Tanhuantie and
Poroelontie). . The area has made it to the Finnish Museum Agency's list
of nationally significant built cultural environments.
Maison Aho
(Pohjolankatu 32) is a detached house designed by Alvar Aalto. The
building was commissioned in 1964 by Aarne Aho, and it was completed the
following year based on Aalto's sketches and the client's suggestions.
The building has made it to the Finnish Museum Agency's list of
nationally significant built cultural environments, as well
Aho's
residential apartment buildings Koskikatu 18 (built 1959), the
integrally connected Koskikatu 20 (built 1962) and Jaakonkatu 3 (built
1963) were designed by Alvar Aalto.
Inapolku 3, an apartment building
designed by Ferdinand Salokangka.
Ferdinand Salokangka's residence
and studio building (built 1953, Karhunkaatajantie 24).
The row
houses on Evakkotie (Evakkotie 73) were designed by Timo and Tuomo
Suomalainen and were originally built for the personnel of the Finnish
Defense Forces in the 1960s (completion year 1970). The compact area
consisting of 12 terraced houses (126 apartments in total) is located on
the southwest side of Korkalonrinte.
The Pirttikoski power plant
complex consists of a concrete power plant (built in 1960), excavated
rock cuttings, a housing area for workers built on the West Bank of
Kemijoki in the 1950s (twelve townhouses, a total of 65 apartments) and
a terraced house in Luusuanpirti, which is located on the west side of
the power plant along the roads, designed by Kai Blomstedt and Birger
Stenbäck.
Sculptures, works of art and monuments
A list of
public works of art in Rovaniemi can be found on the website of the city
of Rovaniemi. Near the Jätkänkynttilä in the center is the Jätkä statue,
sculpted by Kalervo Kallio and completed in 1955, depicting a lumberjack
peeling pine logs. On May Day, the guy gets a white cap on his head and
the students sing May Day songs at the base of it. Next to the
elementary school in the center, on Pohjolankatu, there is the
Aseveliketju, a memorial to the Swedish and Norwegian volunteers of the
winter war, designed by Bengt Lissegård and completed in 1964, which
consists of a statue and a fountain; the statue, on the other hand,
consists of four large chain links, which symbolize the countries of
Scandinavia. The monument to the reconstruction of Lapland 1944–1955,
known by the townspeople as Pulututka, is located on the slope next to
the railway station; it was made by the sculptor Kari Huhtamo, and it
was unveiled in 1981. In front of the town hall is Kain Tapper's
sculpture Vuorten synty, which was completed in 1988. Alvar Aalto's
Aurora Borealis sculpture on the wall of the apartment building at
Koskikatu 18–20 shows the northern lights and jumping salmon, and is
from 1962 .
There are three sculptures by professor Ensio
Seppänen (1924–2008) from Kemläinen in Rovaniemi. One of them is the
Jääkärilikuen monument completed in 1981 (Jääkäripuisto, opposite
Lapinkävijäntie 31). The name of the sculpture is Katkenneet kahliete
and it depicts Finland breaking away from Russian rule. The pale,
upright stone in the center depicts independent Finland, a liberator
that has broken the shackles of its former master, Russia. Other
sculptures designed by Ensio Seppänen in Rovaniemi are the 1965 memorial
to those who died in Sweden's evacuees erected in memory of the members
of the Rovaniemi parish, which is located in Rovaniemi's second
cemetery, and the beginning of life with milk erected by the Lapland
County Agricultural Center, which was completed in 1984 and is located
in Herva park.
Other than works of art are also monuments. Next
to the railway station, along Ratakatu, there is an old steam locomotive
as a monument to railway activity. There is a Folland Gnat fighter plane
and two anti-aircraft guns as an air defense monument in Somerharju
along Norvati.
In Norvajärvi, about 20 kilometers north of the
center, there is a red granite chapel designed by the German architect
Otto Kindt built in 1959–1963 on the initiative of a German veterans
organization, the Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof, which serves as a memorial
and cemetery for German soldiers who fell in northern Finland during the
Second World War. In its vestibule there is Ursula Qerner's sculpture
"Mother and Son", in the hall there are eight rows of limestone with the
information of about 3,000 German soldiers buried in the basement below
the hall. Norvajärvi also has a cemetery for the Norwegians who
participated in the winter war as volunteers and died there.
Rovaniemi is the official hometown of Santa Claus. Santa Claus spends
time in Pajakylä every day of the year. It can be seen and heard in the
city's streetscape, the Arctic Circle and Finland's third busiest
airport in terms of passenger numbers. There are also events, safaris
and places to visit such as Arktikum, Science Center Pilke, Joulupukin
Pajakylä and Santa Park at the Arctic Circle. The vocalist and founder
of the 2006 Eurovision winning band Lord Tomi ”Mr. Lordi" Putaansuu is
from Rovaniemi. In December 2006, Lordi's Rocktaurant was opened in
Rovaniemi. The restaurant was closed in the summer of 2011 and today a
new restaurant is operating in its premises.
The Ounasvaara ski
center is located near the city center, there have been recreational
activities in the Ounasvaara area since 1927. Skiing has been practiced
in Rovaniemi since 1943. Today, Rovaniemi is also easy to travel by
public transport.