regions

Finnish Lakeland

Open on map More regions Spin a random place Ask WorldAI

Overview

Finnish Lakeland (Järvi-Suomi) comprises the eastern and central parts of the country. Finland is known as the country of a thousand lakes (actually more than a hundred thousand), and this is a region that indeed is domi

Wikivoyage guide · 19 sections

▸Introduction234 chars

▸Regions50 chars

The Finnish Lakeland is divided into five regions.

▸Cities583 chars

1 Iisalmi (Swedish: Idensalmi) — northern town known for its Olvi brewery

2 Joensuu — capital of North Karelia

3 Jyväskylä — capital of Central Finland

4 Kuopio — capital of North Savonia; home of kalakukko, the baked fish pie

5 Mikkeli (Swedish: S:t Michel) — capital of South Savonia

6 Pieksämäki — railway junction

7 Savonlinna (Swedish: Nyslott) — famous for the picturesque medieval castle and the yearly Opera Festival

8 Tampere (Swedish: Tammerfors) — the biggest inland town in Scandinavia and the second largest metropolitan area in Finland

9 Varkaus — small industrial town

▸

Facts

Rank

—

Coordinates

—

Source

WBP almanac

External sources

Wikivoyage

Media

From Wikipedia575 words

Introduction

Landscape region of Finland Finnish Lakeland. Finnish Lakeland or the Finnish lake district (Finnish: Järvi-Suomi [ˈjærʋiˌsuo̯mi], "Lake Finland", Swedish: Insjöfinland) is a large landscape region in central eastern Finland. The hilly, forest-covered landscape of Lakeland Finland's lake plateau is dominated by drumlins and by long sinuous eskers. Both are glacial remnants deposited after the continental glaciers that scoured and gouged the country's surface receded about 10,000 years ago. The lake basins of the lakeland originate from the joint work of weathering and erosion of fractures in the bedrock. The erosion that made the depressions occurred before and during the Quaternary ice ages. Erosion along fractures has produced linear inlets among the lakes.

Demarcation

[edit] Aerial view of Lake Päijänne The district occupies most of central and East Finland and is bounded to the south by the Salpausselkä Ridges. These ridges are terminal moraines, which trap networks of thousands of lakes separated by hilly forested countryside. The lake district turns into the Coastal Finland district to the West and Northwest, and is bounded by the Upland Finland to the North. The lake landscape continues to the East and extends into Russia (Karelian Isthmus and Republic of Karelia). Finnish Lakeland stretches approximately 370 kilometers from south to north and about 350 kilometers from east to west.

More in regions0

1 Helvetinjärvi National Park — popular natural destination known for its gorge valley formed during the Ice Age

2 Koli National Park — inspired many artists when Finnish nationalism awakened

3 Linnansaari National Park — hundreds of islands in northern Saimaa. The most probable place to meet endemic Saimaa ringed seal.

4 Saimaa — the largest lake system of the Lakeland. At 1,147 square km (443 square miles), Saimaa itself is by far the largest lake in Finland and the fifth largest in Europe. It is labyrinthine, with long arms and thousands of islands, and without one large open expanse, so very different from most other large lakes in Europe – you won't appreciate its size from the shore, but rather when exploring it, or from the map.

▸Understand915 chars

As the name reveals it is a land of lakes: seen from above, the region consists of an endless patchwork of lakes and low rolling hills, originally gouged out by sheets of ice during the Ice Age. This also makes it Finland's top destination for summer cottages, and there are countless spots to indulge in the Finnish national obsession for sauna, sausages and a dip in the lake. It is also one of the destinations popular by tourists, so there are many businesses eager to take care of you – but most of the area is off the beaten path, with small towns and villages and hundreds of kilometres of desolate shoreline.

There are several large lake systems with cruises (often on old steamers or former steamers) and possibilities for sailing with a yacht or daysailor, other kinds of boating and canoeing, for days or weeks if you like. Also on the smaller lakes you will often have access at least to a rowing boat.

▸Talk1,202 chars

The region is unilingually Finnish. Culturally, Eastern Finland is the home of the Savo people and their close cousins the Karelians. Much of Karelia has "always" belonged to Russia, and the Karelian-speaking areas that belonged to Finland were lost to the Soviet Union in World War II, with their inhabitants resettled across Finland. Most Karelians in Finland speak a dialect closer to mainstream Finnish, or just plain Finnish. Likewise, Savonian is just a dialect, although a famous one.

The border between western and eastern Finnish dialects roughly follows the western border of Central Finland and South Savo. At Pirkanmaa people speak North Tavastian dialects of the western group. The rest speak Savo dialects which are wordy and stretched out, with consonants doubling and diphthongs mutating in various ways. According to the stereotype, Savonians talk much more than the average taciturn Finn, yet despite this (whisper it quietly) almost Russian habit for speeches and gesticulation, they're also masters of the vague non-reply. Indeed, the canonical Savo response to any question is suattaapi olla, vuan suattaapi olla olemattannii, or "it might be, but it might also be that it's not".

▸Get around873 chars

Distances are long and while the coach network covers most of the region, public transport outside the main cities and thoroughfares varies between limited and non-existent. If you're planning on staying at a cottage, having your own car is pretty much obligatory, unless in biking distance from services (whatever that means to you).

Most of the waterways in the eastern half of the region are connected to the lake Saimaa. Around Jyväskylä there are the Vesijärvi–Päijänne–Keitele waterways and around Tampere the Näsijärvi–Ruovesi and Längelmävesi–Vanajavesi waterways. Although a boat seldom is a time-efficient means to cover large distances, it is a very good means to explore some aspects of the Lakeland. Many of the lakes are big enough for nice sailing, the Saimaa complex for weeks even with a big yacht. For other areas a small boat or canoe is the ideal means.

▸See753 chars

Beautiful lakes abound in most of the Lakeland. Famous landscapes include those of Koli, Punkaharju and Kangasala.

The world's largest wooden church in Kerimäki.

The New Valamo monastery and Lintula Holy Trinity convent in Heinävesi, the only Orthodox monasteries in Nordic countries.

WWII bunkers at the bunker museum in Joensuu.

The Puijo tower in Kuopio, and the view from its viewing platform.

Olavinlinna medieval castle in Savonlinna, with a famous opera festival.

The wooden church of Petäjävesi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The 19th century industrial buildings in Tampere, "Finland's Manchester".

Astuvansalmi rock paintings in Mikkeli and Saraakallio rock paintings in Laukaa.

The Bomba house, a large Karelian style log building in Nurmes.

▸Nature1,328 chars

As the lakeside area and one of the most rural areas in Finland after Lapland, Eastern Finland has a lot to explore. There are a dozen national parks in the region, of which scenery of Koli National Park is one of Finland's national landscapes.

Hike. In national parks and other hiking areas you can find several shorter and longer hiking trails with clearly marked paths, from easy to demanding. Hiking is also allowed anywhere thanks to everyman's right.

Ruunaa National Hiking Area in Lieksa is one popular hiking area.

Paddle. There are endless lakes and archipelagos to explore. Rautalampi has beautiful water routes that combine wilderness-like and cultural landscapes. The national parks of Kolovesi, Linnansaari, Patvinsuo, Repovesi and Tiilikkajärvi all provide good routes for canoeists. There are lots of other canoeing destinations.

Sail or cruise with a yacht or motorboat. Saimaa allows any size of yacht, while daysailors or motorboats may be more handy on the other routes.

Take a boat tour across the lakes in a big boat or at your own pace in a rowing boat. During summertime there are cruises with historical steamboats on many of the lake systems, particularly:

Päijänne in Päijänne Tavastia and Central Finland

Näsijärvi and Längelmävesi in Pirkanmaa

Saimaa — the largest of the lake systems, in the east

▸Eat1,193 chars

In Finland, Savo and Karelia are famous for their cuisine, which has distinctive eastern trait. There are a couple of eastern Finnish specialties definitely worth sampling:

Kalakukko, a type of large rye bread pastry with fish and meat stuffed inside, can be eaten warm or cold. Kalakukko is Savonian specialty and has got Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status in the European Union.

Lörtsy, a large, flat variant of the ubiquitous deep-fried meat pie (lihapiirakka), can also be stuffed with apple jam. Specialty in Savonlinna.

Vendace (muikku), a small freshwater fish. Most commonly coated with rye flour, quickly fried and eaten while piping hot.

Karjalanpiirakka – the Karelian pie – is a special kind of pastry made from rye flour and filled with rice porridge or mashed potatoes. Often eaten with munavoi, a mixture of butter and mashed eggs on it. The name "Karjalanpiirakka" has Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status in the European Union.

Mustamakkara, literally "black sausage", is a specialty of Tampere. It is a blood sausage commonly enjoyed with lingonberry jam

The best place for eating any of these is at the market square, found in the center of any larger town.

Lakes

[edit] A summer cottage ("mökki") on a lake island. Lakes occupy about 25% of the Lakeland. Much of the territory is forested and has a low population density. The main cities in the region are Imatra, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lappeenranta, Mikkeli, Pieksämäki, Savonlinna and Varkaus. Since lakes formed the main transport route in earlier times, urban areas are often located on lakeshore, occasionally even on isthmuses or peninsulas, e.g. Varkaus, Savonlinna and Kuopio. The lakes often have extremely convoluted coastlines and consist of several nearly separate stretches of open water (selkä) connected by narrow sounds. Thus, they can connect large areas along shores and their hinterlands. Because no set definition of what constitutes a lake and no procedures for counting the number of lakes exist, it has been impossible to ascertain exactly how many lakes the region has. There are, however, at least 55,000 lakes that are at least 200 metres wide. If lake is defined to be a body of standing water larger than 500 square metres, then there are 187,888 lakes in Finland. On average, there are 40 lakes per 100 square kilometres in the district. The lake number density is largest north of the Lake Inari, up to 1,000 per 100 square kilometres, so that the area is sometimes called Lampi-Suomi (Pond Finland, Finnish pond district). Hietasaari, Lake Saimaa The largest is Lake Saimaa, which, with a surface area of more than 4,400 square kilometres, is the fourth largest natural freshwater lake in Europe. Lake Saimaa itself contains 5,484 islands, and islands in the greater Saimaa region (Finnish: Suur-Saimaa) number up to 13,710. The deepest lake, Päijänne, has a maximum depth of only 95.3 metres; the depth of the average lake is 7 metres. The Saimaa Canal connects the Lake Saimaa to the Vyborg Bay of the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea. Another connection to the Baltic Sea is the Vuoksi River, which flows from Saimaa to Lake Ladoga, from where the water subsequently flows through Neva River into the Gulf of Finland, bypassing the Salpausselkä. Lake Päijänne is the second-largest lake in Finland, which drains into the Gulf of Finland via the Kymi River and which is used as a drinking water supply for Helsinki.