Arktikum Museum, Science Centre Pilke and Korundi House of Culture

Even if you only visit one indoor attraction in Lapland, make it Arktikum. Situated a ten-minute walk north of Lordi's Square on the bank of the Ounasjoki river, Arktikum forms a trio with neighbouring Science Centre Pilke and the red-brick Korundi House of Culture; if you plan to visit at least two of them, buy the combined Culture Pass (Kulttuuripassi) at the ticket desk, valid for seven days across all three venues.

1. Arktikum (Provincial Museum of Lapland & Arctic Centre, Pohjoisranta 4)

Designed by Danish architects Birch-Bonderup & Thorup-Waade and opened in 1992, Arktikum's exhibition halls are buried underground for natural thermal insulation, linked down the centre by a sweeping 172-metre-long tubular glass atrium that points like a compass needle straight toward the north and bursts out of the river embankment. The building houses two permanent institutions under one roof:

• The Provincial Museum of Lapland (Northern Ways): presents a deeply respectful, detailed chronicle of the indigenous Sámi people across Sápmi (including traditional bone, silver and horn handicrafts, reindeer herding and the different Sámi languages and gákti dress codes across Inari, Utsjoki and Enontekiö), alongside scale models of pre-war wooden Rovaniemi and poignant documentary footage of the October 1944 wartime evacuation and burning of the town.
• The Arctic Centre (University of Lapland): interactive science galleries explaining how animals and plants survive at -40°C under the snowpack, the physics of the Northern Lights (with a lie-down Aurora theatre), changing sea ice and the geopolitics of the eight Arctic nations. Do not miss the bright Nordic lunch buffet in the Arktikum Café, designed with birch furniture and red brick.

2. Science Centre Pilke (Right Next Door to Arktikum)

Housed in a warm, award-winning building constructed almost entirely from northern Finnish timber right beside Arktikum's car park, Pilke is an interactive science centre dedicated to the boreal forest. Adults and children alike can climb into the cab of a real full-size forestry harvester machine, test wood acoustics and see how bio-materials from trees replace plastics.

3. Korundi House of Culture (Lapinkävijäntie 4)

Installed inside a 1933 red-brick postal bus depot, one of the very few buildings in Rovaniemi to survive World War II, Korundi houses the Rovaniemi Art Museum (showcasing bold, colourful contemporary Finnish and Lappish art) and the acoustically celebrated concert hall of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra.