"In Swedish Lapland, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle, lies the village of Jukkasjärvi on the River Torne. Jukkasjärvi in Saami (Lappish) means "meeting place ", which is what the former Saami village has been for half a millennium.

ICEHOTEL, now in its thirteenth year, is continuing its successful and celebrated career as the world's biggest hotel made entirely of ice and snow. From its modest beginnings as a single room thirteen years ago, ICEHOTEL has grown to 5,000 square metres built of 30,000 tons of snow and 4,000 tons of ice.
In the winter season 2001/ 2002, more than 14,000 guests spent the night in ICEHOTEL and 37,000 day visitors walked in through the reindeer-skin covered doors. In this 60-room wintry fairy-tale land, there is a hotel reception, hall of pillars, Iceart exhibition, ABSOLUT ICEBAR, Icehotel cinema, the fantastic Icechurch and of course hotel rooms. In the evening, the guests assemble in ABSOLUT ICEBAR to have a drink "in the rocks" from iceglasses sculpted from the ice of the River Torne.

A new chapter began in winter 2003 with the construction of "Ice Globe Theatre" - a replica of Shakespeare's "Globe Theatre" on the Thames in London. The project attracted large numbers of guests to the region. The building was a highly interesting challenge in its own right, and the goal was to unite that bastion of the Thespian arts, The Globe, with the beauty and magic of ICEHOTEL.

Of ICEHOTEL itself, the sculptors save just a few works of art from the preceding winter season in the Art Center, and the rest of the hotel is left to melt away. Nature's own short-term gift gives an opportunity to experiment with form, space, and technique every year; and just like snow flakes, no two ICEHOTELS are ever identical. The beauty, and the parts we are not completely happy with, run back into the River Torne and make way for next winter's version of ICEHOTEL. From this river, the ideas of the summer shall find expression in the creations of the coming winter.
From the river came the ice, and to the river it shall return; all that will remain are memories." [Via icehotel.com]