Arktikum Science Centre and Museum

Arktikum in Rovaniemi, Finland, is a science centre and museum offering immersive exhibitions on Arctic research, Lapland’s history, and northern nature.

Planning your visit

Arktikum in Rovaniemi is architecturally memorable before anything else: a 172-metre glass tube extending from a low building out toward the Ounasjoki river, so that visitors walk up a lit glass corridor with the sky above — designed so the northern lights can be watched from inside in winter.

It houses two institutions. The Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland covers the circumpolar north as a scientific and political subject: climate change, indigenous peoples across eight arctic nations, resource extraction, and the physics of ice and light. The Regional Museum of Lapland covers the province's own history, including Sami culture and the destruction of Rovaniemi in 1944, when retreating German forces burned the town almost completely — a fact that explains why the modern town looks as it does, rebuilt to an Alvar Aalto plan.

Rovaniemi markets itself as Santa's hometown, and Arktikum is the serious counterweight to that.

Bookable options are entry tickets. Current availability is shown below.