Samevistet - The Sami Camp

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Samevistet - The Sami Camp is a Historic and Protected Site and Other Great Outdoors at 981 07 Abisko, Sweden

Samevistet, the Sami Camp, is a small open-air heritage site at Abisko, tucked among the birch woods near the mountain station. It recreates a traditional camp of the Sámi, the Indigenous people of northern Scandinavia, whose homeland of Sápmi stretches across the far north of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. Here stand the turf huts and pointed tent dwellings known as goahti and lávvu, along with storehouses raised on posts and the wooden enclosures once used in reindeer herding. That herding has long been at the heart of Sámi life in these mountains. Interpretive signs explain how families followed the reindeer between seasonal grazing grounds and made a living in one of Europe’s harshest climates. The northern lights belong to that story too. For thousands of years the aurora has been woven into Sámi daily life and folklore, and on dark winter nights it still appears above these fells, at around 68°N in the clear skies of the Abisko area, just as generations watched it before.