The sculpture walk in the city centre includes 13 works of art. The route is 2.5 kilometres long and takes about an hour to get around on foot. You can find descriptions and photos of the artworks in the menu below...

The second railway station became necessary, when the train connection to Kemijärvi was constructed. The photo shows people waiting for the train transporting President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud to arrive at the station...

This fresco in Rovaniemi Church depicts a cross-section of the hearts of every human as well as that of humanity, where the struggle between good and evil takes us either to the source of life to meet Christ or away from it, to walk our lives in our own direction. The backdrop to the human figures in the fresco is the rugged and majestic Lapland, from where the light of the world, Christ, emerges in his circle of light. The artist visited Switzerland, Germany and, of course, Lapland as part the design process of the fresco. After one trip, Segerstråle wrote: "Often the spark comes from the locality itself and the conditions from which the motifs of the piece are drawn." This local influence can be clearly seen in the landscapes, nature, people and situations depicted in the fresco...

Located in Herva park, the sculpture Maidolla elämisen alku was completed in 1984 and commissioned by the Lapland provincial agriculture institute. The artist, Ensio Seppänen, is one of Finland's best-known realist sculptors. He has created more than a hundred works exhibited in public places. His works can be mainly found in Northern Finland, Sweden and Norway...

A memorial erected in 1965 in memory of members of the Rovaniemi parish who died in Sweden as refugees of war is located in Rovaniemi's second cemetery...

We are now at the building used by the Geological Survey of Finland. Here, there used to be remains of steps of German buildings and ditches before the research institute's building was constructed. The area was a popular children's playground with plenty of wartime junk left behind. At the site of the research institute was a prison with walled cells used by the security agency Sicherheitsdienst for German prisoners...

In 1987, the City of Rovaniemi hosted a sculpture competition to obtain sketches of ideas for a sculpture for the new City Hall. The sculpture had to adapt to Alvar Aalto's architectural ensemble and symbolise the city of Rovaniemi. Kain Tapper won the contest with the sculpture Vuorten synty. According to Tapper, the sculpture depicts the rise of Rovaniemi after the war...

The fairytale trail consists of 6 waypoints. At each waypoint, people walking the trail stop to read a short chapter of the fairytale and use their senses to do activities centred around the themes of the tale. The length of the trail is approximately 800 metres each way and takes a little under an hour to complete, not counting time spent at waypoints. The Ounasvaara Birch is a fairytale by Annikki Setälä...

The Rovaniemi Civic Centre is, alongside Seinäjoki, the only completed urban center designed by Alvar Aalto in Finland. As early as 1961, the preliminary sketches for the library building included two other structures, which ultimately formed a seamlessly interconnected complex for administration and culture. The buildings are arranged in a fan-shaped layout on a park-like square known as Kansalaistori (Citizens' Square). The center's buildings open towards the city center...

Shopkeeper A. E. Tuisku had a shop along Maantiekatu and a house on the shore of River Kemijoki. Tuisku being a local force served as a municipal foreman in municipal administration in 1897–1899 and as the foreman of the municipal board in 1912...

The frame of the sculpture is formed by a massive steel plate, where two dimensions transform into three as the reindeer turns and "walks out" of the sculpture. In this way, both the positive and the negative of the reindeer can be seen in the same piece. The figures form a sculptural ensemble that changes when viewed from different angles. The material used in the piece is a massive steel plate weighing about 600 kilograms...

Maantiekatu used to be the main road of Rovaniemi.  Over 30 shops varying from hardware shops to delicatessens were located along the street in the 1910s, not to mention the Rovaniemi markets. This photograph taken from the old church’s tower shows buildings on Maantiekatu; at the front are the post office and Ida Hannula’s book and paper shop, the Konttinen Manor is visible in the background...

Although Rovaniemi was accessible by rail in the 1910s, northbound road connections from Rovaniemi were still rather modest. Steamboats Wiiri and Wanttaus transported passengers upstream from Lainaanranta along rivers Kemijoki and Ounasjoki in the 1910s. When cars became more frequent, the boat connections were considered slow and were terminated at the end of the 1920s...

The hall of the local workers’ association built in part as voluntary work by loggers served as the headquarters of the Red Guards during the Finnish Civil War in 1918. In February 1918, the White Guards had a strong hold on Rovaniemi and the local workers’ association did not get the hall back for their own use until 1920. The building burnt down during the Lapland War in 1944, but a new hall was built at the site in 1949...