The Arctic University Museum of Norway

The Arctic University Museum of Norway offers exhibitions on Arctic biodiversity, Sámi culture, and polar exploration, featuring a botanical garden and a café.

Planning your visit

The Arctic University Museum of Norway in Tromso covers the far north across natural and cultural history. The Sami collections are the most significant part — Tromso sits within Sapmi, and the museum holds substantial material on Sami religion, the drums used by noaidi shamans and largely destroyed during forced Christianisation, reindeer herding, duodji craft, and the assimilation policies of the Norwegian state.

The northern lights exhibition explains the physics, useful in a town where thousands arrive each winter hoping to see them and where a scientific account improves the experience considerably.

Arctic biodiversity, Viking-age archaeology from northern Norway, church art and polar exploration fill the rest, and the museum maintains the world's northernmost botanical garden nearby, growing arctic and alpine plants from around the world.

The museum is a research institution of the university rather than a tourist attraction, and the presentation reflects that in a good way.

Bookable options include private tours. Current availability is listed below.