Paijat-Hame Region, Republic of Finland — Towns & Travel Guide

Päijät-Häme is lake Häme country. The region, Päijät-Hämeen maakunta in its Swedish form, lies in southern Finland east of Kanta-Häme and north of the coast of Uusimaa, a span of long lakes, ridge, and forest in the inland country. It takes its name from its great lake.

People know Päijät-Häme for its lake landscape, its eskers, and its place in the inland centre of southern Finland between Kanta-Häme, Uusimaa, and neighbouring Pirkanmaa.

Päijät-Häme lies in southern Finland, an inland region built around its long lakes. The great lake reaches down through the heart of the region from the north, a deep finger of water between ridge and forest that gives Päijät-Häme its name and gathers the smaller lakes and channels around it, with eskers of old glacial gravel threading the land and the towns gathered along the shores and the routes that cross the interior. The region sits at an inland centre.

Pirkanmaa and its lakes lie to the north-west, Kanta-Häme to the west, and the coast of Uusimaa to the south, so Päijät-Häme forms a lake country between them in southern Finland. Forest covers the higher ground. Water fills the long hollows between the ridges.

Päijät-Häme is lake Häme country. The region carries the identity of the historic Häme province on its long lakes, an inland country of forest, water, and farm whose life has long turned on the great lake at its heart in southern Finland. The water sets the rhythm.

Boats, summer cottages, and the lakeshore mark the warm season north of Uusimaa. The land holds a long rural and provincial identity, set at the inland centre where routes between the capital coast and the lakes of Pirkanmaa pass through. Festivals and lakeside gatherings fill the summers, and the eskers and forests draw walkers through the bright months toward neighbouring Kanta-Häme.

Päijät-Häme anchors the lake centre. Its towns keep their own fairs and traditions through the year.

Päijät-Häme is old lake Häme. The country around the great lake was settled and farmed for centuries, set at the inland crossing where routes between the southern coast and the northern lakes passed through the eastern part of the Häme province. Long it shared the identity of inland Häme.

The present maakunta of Päijät-Häme was drawn in 1994, binding the lake and ridge country of southern Finland east of Kanta-Häme and north of Uusimaa into one administrative whole.

Päijät-Häme has a cool inland climate. Winters bring snow and ice across the long lakes of southern Finland, freezing the water and holding the forests white through the dark months of the year. Summers turn warm and bright.

The long days warm the great lake for swimmers and boats across the inland country north of Uusimaa.

Päijät-Häme lies on the road north. The region sits on the main lines and roads that run inland from the capital region of Uusimaa toward the lakes, so trains and traffic pass through its lake country on the way north from the coast. The lakes are easy to reach.

Roads thread west toward neighbouring Kanta-Häme and on toward the lake country of Pirkanmaa across southern Finland.