Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, Republic of Finland — Towns & Travel Guide

Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, North Ostrobothnia, is the region around Oulu. It runs from the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia inland to the eastern hill country of Koillismaa, the corner that holds Kuusamo near the Russian Republic of Karelia. Oulu is the great hub of the Finnish north.

Its coastal plain, the river mouths at Raahe and Kalajoki, and the forests reaching east give the region two faces, a low farmed coast and a wilder inland edge.

Pohjois-Pohjanmaa lies in northern Finland, spread between the coast and the eastern hills. North Ostrobothnia runs from the flat shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, where the rivers reach the sea at Oulu, Raahe, and Kalajoki, far inland to the rising ground of Koillismaa around Kuusamo. The west is low and farmed.

Wide river plains and the long coast give way eastward to forest and lake country, and finally to the hill country of the easternmost corner against the Russian Republic of Karelia. The region touches many neighbours. It borders Lapland to the north and Kainuu to the east, and the inland regions of North Savo, Central Finland, and Central Ostrobothnia to the south, a wide central position in the Finnish north.

Oulu sits at the heart of the coast. From there the land fans out across river valleys, woods, and the gentle uplands of Koillismaa, joining a sea-facing plain to a forested interior in one broad northern region.

The region's culture splits between coast and interior. On the Gulf of Bothnia, North Ostrobothnia has long lived by the sea, by river-mouth trade, and by the tar and timber that once floated down to Oulu, Raahe, and Kalajoki, while the inland east around Kuusamo has kept the older ways of the forest and the wilderness. Oulu sets the tone.

The northern coast's largest city has grown into a centre of learning and technology while still facing the same sea its merchants once worked. The eastern hills carry a different temper. Koillismaa, the corner reaching toward the Russian Republic of Karelia, holds the traditions of a remote forest country far from the coast, bound up with hunting, herding, and the long border.

Music, festivals, and old crafts thread both halves of the region. From the harbours of the Gulf of Bothnia to the uplands by Kuusamo, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa joins a worldly coast and a wild interior into one northern culture.

Pohjois-Pohjanmaa grew up along its rivers and coast. Oulu rose as the trading town of the northern Gulf of Bothnia, shipping out the tar that the inland forests produced, and Raahe became its old rival as a seafaring and iron town on the same shore. The interior came later.

The eastern forest country of Koillismaa around Kuusamo was settled slowly toward the frontier with the Russian Republic of Karelia, while the coastal towns and the river port at Kalajoki carried the early life of North Ostrobothnia.

The region's climate cools from the coast inland. Along the Gulf of Bothnia at Oulu, Raahe, and Kalajoki the sea softens the edges of the seasons a little, giving cold snowy winters and mild bright summers. The east is harsher.

Up in the Koillismaa hills around Kuusamo, far from the water and close to the Russian Republic of Karelia, the snow lies longer and deeper, and the boreal cold of the northern interior takes firm hold each winter.

Oulu is the gateway. Its airport is among the busiest in the Finnish north and the main rail line runs straight up the coast to it from the south. Roads spread out from there.

The coast route links Raahe and Kalajoki along the Gulf of Bothnia, while inland highways climb east to Kuusamo and the Koillismaa hills near the Russian Republic of Karelia, and north toward Lapland and south toward Central Ostrobothnia.