Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi Roavvenjárga (Northern Sami) Ruávinjargâ (Inari Sami) Ruäʹvnjargg (Skolt Sami)
Municipality
Rovaniemen kaupunki Rovaniemi stad City of Rovaniemi
Clockwise from top: the Rovaniemi Church, the Rovaniemi Airport, the Santa Claus Village, downtown Rovaniemi, a view of the city from Ounasvaara, the Arktikum Science Museum, and aurora borealis in Someroharju.
Coat of arms
Nickname(s):  Arctic Capital, Hometown of Santa Claus
Location of the Rovaniemi municipality (in red) in the Lapland region and the Rovaniemi sub-region (in yellow)
Rovaniemi Location of Rovaniemi in Finland
Coordinates: 66°30′N 025°44′E / 66.500°N 25.733°E / 66.500; 25.733Coordinates: 66°30′N 025°44′E / 66.500°N 25.733°E / 66.500; 25.733
Country	Finland
Region	Lapland
Sub-region	Rovaniemi sub-region
Charter	1960
Government
• City manager	Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio
Area  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	8,016.75 km2 (3,095.28 sq mi)
• Land	7,581.97 km2 (2,927.41 sq mi)
• Water	434.75 km2 (167.86 sq mi)
Area rank	5th largest in Finland
Population  (2021-03-31)[2]
• Total	63,618
• Rank	17th largest in Finland
• Density	8.39/km2 (21.7/sq mi)
Population by native language [3]
• Finnish	97.6% (official)
• Swedish	0.1%
• Sami	0.2%
• Others	2.1%
Population by age [4]
• 0 to 14	16.3%
• 15 to 64	63.8%
• 65 or older	19.9%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Municipal tax rate[5]	21.5%
Website	www.rovaniemi.fi

Rovaniemi (UK: /ˈroʊvənɪərmi/ ROH-və-neer-mee,^[6] Finnish: [ˈroʋɑnie̯mi] (listen); Northern Sami: Roavvenjárga [ˈroɑ̯vveˌɲaːrːka]; Inari Sami: Ruávinjargâ; Skolt Sami: Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Peräpohjola. It is situated about 6 kilometres (4 miles) south of the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the river Kemijoki and its tributary, the Ounasjoki. It is the second-largest city of the Northern Finland after Oulu, and, together with the capital city Helsinki, it is one of Finland's most significant tourist cities in terms of foreign tourism.^[7]

The city and the surrounding Rovaniemen maalaiskunta (Rural municipality of Rovaniemi) were consolidated into a single entity on 1 January 2006. Rovaniemi municipality has an approximate population of 64,000. The urban area of Rovaniemi has a population of 53 361, in an area of about 59 km² (23 sq mi). Rovaniemi is a unilingual Finnish-speaking municipality and, uncommonly for larger Finnish towns, it is also known by its Finnish name and spelling in the Swedish language.

The coat of arms of Rovaniemi was designed by Toivo Vuorela. Its explanation is “in the green field, a silver pall with light-height upper branches; accompanied by a golden flame in the upper corner“.^[8] It was originally approved on August 15, 1956 by the Rovaniemi Rural Municipal Council and confirmed on October 26 at the Ministry of the Interior as the coat of arms of the Rovaniemi Rural Council.^[9]

Name[]

The rova part in the name Rovaniemi has often been considered to be of Saami origin, as roavve in Northern Saami denotes a forested ridge or hill or the site of an old forest fire. The niemi part of the name means "cape". The name of the town in the Saami languages spoken in Finland are Inari Sami: Ruávinjargâ, Northern Sami: Roavenjárga and Roavvenjárga and Skolt Sami: Ruäʹvnjargg.

History[]

Periodic clearance of new land for agriculture and the practise of slash-and-burn cultivation began around 750–530 BC. Artifacts found in the area suggest that an increasing number of travellers from Karelia in the east, Häme in the south and the Arctic Ocean coast in the north must have come there from 500 AD onwards. The Sami are considered to be Lapland's most indigenous existing population.

It is first mentioned by name in official documents in 1453, existing effectively as a set of small villages whose inhabitants earned their living mainly in agriculture and animal husbandry—with fishing and hunting the most important offshoots.^{[citation needed]}

The exploitation of Lapland's natural resources in the 1800s boosted Rovaniemi's growth. Extensive logging sites and gold fever attracted thousands of people to Lapland. As the mining of natural resources was increased, Rovaniemi became the business centre of the province of Lapland.

Second World War[]

Play media

Rebuilding Rovaniemi in 1949

During the Second World War, Finland signed the Moscow Armistice and found itself involved in the Lapland War with its former German ally. Retreating German forces utilised scorched earth tactics, and though initially German General Lothar Rendulic ordered only the public buildings in Rovaniemi to be destroyed, on 13 October 1944 the German army received orders to destroy all the buildings in Rovaniemi, only excluding hospitals and houses where inhabitants were present.^[10]

While the German rearguard was going about the destruction, an ammunition train in Rovaniemi station exploded and set fire to the wooden houses of the town. The German troops suffered many casualties, mainly from glass splinters. A Finnish commando unit claimed to have blown up the ammunition train and may well have been the primary cause of the town's ruin. The cause was then unknown and generally assumed to be the deliberate intent of Rendulic.^{[citation needed]} During these hostilities 90% of all the buildings in Rovaniemi were destroyed.^[11] There is a German cemetery 19 km from Rovaniemi where soldiers killed fighting in Lapland during the war are buried.

Although there has been continuous human settlement in the Rovaniemi area since at least the Stone Age, few of the buildings date back before 1944 since most of the city was destroyed during WWII. When the city was rebuilt, it was designed with input by famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who planned the city's footprint in the shape of a reindeer's head, with the city roads forming the antlers, and the local sports stadium as the reindeer's eye.^[12]

Modern day[]

Rovaniemi in 1999

Christmas celebration in Rovaniemi, November 2004

Since Rovaniemi is the capital of the region of Lapland, many government institutions have their offices there. About 10,000 of the inhabitants are students. Rovaniemi is home to not only the University of Lapland but also the Lapland University of Applied Sciences (formerly known as the Rovaniemi Polytechnic), which comprises institutes of information and traditional technology, business, health and social care, culinary studies, forestry, rural studies, and sports. Local newspapers include the Lapin Kansa, Uusi Rovaniemi and Lappilainen.

Rovaniemi's most prominent landmarks include the Jätkänkynttilä bridge with its eternal flame over the Kemijoki river, the Arktikum Science Museum which rises out of the bank of the Ounasjoki river, the Rovaniemi city hall, the Lappia Hall, which serves as a theatre, concert hall, and congress centre, and the library.

The last three mentioned buildings are designed by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. The Arktikum Science Museum is a comprehensive museum of Finland's, and the world's, Arctic regions.

Tourism[]

Because of the unspoiled nature of the area and numerous recreational opportunities, tourism is an important industry in Rovaniemi. The city has a number of hotels and restaurants located both in the centre and on the outskirts of the town, hosting over 481,000 visitors in 2013.^[13]

Rovaniemi is also considered by Finns to be the official home town of Santa Claus.^[14][15][16] It is home to the Santa Claus Village at the Arctic Circle and SantaPark Arctic World, which is located 8 km (5 mi) north of the centre.

Directly across the river from the town is the Ounasvaara ski centre. The top of the Ounasvaara hill bears the site of some of the earliest known human settlements in the area.

A phenomenon also attracting numerous tourists is the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. In Finnish Lapland, the number of auroral displays can be as high as 200 a year whereas in southern Finland the number is usually fewer than 20.

Transport[]

Rovaniemi railway station

VR Group, the Finnish state railway system, operates direct daytime and overnight passenger trains from Rovaniemi Station to Oulu, Tampere, Helsinki and Turku. Diesel-powered passenger trains operated northeast of Rovaniemi to Kemijärvi until March 2014, when electrification to Kemijärvi was completed. Rovaniemi Airport is located about 10 kilometres (6 mi) north of the Rovaniemi city centre, and it is the third-busiest airport in Finland after Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and Oulu Airport.^[17] The busiest time for the airport is in the Christmas season, when many people go on Santa Flights.^[18]

Steam Locomotive VR Class Tk3 1147 at Rovaniemi railway station

Geography[]

Climate[]

Due to its location near the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi has a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) with short, pleasant summers, while the winters are long, cold and snowy. The city lies just south of the 0 °C (32 °F) mean annual isotherm, but freezing in the soil is very limited even during the winter due to typical heavy snow cover. Its extreme northerly location combined with frequent overcast skies leads to very low levels of sunshine in the winter months; December averages just under six minutes of sunshine daily.

Winters are somewhat modified by marine air from the North Atlantic Current that ensures average temperatures are less extreme than expected for an inland area at such a northerly latitude. On 26 April 2019, Rovaniemi recorded its warmest April day on record with 19 °C (66 °F).^[19]

From 1 to 6 July 2021, Rovaniemi recorded 122 hours of continuous sunshine, which is a new world record. The sun shone continuously from 02:00 on 1 July 2021 to 04:00 on 6 July 2021. The previous record was 112 hours and 10 minutes at Cape Evans, Antarctica from 16-21 November 1911.^[20]

Rovaniemi in January 2004

Santa Claus' Village

Aurora Borealis

The average annual temperature in Rovaniemi is 0.9 °C (33.6 °F). Snow stays on the ground 175 days a year on average. The lowest temperature ever recorded at the airport is −38.1 °C (−37 °F), recorded on 28 January 1999. However, on the same day temperatures as cold as -47.5 C were recorded at nearby weather stations.^[25] The highest temperature ever recorded is 32.2 °C (90 °F), recorded on July 18, 2018 at the railway station.^[26]

Despite the fact that Rovaniemi experiences polar day between 7 June and 6 July (30 days) it does not experience polar night. However, the sun barely gets above the horizon in the winter.^[27]

Twin cities[]

Rovaniemi is twinned with:^[28]

• Ajka, Hungary
• Alanya, Turkey
• Cadillac, Michigan, United States
• Drvar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Grindavík, Iceland
• Harbin, China
• St. Johann in Tirol, Austria
• Kassel, Germany
• Kiruna, Sweden
• Murmansk, Russia
• Narvik, Norway
• Neustrelitz, Germany
• Olsztyn, Poland
• Veszprém, Hungary

Famous inhabitants[]

• Jari Tervo, author
• Harri Olli, ski jumper
• writer Timo K. Mukka died in Rovaniemi in 1974.
• Snowboarder and 2005 Winter X Games gold medalist Antti Autti is a Rovaniemi native, and in April 2005 he received his own piece of land in the city for being named to the 2006 Finnish Olympic team.
• Tanja Poutiainen Alpine skier
• World champion snowcross winner is a Rovaniemi native.
• Tomi Putaansuu, better known as Mr. Lordi lead singer of the hard rock band and 2006 Eurovision Song Contest winner Lordi.
• Nätti-Jussi ("Pretty John"), legendary lumberjack and forester.
• Progressive rock band Absoluuttinen Nollapiste
• Antti Tuisku, singer.
• Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is said to be the residence of Father Christmas.^[14][15][16]
• The black metal band Beherit came from Rovaniemi.

In popular culture[]

A 1996 Christmas episode of Tots TV called "Lapland Out" took place in Rovaniemi.

The 1998 Spanish romantic film Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los amantes del Círculo Polar), by director Julio Medem, partly takes place in Rovaniemi.

Rovaniemi appears in the video game Tom Clancy's EndWar as a possible battlefield. In the game, Rovaniemi houses military facilities critical to a missile shield for a European Federation.^[29]

Rovaniemi is a central scene in a documentary film Reindeerspotting.

TV-Star Bam Margera and his friends travelled to Rovaniemi in their film in order to find Santa Claus who is assumed to live in Rovaniemi.

A version of the music video for Lordi's song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" was filmed near Rovaniemi for the opening of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest.^[30]

The video for the Nightwish single "The Islander" was filmed in Rovaniemi by Stobe Harju.

Rovaniemi used to have the northernmost location of any McDonald's in the world^[31] until the opening of a McDonald's in Murmansk in 2013, 23 years after it first opened in that country.^[32]

Rovaniemi appears as one location of Gavin Lyall's 1963 book The Most Dangerous Game, a spy-thriller set in Lapland and the northern USSR.

Sports[]

Rovaniemi's Keskuskenttä, home ground of RoPS

The city is home to the football clubs Rovaniemen Palloseura, or RoPS, part of the Veikkausliiga, the Finnish premier division, and FC Santa Claus, part of the third division; to the ice hockey team Rovaniemen Kiekko, or RoKi, whose home arena is Lappi Areena and which currently competes on Mestis, the second-highest league in Finland; and to the volleyball team called Team Lakkapää (formerly Rovaniemen Santasport and Perungan Pojat), which plays in the Finland Volleyball League and won the national championship in 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2011.

Rovaniemi has hosted several international ski competition, including the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1984, several FIS Nordic Combined World Cup and FIS Ski Jumping Continental Cup events, the 2005 FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships, the 1970 Winter Universiade and the 2008 Winter Transplant Games.

See also[]

• Pilke House
• University of the Arctic

Other populated places of Lapland[]

• Kemi
• Sodankylä
• Tornio

References[]

Notes[]

Further reading[]

• "The dark, ruined city that became the home of Christmas" (Video and Text). Quest's World of Wonder (CNN Travel).
• Rikkinen, K. A Geography of Finland. Lahti: University of Helsinki (1992)
• Rovaniemi: Arctic Circle – Finland. Helsinki: Oy Sevenprint Ltd (1998)

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rovaniemi.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Rovaniemi.

• City of Rovaniemi – official website
• Satellite view of Rovaniemi