Kemi Snow Castle

The SnowCastle of Kemi is built every winter. The first SnowCastle, built in 1996, was a gift from the UNICEF and the City of Kemi to all children in the world. The idea for building the SnowCastle in Kemi arose from the fact that even though snow is a very common aspect for the Finns, for the majority of children in the world it is still quite a strange or even an unknown element, and yet, utterly interesting: what snow looks like, how it feels and how it tastes, are factors to fascinate the young and old alike. The first SnowCastle of 1996 with its 1100 metre long walls made the Guinness Record Book as the world's first SnowCastle with long walls.

Every January, from these historic years onwards, a SnowHotel, a SnowRestaurant, a SnowChapel and the Children's World within white snowy walls are constructed. The SnowCastle is open every year from the end of January to the beginning of April. At the Inner Port, the part of Kemi where the SnowCastle is located during the winter, there are cafes, bars and cosy restaurants as well as the lushly green Meripuisto-park right by the lightly salted waters of the Gulf of Bothnia for visitors to enjoy in the summertime. For the SnowCastle 2010 21 000 m3 of snow was needed, which corresponds to the amount of 2 100 lorry-truck-loads. The SnowCastle area is 4 900 m2, which is the area of about one and a half football-fields.