Origins Archaeological findings have shown that the region around Kiruna has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years. Centuries before Kiruna was founded in 1900, the presence of iron ore at
Kiirunavaara and
Luossavaara had been known by the local
Sámi population. In 1696, Samuel Mört, a bookkeeper of the
Kengis works, wrote on rumours about the presence of iron in the two hills. The ore became better known after it was reported by Mangi, a Sámi man, in 1736 to Swedish authorities that had gathered in
Jukkasjärvi Church. Despite the findings of large amounts of ore, no mining was initiated because of the remote location and the harsh climate. Some ore was extracted in the 19th century. It was extracted in summer and transported in winter, using sleds drawn by
reindeer and
horses. However, the costs were high and the quality of the
phosphorus ore poor, until, in 1878, the
Gilchrist–Thomas process, invented by
Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and
Percy Gilchrist, allowed for the separation of phosphorus from the ore. electric locomotive passing Vassijaure In 1884, a concession for a railway from
Luleå to
Narvik was granted to
The Northern Europe Railway Company. The provisional railway between Luleå and
Malmberget was finished in 1888 and the first train left Malmberget in March. Around the same time, the English company went bankrupt and had to sell the line to the Swedish state for 8 million
Swedish crowns, around half the amount initially invested. After a significant rebuild, the railway to Gällivare could be used again and iron ore was extracted at
Malmberget by Aktiebolaget Gellivare Malmfält (AGM). At the initiative of Robert Schoug, the
Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) was founded in 1890. In 1893, Gustaf Broms became CEO of both LKAB and AGM. LKAB pressed for continuing
Malmbanan via Luossavaara and Kiirunavaara to the ice-free coast of Norway. The continuation of the railway line to
Narvik was controversial, because opponents feared the influence of
Russia (then controlling
Finland and already connected to Sweden at
Haparanda–
Tornio) on an international railway line. The decision to build was finally taken in 1898. The railway came to Kiruna 15 October 1899 and the Swedish and Norwegian sections were joined 15 November 1902. For LKAB, the great expense almost led to bankruptcy in 1901, just after the ore mining at Kiirunavaara had started.
King Oscar II only opened the railway line 14 July 1903, preferring summer over winter to travel north. The architects Per Olof Hallman and Gustaf Wickman were appointed to design the city, to be built at Haukivaara, near both iron ore mines, with then-revolutionary consideration of geographical and climatological circumstances; being built on a hill, winter temperatures are much milder than in other towns, and due to the street plan and the positioning, wind is limited. On 27 April 1900, Hallman's plan was officially accepted. Gustaf Broms proposed to name the settlements
Kiruna, a short and practical name that could also be pronounced by Swedish-speaking inhabitants. The name means
rock ptarmigan in Sámi and Finnish. LKAB appointed
Hjalmar Lundbohm, who had finished neither high school nor his geology studies, as local manager in Kiruna.
Early history Before the design for the settlement had been accepted, houses were built in a disorganized manner with illegal
slums similar to those in the other mining town,
Malmberget, south of Kiruna. Also, provisional buildings served as a church, a school, a hospital, a hotel and a police station. However, official residences were built at a high pace, and when the king opened the railway in 1903, all illegal residences and most other provisional buildings had been demolished and replaced. The very first building,
B:1, is preserved and can be seen at
Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården. In 1899, 18 people were registered as living in soon-to-be Kiruna. This increased to 222 in 1900, 7,438 in 1910 and 12,884 in 1930. The residences did not fully keep up with this rapid growth; by 1910, there were 1,877 official rooms and some unrecognised residences, which meant that an average of three to four people lived in a single room; this density decreased steadily during the decades to follow. Kiruna became a municipalsamhälle (a community within a municipality) in 1908. This caused unhappiness in local organisations, such as
Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Arbetareförening, that had hoped for status as
köping, which would have kept more of the mining income inside the locality. In return, the mining company LKAB paid for a hospital, fire station, sewerage, roads, a church (opened 1912) and the priest's home. During the first decades of Kiruna's existence, no road connected it to the outside world. The only connection was by railway or, as in the time before the railway, by boat (in summer) via the
Torne and
Kalix rivers to
Jukkasjärvi and Håmojåkk and then proceeding by foot. A road from Kiruna was built to Tuolluvaara in 1901, Poikkijärvi in 1909, Alttajärvi in 1913 and connected to
Svappavaara in 1926, from where roads already connected via
Vittangi to
Pajala and via Lappesuando to
Gällivare and further south. In the early 1920s a movement that became known as "Kirunasvenskarna" (the
Kiruna Swedes) decided to emigrate to
Soviet Russia, the land where they hoped for better working conditions and higher wages and general standards. They were the last Swedes who emigrated in groups. Most of these emigrants lived in Kiruna prior to their move.
World War II The municipality of Kiruna shares borders with Norway and Finland and Kiruna is located relatively close to both countries. This led to many soldiers being transported to the area whenever mobilisation was requested; first in September 1939 after the German
invasion of Poland, then in November 1939 after the
Russian invasion of Finland, but in both cases, Swedish soldiers did not engage in any fighting. In March 1940, Churchill requested permission to transport soldiers from Narvik in Norway to Finland via Kiruna and Haparanda in
Operation Catherine. Out of fear that the presence of British soldiers near the Kiruna ore mine would provoke a German attack on Sweden, the request was declined. After the
German invasion of Norway, at least ten soldiers were stationed along every bridge along
Malmbanan, to blow up the bridges should the German army invade Sweden. Additionally, foreigners were banned from visiting Kiruna or the iron ore line, and only the
Sami, military personnel, locals and people working for the government were permitted to travel between Kiruna and Riksgränsen. Germany requested that Sweden provide use of the railway network to transport military equipment, but the Swedish government agreed only to
transitering av human karaktär, men ej underhåll till stridande trupp (transit of humanitarian character, but no supply of fighting soldiers). Germany argued that, now that Norway was occupied, the German soldiers there were no longer fighting, and thus transported a large amount of military equipment, ammunition and, secretly, troops from southern to northern Norway, via Malmbanan and Kiruna. Troops were often transported in transports declared as material transports. Despite being strictly against the rules, there was considerable interaction between the German soldiers and the Swedish locals, including trading and football matches.
Post-war In 1948, Kiruna gained city rights and started to receive large amounts of money from the mine. The city centre was renovated starting in 1953; most buildings built before 1920 were demolished and replaced, and many of the buildings built in the following period lasted into the 2000s. The town grew and new neighborhoods were built, as well as new apartment buildings and villas in existing neighborhoods. The area is known as
Lombolo and was built in the 1960s. On 10 November 1960,
Kiruna Airport opened to separate civilian air traffic from the military airplanes that had landed at Kalixfors airport and at
Luossajärvi since World War I. A road to
Nikkaluokta was opened in 1971 and to
Riksgränsen and
Narvik in 1984. The latter had been debated heavily, for alternative plans existed to build the road to Norway on the northern side of
Torneträsk, via Laimo, Kattuvuoma, Salmi to
Innset and
Bardu in Norway. This road was never built, but a 25 km long track between Laimo and Salmi was built at the initiatives of the locals and finished in 1962; however, this track, called Talmavägen, is not connected to any other road. The Kiruna
Icehotel has been built in
Jukkasjärvi each winter since 1990 and is a major tourist attraction.
The 20th century urban transformation The re-development of Kiruna is a reconstruction project, as the Kirunavaara mine, run by
LKAB, undermines the existing town centre. Several buildings are to be moved or demolished. The town center is to be moved to the east. In 2004, it was decided that the present centre of the municipality would have to be relocated to counter mining-related
subsidence. The relocation was to be made gradually over the coming decade. On January 8, 2007, a new location was proposed, northwest to the foot of the
Luossavaara mountain, by the lake of
Luossajärvi. The first actual work on moving the town was done in November 2007, when work on the new main sewage pipe started. In the same week, the first sketches for the layout of the new part of the town became available. The sketches include a travel centre, the new locations for the city hall and the church, an artificial lake, and an extension of the Luossavaara hill into the city. The location of the new section of the
E10 was still uncertain, as was the location of the
railway and the railway station. A more official sketch was published early in spring 2008, which was then discussed with various interest groups before a further version was to be produced. In June 2010, the municipal council decided that the town would be moved eastwards (to ), in the direction of Tuolluvaara, instead of the proposed northwestern location. The moving of the town was started in 2014, and the plan describes a process that continues to 2100. In the years 2012-2013, an international architectural competition concerning the vision, strategy, and design of a new city centre for a new Kiruna was arranged by the Municipality of Kiruna in partnership with the Swedish Association of Architects. White Arkitekter AB, based in
Gothenburg, together with Ghilardi + Hellsten Arkitekter, based in
Oslo, Spacescape AB, Vectura Consulting AB, and Evidens BLW AB, won the competition with their masterplan and strategy for moving the city. The competition team was led by White Arkitekter AB, lead architect Mikael Stenqvist, SAR/MSA, in collaboration with Ghilardi + Hellsten Arkitekter, lead architect Ellen Hellsten. Together with researchers from Luleå and Delft universities, it envisages a denser city centre with a greater focus on sustainability, green and blue infrastructure, pedestrians, and public transport rather than automobiles. In 2018, the Swedish government announced that it would help arrange replacement work for radio corporation
Radiotjänst after the city had been moved from its original location. Starting in 2013, Danish explorer and photographer
Klaus Thymann began a long-term project documenting the resettlement of the town. Using GPS-tagged imagery, he has returned multiple times since, replicating precise locations to show the changing landscape. In 2017 Thymann returned again to Kiruna to document the redevelopment of the town for Bloomberg Businessweek. In August 2025,
Kiruna Church was relocated towards the new centere as part of the LKAB town move. The 113-year-old building is protected by the Sweden Cultural Heritage Act and was transported in whole to prevent damage. Again, the process was documented by photographer
Klaus Thymann. == Geography ==