About the museum

Norrbottens museum is the county museum in the largest county of Sweden, regarding area. Norrbotten has a diverse landscape that stretches from the coast to the mountains, with a cultural history that stretches over 10,000 years. The county is a multicultural environment, characterized by Sami, Tornedalen Finnish, Finnish, Swedish and immigrant culture.

At the museum you find the following fields; cultural environment protection, archaeology, ethnology, documentation, library, archive, photo archive and museum collections, educational activities, and comprehensive exhibition and programme activities. Norrbottens museum runs activities in the whole region and cooperates with all municipalities in the region.

The mission of the museum is to collect, mediate and develop the cultural heritage of Norrbotten. The museum promotes culture of the past and of the present, diversity, the open public dialogue and the knowledge of today and tomorrow.

Norrbottens museum is one of the basic units of Kultur och utbildning (Culture and education), Avdelningen för regional utveckling (The department of regional development), Region Norrbotten.  

Norrbottens museum is located in two places

Norrbottens museum Centrum (city centre) is the main building of the museum, containing exhibition and programme activities, museum café and museum shop.

Norrbottens museum Björkskatan includes activities within cultural environment, photo archive and museum collections, archive & library and registration.

Norrbottens museum, Luleå city center

The exhibitions at Norrbottens museum depict Norrbotten, cultural heritage and the surrounding world. Present time culture, cultural history, art and documentary projects are all parts of the content. With current topics, historical narratives, culture and society as a starting point, museum visitors of any age are offered displays of exhibitions, workshops and lectures.

The museum café, with coffee, home-made coffee cakes, lunch sandwiches and free WiFi, is an inspiring environment for relaxation. In the museum shop you will find handicraft articles from Norrbotten and literature about and from Norrbotten.

Norrbottens museum, Björkskatan

In our archive and library, we collect archival documents and literature about the history of the region and the museum activities in the fields of archaeology, building conservation, ethnology, handicraft, art, cultural environment and various industries. We work in cooperation with Norrbottens föreningsarkiv, who preserves and mediates the association history of the region.

The museum photo archive contains more than 2 million images that reflect the people and the development of society in Norrbotten.

In the museum collections there are archaeological, cultural-historical and art historical items that represent various epochs in the history of the region. The age difference between the oldest and the youngest item is 11,000 years.