Get in
By plane
SAS have seven flights per day from Stockholm Arlanda to Kallax Airport, with a flight time of about 1 hour 10 minutes. Kallax lies about 5km from Luleå city centre, which is accessable via shuttle bus or taxi.
There are also scheduled flights to Kiruna/Tromsö (Nordkalottflyg), Pajala (Nordkalottflyg), Umeå/Östersund (Nordic Regional), Gothenburg (City Airline), Sundsvall/Borlänge (Direktflyg) and Murmansk/Archangelsk (Archangelsk Airlines).
By train
Luleå is the easternmost point in the Swedish rail network. Night trains connect to Stockholm along the eastern coastal line. The Malmbanan railway line goes up to Narvik in Norway via towns of Kiruna, Gällivare and Boden. Note that the line ends in Narvik and does not link to the rest of the Norweigan rail network.
By bus
The gap in the rail network between Finland and Sweden is covered by buses, which are free with most railpasses. The journey to the Finnish border at Tornio/Haparanda takes 2.5h, and onward to the Finnish railhead at Kemi another half hour.
Get around
A fast, cheap and comfortable way of getting to the different parts of the city, is by using the local bus traffic (LLT).
At weekends you should be able to catch a night-bus from most local traffic bus stations about once every hour between 0.00 and 3.00, at a raised cost.
Learn
Luleå Teckniska Universitet (Luleå Technical University, LTU) was established in 1971. Its faculties now include Engineering, Computer Science, Music, Wood Technology, Business, Mining and Space Science.
Sleep
Get out
Luleå (, lʉːlɛo), in Lule sami, Luleju, is a city (pop. 45,467) in Norrbotten in northern Sweden. It is the seat of Luleå Municipality, the capital of Norrbotten County and an episcopal see.
Geography
The town is situated on a peninsula where the Lule Bay meets the Gulf of Bothnia; the bay stretches north-west and becomes the Lule River, allowing sea way transportation across the county. The ground area is 2110 square kilometres.
The harbour of Luleå is of particular significance for iron ore from LKAB's mining in Kiruna and Gällivare/Malmberget. During the winter, sea traffic continues at virtually unchanged rate with the assistance of ice breakers (Luleå is the home port of the Swedish ice breaker armada).
Archipelago
The archipelago of Luleå consists of approximately 800 islands. By winter several of the islands are possible to reach by car over the ice.
History
Luleå was an important harbour already in medieval times, in the 13-15th centuries.
The Royal charter was granted in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. It was situated where Gammelstad (Old Town) is situated today. The town had to be moved in 1649 to the current site, due to the land elevation that had made the bay too shallow for ships to enter.
The Church Village of Gammelstad is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In 1887, a devastating fire destroyed most of the town, sparing only a few buildings. The Neo-Gothic Cathedral (originally the Oscar Fredrik church), dedicated in 1893, is at 67 meters the tallest building in town.
The Diocese of Luleå was created in 1904, by breaking out of the diocese of Härnösand. A bishop took its seat there, and the church was declared a cathedral (Luleå Cathedral). The diocese is Sweden's largest, covering the counties of Västerbotten County and Norrbotten County, basically everything north of Umeå.
Of nonconfirmist churches, Laestadianism is the largest.
Business and commerce
Luleå's commercial and industrial life has many strong sides. Presently it consists of a mix of industry, research and education, know-how, public- and private services, trade and service.
The University's educational programmes have made Luleå interesting for both students and businesses. These programmes have induced new businesses as well as local offices for multinational corporate groups.
Major employers in the city are the SSAB steelworks and Luleå University of Technology. A Swedish Air Force wing, F 21 (or Norrbotten Air Force Wing), is stationed near Luleå neighbouring Luleå Airport. Other major employers are Ferruform (a subsidiary of Scania) and Gestamp HardTech (overtaken from SSAB 2005-01-01).
Climate
Despite the northern localisation of the city the climate can be considered as relatively mild, see table below.
Media
Newspapers
Culture
Luleå has a rich variety of cultural institutions, among them Norrbottensteatern, Norrbottens museum and Norrbotten big band under the lead of Tim Hagans. In January 2007 the Cultural house (Kulturens hus) was opened. In one place library, concerts and art exhibitions are housed.
Sports
Luleå has many sports teams competing in a variety of sports, inclusing association football (Lira Luleå BK and IFK Luleå), ice hockey (Luleå HF, who play in the Elitserien) and basketball (Plannja Basket for men and Luleå Basket for women; Plannja has won Basketligan 7 times, which is a record).
Shopping
The number of stores and malls has grown strongly the last years. Except the fact that the city is housing one of the worlds first indoor malls, Shopping, there are also the malls Strand, Smedjan, Folksamhuset and the first "youth-galleria" of Sweden, Storgatan 61, located in the city center.
In the town center there are mainly two shopping streets, Storgatan and Kungsgatan.
Outside the city, within the industrial area of Storheden, a new shopping-area has evolved. Some of the shops located here are Coop Forum, H&M, Överskottsbolaget, Willy:s, Ica Maxi, Rusta, On Off, Lindex, Intersport, BlendShe, Jula and Expert.
The Luleå municipality is the fastest growing shopping area in Sweden.
UNESCO World heritage
Sons and daughters of the city
External links
