Posted by We reach the town of Jokkmokk which is sort of the Sami capital of Sweden – we hurried a bit to go to the museum before it closes – but unfortunately it closed very early today so we can’t get inside. The trip to Jokkmokk wasn’t completely wasted since it was still possible to visit the outside of the museum.
Gåthie at the Sami museum of Jokkmokk 
Turf building outside the Sami museum 
Storage shed in front of the museum 
Storage shed at the museum
Outside the museum there is a display of traditional Sami dwellings. The dwellings included a Gåthie like the one we had seen a lot of at the Sami church town of Lappstaden earlier in the day. There was also a couple of storage sheds also similar to what we had seen at Lappstaden. Something a little different was a building constructed mainly by turf. I guess this kind of buildings would mainly be used in the higher areas where the trees would be limited making it impossible to construct a traditional Gåthie or other structures requiring a lot of wood.
Across the street from street from the museum we see the large church of Jokkmokk. I guess the town is pretty small so the interesting buildings aren’t far apart. The church is a wooden construction which looks very different from all other churches we have seen in Sweden. It is located on a large plot of land with a few trees. The setting is quite pretty with all the fallen leaves out in front of the church and the naked trees making it possible to see the church from a bit of distance and get a decent picture of it. Unfortunately the church is locked so we have to settle with a little walk around the church before we head back to the parking lot behind the museum.
