Icehotel

Two hundred kilometers (125 miles) north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden sits the Icehotel. More accurately, for about half the year the Icehotel sits there, near the River Torne and the village ofJukkasjδrvi. For the Icehotel is literally made of ice created from the meter thick layer that covers the river. Each spring the hotel melts and returns from whence it came. T

hWhat started as a one room hotel to serve visitors making the trek to the inaugural Art-ic exhibition in 1989 - an exhibition planned to lure tourists to the area in the months when they usually stayed away - the Icehotel now has nearly 50 rooms, as well as a bar, cinema, and chapel (click for plan). If sleeping in a hotel whose walls, columns, roof, and even furniture are entirely made of ice weren't enough, over forty artists and designers contribute designs to the suites and outdoor spaces.

l oLike snowflakes and the hotel itself (whose design is attributed to Ake Larsson), the chapel is never the same twice. This year's design round dome with apses. Five "ice pillars" carry the dome's load and allow light to enter into the large igloo-like space. According to the designers, the theme is one of "creation through vegetation in the Weave of Life, the Tree of Life and Omfalos; the the center of the world and its navel." The chapel has been used for weddings in the past, making for a truly unique ceremony...and honeymoon.perators like to say "the entire Icehotel is on loan from the mighty Torne River."

READ MORE

Icehotel