Where to Stay in Kajaani, Kainuu

Kajaani is known as the capital of Kainuu, the seat of the region in northern Finland and a town built around its castle. The ruined Kajaanin linna stands on its island in the river, the stronghold that gave the town its start in the seventeenth century. The castle made the place.

Church and museum fill out its centre, from the Kajaanin kirkko and the Orthodox Kristuksen kirkastumisen kirkko to the Kainuun Museo and the Kajaanin taidemuseo, with a memorial to the statesman Urho Kekkonen marking the town's link to one of Finland's own.

Kajaanin linna is the landmark above all others. The ruined castle stands on its island in the Kajaani River, the seventeenth-century stronghold around which the regional capital of Kainuu first grew, and its broken walls remain the symbol of the town. Two churches mark the centre.

The Kajaanin kirkko serves the Lutheran parish and the Orthodox Kristuksen kirkastumisen kirkko stands nearby, while the Kainuun Museo and the Kajaanin taidemuseo hold the region's history and art, and a memorial honours the statesman Urho Kekkonen of this corner of northern Finland.

Kajaani begins with its castle. The stronghold of Kajaanin linna rose on an island in the river in the seventeenth century, and the town was chartered in 1651 to serve the garrison and the trade that gathered beneath the walls. The castle came first, the town after.

From that fortified start Kajaani grew into the administrative heart of Kainuu, the seat from which this remote region of northern Finland was governed and supplied. Later centuries layered church and culture onto the castle town. The Kajaanin kirkko was raised for the Lutheran parish and the Orthodox Kristuksen kirkastumisen kirkko for another tradition, while the Kainuun Museo gathered the region's past and the Kajaanin taidemuseo its art.

National memory found a place here too. A memorial marks the statesman Urho Kekkonen, tying Kajaani to one of Finland's own, and the regional capital settled into its modern role at the centre of the Kainuu wilderness.

Kajaani lies in the forests of Kainuu, in northern Finland, on the Kajaani River that drains Lake Oulu toward the Gulf of Bothnia. Water and wood surround it. The town centre with the Kajaanin linna sits where the river runs through, the broad municipality spreading out into the lakes and pinewoods of the region beyond.

Wilderness lies on every side here, the Kainuu backwoods reaching from the shores of Lake Oulu to the eastern border country of this part of northern Finland.

Kajaani holds the hard inland weather of the Kainuu backwoods, far from the moderating sea of northern Finland. Winters are long, dark and bitterly cold, deep snow lying over the forests and the frozen river through months that close in around the castle town. The cold runs deep here.

Summer brings warm air and the long northern daylight, the brief bright season when the woods and the waters of Lake Oulu draw visitors before the snow returns to Kajaani.

Kajaani is the transport hub of Kainuu, the point most travellers reach first in this part of northern Finland. The railway runs to the town, and trains stop near the centre within reach of the Kajaanin linna and the regional museums. Rail ties it to the south.

Road and bus link Kajaani across the wide region, and an airfield serves the longer hops, so the regional capital stays connected even as the Kainuu forests stretch far in every direction.