Where to Stay in Kempele, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa

Kempele is known for its old log church and its pesäpallo, a busy municipality in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, northern Finland. The Kempeleen vanha kirkko, a painted wooden church of the north, is the sight that defines the place. Faith runs deep here.

The modern parish gathers at the Pyhän Kolminaisuuden kirkko, the Sarkkirannan pesäpallostadion hosts the Finnish bat-and-ball game that the town is keen on, and the Kempeleen kotiseutumuseo keeps the local past of this corner of northern Finland.

The Kempeleen vanha kirkko is the landmark that defines the town, a painted wooden church of the north that has stood over Kempele for generations. The modern parish worships at the Pyhän Kolminaisuuden kirkko nearby in the centre. Faith shapes the skyline here.

The Sarkkirannan pesäpallostadion stages the Finnish bat-and-ball game in season, the chapel of Pyhän Matteuksen kappeli serves an outer corner of the municipality, and the Kempeleen kotiseutumuseo keeps the local heritage of this corner of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa.

Kempele's history turns on its church. The settlement was set on its own footing when the parish was chartered in 1867, gathered around the painted log Kempeleen vanha kirkko that had already long served the farmers of this flat country in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa. The church came first.

A village of fields and farms on the broad northern plain, the parish drew its life from the land and the faith that the old wooden church kept at its heart. The wars of the last century left their mark on the municipality. Men of Kempele went north and east to the front, and a row of memorials raised in their memory now stands about the town and the churchyard.

The modern parish outgrew the old building and raised the Pyhän Kolminaisuuden kirkko for its larger congregation, while the sporting life of the north took root at the Sarkkirannan pesäpallostadion, home of the Finnish bat-and-ball game. Kempele settled into its role as a busy church-and-sports municipality of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, its long past gathered in the Kempeleen kotiseutumuseo at the edge of this corner of northern Finland.

Kempele lies on the flat coastal plain of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, in northern Finland. Low fields, pinewoods and bog spread across the broad municipality, the centre gathered around the Pyhän Kolminaisuuden kirkko and the old log church on the level ground. The land lies flat and wide here.

The sporting fields of the Sarkkirannan pesäpallostadion sit within the built-up core, while the outer corners of the municipality, served by the chapel of Pyhän Matteuksen kappeli, run out across the plain of this part of northern Finland.

Kempele has a cold northern climate, its seasons set hard by the flat coastal plain of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa. Winters are long, dark and snowy, deep frost gripping the fields and pinewoods around the town from early in the season until the late spring thaw. Summers are short and light.

The long northern daylight floods the level ground around Kempele through the brief growing season, the bright weeks when the pesäpallo runs at the Sarkkirannan pesäpallostadion before the snow returns to this corner of northern Finland.

Kempele sits on the main routes of the northern coast, and road is the usual way in. The motorway and rail line running up through Pohjois-Pohjanmaa pass close by, putting the municipality within easy reach of the larger towns of northern Finland. Travel here is straightforward.

Buses and cars reach the centre by the Pyhän Kolminaisuuden kirkko, and visitors from farther off come along the coastal corridor before the short last stretch into Kempele across the flat plain.