Jukkasjärvi, Sweden
Icehotel
Each spring the building softens, slumps and runs back into the Torne River. Each winter it is raised again from ice cut out of that same river.
The village is Jukkasjärvi, a short drive from Kiruna and some two hundred kilometres past the polar circle. A first ice structure appeared here in 1989; a fresh one has risen every season since.
Most people make the trip for the art suites. Each season, invited artists from many countries take a room apiece and shape it, so a night's sleep becomes a night inside a sculpture. You lie on a slab of ice under reindeer hides, zipped into a bag built for sub-zero air, and warm rooms next door cover the rest of the visit.
Summer visitors are not left out. Icehotel 365, a permanent structure opened in 2016, holds ice suites all year, its cooling run on solar panels.
- Torne River ice
- Commissioned art suites
- Rebuilt every winter
- Icehotel 365
- Swedish Lapland