Luleå, Norrbotten County, Norrbotten Province, Sweden

🇸🇪 Luleå is a city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå is the seat of Luleå Municipality. Luleå is Sweden's 25th largest city and Norbotten County's largest city.

Luleå has the seventh biggest harbour in Sweden for shipping goods. It has a large steel industry and is a centre for extensive research. It is also home to the Swedish Air Force Wing Norrbotten Wing (F 21) based in Luleå Airport. Luleå University of Technology is one of Sweden's three technology universities (the other two are KTH and Chalmers) and the northernmost university in Sweden. The university has approximately 15,000 students.

History The town's Royal charter was granted in 1621 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The original town was situated where Gammelstad (Old Town) is situated today. The town had to be moved in 1649 to the current site, due to the post-glacial rebound that had made the bay too shallow for ships to enter.

The Gammelstad Church Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 1805, Luleå only had 947 inhabitants, but in 1865 Luleå succeeded Piteå as the county town in Norrbotten county and now had around 1400 residents. In the 1860s the industries also started taking root in the city.

The town has been plagued by fires in 1653, 1657 and in 1887, and the fire in 1887 was a devastating fire that destroyed most of the town, sparing only a few buildings. The Neo-Gothic Cathedral (originally the Oscar Fredrik church), dedicated in 1893, standing at 67 meters (220 ft), is the tallest building in town.

Geography Residential areas • Bergviken • Björkskatan • Centrum • Hertsön • Kronan • Lerbäcken • Lulsundet • Lövskatan • Malmudden • Mjölkudden • Notviken • Porsön • Skurholmen • Örnäset • Östermalm.

Localities • Bergnäset • Gammelstaden • Karlsvik.

Economy Luleå's commerce and industry are a mix of industry, research, education, trade, and services.

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 at the neighbouring Luleå Airport. Other major employers include Ferruform (a subsidiary of Scania AB) and Gestamp HardTech (acquired from SSAB 2005-01-01).

Economy: IT industry The information technology industry in Luleå has about 2000 employees (2008).

Luleå is the home of several major innovations and technological milestones. • Broadcast radio: RDS, DAB, DARC (1992–1997) • The Luleå algorithm for routing (1997) • Living Labs: leading European service testbed with 6000 users (2001–) • Marratech: pioneers in Internet-based E-meetings (1998–) – acquired by Google, releasing in November 2008 video-chat support in Gmail • Arena project, IT in Sports: sensors, handheld wireless video (1999–2002) • Estreet project: First large-scale mobile marketing experiment (2000) • On 27 October 2011, Facebook announced it would locate its first data centre outside of the United States in Luleå. The whole facility is made up by a set of three 28,000 m² (300,000 sq ft) buildings. The first building was to be operational in 2012. The establishment will help turn the Luleå region into a major node for European data traffic. The town's northern location and that it will become a hub for data traffic in Europe has generated a new epithet for the Luleå region – The Node Pole. The Node Pole region provides stable, low-cost electricity that is 100-percent derived from renewable sources. In addition, there are benefits of low cooling expenses, given that the region is one of the coolest in Sweden. Sweden's long political stability is another long-term benefit of the Node Pole's location.

Economy: Facebook expands into Luleå The new European computer centre in Luleå is Facebook's first investment outside of the US. Some of the reasons that Facebook choose Luleå were because of natural cooling due to the climate, cheap electricity, reliable electrical networks, and clean energy. The data centre is the largest in Europe, with 84,000 m² (900,000 sq ft) which is comparable to 11 football fields.

The computer centre will process large amounts of data through thousands of computers working as one. The establishment of Facebook in Luleå has also led to other companies realizing the potential of establishing in Luleå. The positive effect has also been noticeable at the university where the applications rate has risen by 18 percent — Luleå Science Park has also had an increase of 25 percent of new established companies.

Media Newspapers include: • Norrbottens-Kuriren • Norrländska Socialdemokraten.

Transport: Public Public transport in Luleå is operated by Luleå Lokaltrafik and consists of five main bus lines, an additional five bus lines, and direct connection bus traffic and night bus service. From Luleå Bus station, Länstrafiken i Norrbotten operates several regional bus lines within Norrbotten County.

Transport: Air Luleå Airport (IATA: LLA, ICAO: ESPA), located 7 km (5 mi) south of the city centre, is the fifth largest airport in Sweden, with about 1.2 million yearly passengers. It is the largest airport in Norrland. The domestic route to Stockholm Arlanda Airport is the third busiest domestic route in Sweden with over 1 million passengers per year. Luleå Lokaltrafik operates connections to and from Luleå Airport via Line 4 and 104.

In total, there are seven scheduled destinations and about 15 additional charter destinations. The Stockholm Arlanda Airport route is operated by Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle and serves the vast majority of passengers at the airport with about 16 daily connections each way. Scandinavian Airlines also operates a direct connection to Göteborg Landvetter Airport.

Nextjet operates connections to and from Göteborg Landvetter Airport via Höga Kusten Airport, and their Tromsø Airport – Oulu Airport route lands at Luleå airport on some departures. Jonair offers connections to Pajala Airport.

Transport: Rail Vy Tåg operates a night train services northbound for Kiruna and Narvik, and southbound for Stockholm. Norrtåg operates train services from Luleå to Umeå, Kiruna and Haparanda.

Economy: Retail The world's first indoor mall was opened in Luleå in 1955 (architect: Ralph Erskine) and was named Shopping. There are two other malls in Luleå: Strand and Smedjan. The main shopping streets in Luleå are Storgatan and Kungsgatan. A few km outside Luleå there is a shopping centre called Storheden.

Culture Luleå has a variety of cultural institutions, among them Norrbottensteatern; Norrbottens Museum; and Norrbotten Big Band led by Tim Hagans. In January 2007 the Cultural House (Kulturens Hus) was opened. A library, concerts, and art exhibitions are all hosted here.

Luleå is also home to hardcore punk band Raised Fist, melodic death metal band The Duskfall, power metal band Machinae Supremacy and death 'n' roll band Helltrain.

One of the largest winter festivals in Luleå is the indoor Minus 30-festivalen, held at Kulturens hus (the House of Culture) annually on a Saturday in mid-March.

Luleå Hamnfestival (Luleå harbor festival) is a big summer event in the centre of Luleå, mostly centered around the north harbor. The festival has been a recurring event each summer since 2013. Held in July, it is a free event not targeting a specific group. The festival is the new version of Luleåkalaset which was held each summer from 2002 to 2012, which itself replaced sjöslaget, the summer festival from 1988 to 2002.

Musikens makt (The power of music) is a smaller, free music festival that is held each summer in August at Gültzauudden since 2010.

Ice music is a new art form where professional musicians play on instruments made out of ice. The concerts are performed in a huge igloo and the instruments pulsate in all the colors of the rainbow.

Luleå is the base for the Norrbotten Band of the Home Guard Music which concists of voluntary musicians from Norrbotten County's Home Guard.

Sport Luleå has many teams competing in a variety of sports.

Four teams in Luleå compete in the highest Swedish leagues: Luleå Basket (female basketball team, previously called Northland Basket); BC Luleå (male basketball team, previously named Plannja Basket and LF Basket Norrland); and Luleå Hockey/MSSK (Munksund-Skuthamns Sportklubb) (female ice hockey team) and Luleå Hockey (male ice hockey team).

Luleå Basket has won two Swedish championships (2014 and 2015), while BC Luleå has won eight Swedish championships (1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2017). Luleå Hockey/MSSK female team won their first Swedish Championship in 2016 while the male Luleå Hockey team has won one Swedish Championship in 1996, the European Trophy in 2012 and the Champions Hockey League in 2015.

Sport: Football • Bergnäsets AIK • Ersnäs IF • IFK Luleå • Lira BK • Luleå SK • Notvikens IK

Ice hockey • Luleå HF play in the Swedish Hockey League • Luleå HF/MSSK play in the SDHL

Basketball • BC Luleå, formerly LF Basket Norrbotten and Plannja, for men and Luleå Basket for women.

Yukigassen The Swedish Championship in Yukigassen is held in Luleå annually.

UNESCO World Heritage • Gammelstad Church Town.