Luleå has the seventh biggest harbour in Sweden for shipping goods.[6] It has a large steel industry and is a centre for extensive research. It is also home to theSwedish Air Force WingNorrbotten Wing (F 21) based inLuleå Airport.Luleå University of Technology is one of Sweden's three technology universities with around 15,000 students and is the northernmost university in Sweden.
An engraving of Luleå New Town fromSuecia Antiqua et Hodierna. The most prominent buildings are the church and the town hall.
The town's Royalcharter was granted in 1621 by KingGustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The original town was situated whereGammelstad (Old Town) is situated today. The town had to be moved in 1649 to the current site,[7] due to thepost-glacial rebound that had made the bay too shallow for ships to enter.
The Gammelstad church
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 was plagued by fires in 1653, 1657 and 1887, and the fire in 1887 was a devastating fire that destroyed most of the town, sparing only a few buildings. TheNeo-Gothic Cathedral (originally the Oscar Fredrik church), dedicated in 1893, standing at 67 meters (220 ft), is the tallest building in town.
Living Labs: leading European service testbed with 6000 users (2001–)
Marratech: pioneers in Internet-based E-meetings (1998–) – acquired byGoogle, releasing in November 2008 video-chat support inGmail
Arena project, IT in Sports: sensors, handheld wireless video (1999–2002)[citation needed]
Estreet project: First large-scale mobile marketing experiment (2000)[citation needed]
On 27 October 2011,Facebook announced it would locate its first data center 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.[10] 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.[11] The Node Pole region provides stable, low-cost electricity that is 100-percent derived from renewable sources. In addition, they cite the benefits of low cooling expenses, given that the region is one of the coolest in Sweden. Sweden's long political stability is cited as another long-term benefit of the Node Pole's location.[12]
Luleå has asubarctic climate (Dfc) with short, mild to warm summers and long, cold, snowy winters.
Luleå's climate is influenced both by theNorth Atlantic and the proximity to theGulf of Bothnia and it has a milder climate than most cities on the same latitude and even some that are further south inCanada,Alaska,Northeast China andSiberia. During the summer in June and July the temperature in Luleå can some days rise to around 30 °C (86 °F). Summers are very bright, with marginal twilight being the only exception during thesummer solstice.
From September to March,northern lights can be seen if the sky is clear.[13]
Climate data for Luleå, 1991–2020 averages; extremes since 1944; sunshine hours and snow depth 2002-2020
Public transport in Luleå is operated byLuleå 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 withinNorrbotten County.
Luleå/Kallax 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.[21] It is the largest airport inNorrland. The domestic route toStockholm Arlanda Airport is the third busiest domestic route in Sweden with over 1 million passengers per year. There are about 15 daily flights to and from Stockholm.[22]Luleå Lokaltrafik operates connections to and from Luleå/Kallax Airport via lines 4 and 104.
In total, there are seven scheduled destinations and about 15 additional charter destinations. TheStockholm Arlanda Airport route is operated byScandinavian Airlines andNorwegian 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 toGöteborg Landvetter Airport.
Luleå has rail lines coming from both north and south.[23]SJ operates night train services northbound for Kiruna and Narvik, and southbound for Stockholm.Norrtåg operates train services from Luleå to Umeå, Kiruna and Haparanda.
The world's first indoor mall[25] was opened in Luleå in 1955 (architect:Ralph Erskine) and was namedShopping. There are two other malls in Luleå: Strand and Smedjan. The main shopping streets in Luleå are Storgatan and Kungsgatan. A few kilometres outside Luleå there is a shopping centre called Storheden.
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 center 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 theHome Guard Music which consists of voluntary musicians from Norrbotten County'sHome Guard.
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); andLuleå Hockey/MSSK (Munksund-Skuthamns Sportklubb) (female ice hockey team) andLuleå Hockey (male ice hockey team).
Players in Luleå Hockey
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 two Swedish Championships (1996 and 2025), the European Trophy in 2012 and the Champions Hockey League in 2015.
