Where to Stay in Piippola, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa

Piippola is known for its parish church and for the war memorials of the Siikalatva country in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa. The wooden Magdalenan kirkko gives the village its centre, while the neighbouring Pulkkilan kirkko serves the village of Pulkkila a little to the south. A small inland parish.

The Finnish War left its mark here, recalled by the Pulkkilan taistelun muistomerkki of that conflict and by hero memorials like the Sankarimuistomerkki Rukoileva perhe in this corner of northern Finland.

The wooden Magdalenan kirkko is the landmark at the heart of the village, the parish church of this corner of the Siikalatva country. A little to the south the Pulkkilan kirkko serves the neighbouring village of Pulkkila. Two churches for two villages.

War memorials gather across the parish, among them the Pulkkilan taistelun muistomerkki of the Finnish War, the famine memorial Nälkään kuolleiden muistomerkki and the hero memorial Sankarimuistomerkki Rukoileva perhe, marking the harder history of this part of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa.

Piippola's history is the history of a backwoods parish on the upper Siikajoki, drawn out of the forests and fields of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa. Settlement gathered along the river through the centuries, the farming families of the Siikalatva country worshipping in the village church that grew into the wooden Magdalenan kirkko at the heart of the parish. The river drew them here.

To the south the village of Pulkkila built its own Pulkkilan kirkko, the two churches serving the scattered holdings of this inland corner of northern Finland. War left its mark on the parish more than once. The Finnish War reached these plains, and the fighting near Pulkkila is recalled by the Pulkkilan taistelun muistomerkki that stands among the memorials of the district.

Hard years followed too. The famine memorial Nälkään kuolleiden muistomerkki keeps the memory of the dead, and hero memorials like the Sankarimuistomerkki Rukoileva perhe mark the long, rural history of the Siikalatva country, now gathered into the wider municipality of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa.

Piippola lies on the upper Siikajoki in the field-and-forest country of inland Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, in northern Finland. Plains, pinewoods and mires fill the broad parish, the church village gathered by the river while the wilds of the Siikalatva country spread out around it. The river runs through it all.

The neighbouring village of Pulkkila lies downstream along the same water, and the scattered farms of the parish hold the old settled land of this corner of northern Finland where field gives way to forest.

Piippola keeps the cold, snowy seasons of inland Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, its weather set hard by the plains and forests of the Siikalatva country. Winters are long and severe, deep frost gripping the upper Siikajoki and the fields around the village from early in the season until the late spring thaw breaks the ice on the river. Summers are short and bright.

The long northern daylight warms the plains and pinewoods of the Piippola country through the brief growing season, the months when the farm cottages of this part of northern Finland see their visitors before the snow returns.

Piippola sits inland on the upper Siikajoki in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, off the rail lines, and the road is the way in. A main inland route runs through the church village and on past Pulkkila, linking the parish to the larger towns of Pohjois-Pohjanmaa where most travellers begin. The road carries you here.

Bus services follow the same route, and visitors from farther off in northern Finland come through the regional centres before the last stretch into the Siikalatva country.