Where to Stay in Orimattila, Paijat-Hame Region

Orimattila is known as a town of old parishes and manors in Päijät-Häme, a rural municipality of southern Finland gathered from several country churches. The Orimattilan kirkko crowns the protected church hill of the Orimattilan kirkonmäki at its heart. Old estates lie around it.

The manors of the Kinttulan kartano and the Ratulan kartano keep the gentry's past, the Tönnönkosken silta ja myllypaikka preserves a river bridge and mill site, and the Orimattilan taidemuseo holds the town's art.

The Orimattilan kirkko crowns the protected church hill of the Orimattilan kirkonmäki, the landmark at the centre of Orimattila in Päijät-Häme. Country churches ring the wider municipality: the Artjärven kirkko and the Kuivannon kirkko in their old villages. Manors and stones lie scattered between.

The Kinttulan kartano and the Ratulan kartano keep the estates' past, the Tönnönkosken silta ja myllypaikka preserves a river bridge and mill site, the cup-marked rocks Nenäkivi and Karhukivi mark ancient ground, and the hill fort of the Pyhäjärven linnanmäki rises in this corner of southern Finland.

Orimattila grew from a cluster of farming parishes of Päijät-Häme. The settlement was set on its own footing when the parish was chartered in 1636, gathered around the church that the Orimattilan kirkko keeps on the protected hill of the Orimattilan kirkonmäki, with other old parishes such as the Artjärven kirkko and the Kuivannon kirkko in the villages of the wider district. Farms came first.

Long before the church, people lived on this ground, leaving the cup-marked rocks Nenäkivi and Karhukivi and the hill forts of the Pyhäjärven linnanmäki and Nuppilinna across the southern Finnish countryside. The land of manors and mills shaped the centuries that followed. The estates of the Kinttulan kartano and the Ratulan kartano held the farmland and the gentry's houses, and the Tönnönkosken silta ja myllypaikka worked the water of a river crossing where a bridge and mill once stood together.

Villages like Heinämaa kept the rural pattern of the parish, and over time the religious life broadened beyond the old church, the Orimattilan helluntaiseurakunta and the Orimattilan vapaaseurakunta taking their place. The town held to its role as a market and farming centre of Päijät-Häme, its art later gathered in the Orimattilan taidemuseo.

Orimattila lies inland in southern Päijät-Häme, in southern Finland, in the farm-and-forest country south of Lahti. Fields, ridges and woods fill the broad municipality, the town centre raised on the church hill of the Orimattilan kirkonmäki while farmland spreads on every side. Rivers thread the country.

A water crossing at the Tönnönkosken silta ja myllypaikka marks one of the streams, the old villages of Heinämaa and the parishes of the Artjärven kirkko and the Kuivannon kirkko lie scattered among the farms, and forested ground rises toward the neighbouring municipalities of southern Finland.

Orimattila has a cool inland climate in the farm country of Päijät-Häme, milder than the deep north for its place in southern Finland. Winters bring snow and frost to the fields and forests around the Orimattilan kirkonmäki, the cold settling over the parish from the turn of the year until the spring thaw frees the river at the Tönnönkosken silta ja myllypaikka. Summers come warm and green.

The fields and woods of the municipality warm through the long northern daylight, the short growing season filling the country around Orimattila before the snow returns to southern Finland.

Orimattila sits inland in the farm country of Päijät-Häme, and the road is the usual way in. Buses and cars reach the town across southern Finland, the highways running south from Lahti and on through the fields to the centre below the Orimattilan kirkonmäki. The car is simplest here.

Travellers from farther off come through the larger towns of Päijät-Häme before the last stretch across the farmland to the church hill and the Orimattilan taidemuseo at the heart of the town.