Where to Stay in Keminmaa, Lapland

Keminmaa is known for its two churches by the river, a municipality of Lapland set on the lower Kemijoki near Kemi and Tornio. The medieval stone Keminmaan vanha kirkko, dedicated to Saint Michael, is the sight that defines the place. Old faith holds here.

The modern parish gathers at the Keminmaan uusi kirkko nearby, while the Keminmaan kotiseutumuseo and the Valmarin museo keep the farming and river past of this corner of the Arctic north.

The medieval stone Keminmaan vanha kirkko, raised to Saint Michael by the Kemijoki, is the landmark that defines the municipality, one of the old grey-stone churches of the far north. The modern parish worships at the Keminmaan uusi kirkko nearby. Two churches mark the centre.

The Pyhän Mikaelin kirkko carries the same dedication on the river ground, the Keminmaan kotiseutumuseo keeps the farming and river heritage, and the Valmarin museo preserves an old homestead of this corner of Lapland.

Keminmaa's history runs along the Kemijoki river. The riverbanks here held one of the oldest settled parishes of the far north, a line of farms and fishing grounds at the mouth of the great river where it nears the Gulf of Bothnia. The river gave the living.

Salmon, timber and the trade of the water sustained the families who held the banks long before the modern municipality took its present shape near the coastal towns of Kemi and Tornio. Faith left its deepest mark in stone. The grey medieval Keminmaan vanha kirkko, raised to Saint Michael, has stood by the Kemijoki since the Middle Ages, one of the rare old stone churches of the north and the heart of the early parish.

As the congregation grew the parish built the Keminmaan uusi kirkko for its larger flock, while the homestead and farming life of the river country was gathered in the Keminmaan kotiseutumuseo and the Valmarin museo. Keminmaa settled into its role as a riverside municipality of Lapland, in the Arctic north, its life still bound to the Kemijoki and its old churches.

Keminmaa lies on the lower Kemijoki, in Lapland, in the Arctic north, where the great river nears the head of the Gulf of Bothnia. Fields, river meadows and pinewoods spread across the municipality, the centre gathered by the river and the Keminmaan uusi kirkko on the low ground. The river runs broad here.

The coastal towns of Kemi and Tornio lie close by toward the gulf, while the medieval stone Keminmaan vanha kirkko stands on the bank as the old marker of this riverside corner of Lapland.

Keminmaa has a cold northern climate, tempered a little by the nearby Gulf of Bothnia at the foot of Lapland. Winters are long, dark and snowy, the Kemijoki frozen and the fields deep in snow from early in the season until the late spring thaw. Summers are short and light.

The long northern daylight warms the river meadows and pinewoods around Keminmaa through a brief growing season, the bright weeks of the year before the snow returns to this corner of the Arctic north.

Keminmaa sits on the main northern routes near the coast, and road is the easy way in. The highways running up toward Lapland and across to Tornio pass close by the centre on the lower Kemijoki. Travel here is straightforward.

Buses and cars reach the municipality through the neighbouring coastal town of Kemi by the Gulf of Bothnia, and visitors from farther off come along the northern corridor before the short last stretch to the river and its churches.