About Pite Havsbad

”Piteå needs a real city hotel now that we’ll soon have our first railway,” wrote Thure Hjalmar Björkbom, the town physician, in a motion to the city council in 1899.

The building costs amounted to 320,000 SEK – which was a lot for a small town like Piteå. New streets, water and sewage needed to be built. One opposed person wrote, “We are getting a grand hotel, but we don’t even have proper plumming. The hotel has to borrow grog water from the neighbours.”

The hotel was built on a foundation of Råberg granite and was a wonder of modernity, with central heating (air-heating) and its own electricity company. The restaurant area was grandiose, consisting of two dining rooms, a billiard room and an even larger “schweizeri” (Swiss style café which served alcohol). There were also 22 hotel rooms with their own telephone.

The next floor up held the festivities room, where generations of Norrbotten residents today have celebrated New Year’s. It was also here that many Piteå residents had their first experience of the theatre. 
The hotel was built in Art Nouveau style, by an architect named Åström.