Äiti Lappi

The area of Lapland is very big, more than twice the size of Switzerland and as big as Hungary. There are more reindeer than people in Lapland. Sweden, Norway and Russia are Lapland’s neighbours.
Rovaniemi became the administrative centre of the former Province of Lapland (1938-2009) - nowadays same area known as Lapland's current province. Rovaniemi covers a very large area of 8,016 km2, nearly one fourth of Switzerland and almost as big as Cyprus.
The former State Provincial Office of Lapland, nowadays Regional State Admistrative Agency — designed by architect Vilho Olavi (Olli) Saijonmaa — is an officially protected building. After the Second World War, the building, which was completed in 1947, functioned as a vibrant and diverse cultural centre, hosting a large number of art exhibitions, jumble sales and all kinds of bigger events.

The Regional State Administrative Agency

On the former Province of Lapland’s coat of arms (1997-2009), displayed on the wall of the building, there is a wild man girdled in oak leaves and bearing a golden club. The figure is a reminder of the policies of the conquest of the North carried out by King Charles IX of Sweden (1550–1611, king since 1604) and of the design by the German court architect of that time, when the wild man was a very popular decorative motif. On the second part of the coat of arms there are running ermines.

Hannele Kylänpää’s statue Mother Lapland from 1989 towers over the garden. Despite its considerable height (7 m), the piece is ethereal. There are several post-functionalist buildings from the reconstruction period in the area. These buildings constitute a stylistically uniform ensemble.

The Province of Lapland’s coat of arms
(1997-2009)

The "Mother Lapland" statue
created by Hannele Kylänpää 1989