Where to Stay in Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo

Kuopio is known as the regional capital of Pohjois-Savo, a lakeland city ringed by the waters of Kallavesi in eastern Finland. Water and ridge define it. The Puijon torni rises on the forested Puijo hill above the centre, the Pyhän Nikolaoksen katedraali holds the Orthodox tradition of the city, and the writer's house of Kanttila preserves the home of Minna Canth, while a wooden grid of old streets survives near the harbour of this Savo capital.

The Puijon torni is the signature landmark of Kuopio, the tall lookout on the wooded Puijo ridge with its sweep over Kallavesi and the Pohjois-Savo lakeland. Faith and culture fill the centre. The Pyhän Nikolaoksen katedraali stands at the heart of the city, the Orthodox tradition kept beside it in the RIISA - Suomen ortodoksinen kirkkomuseo, while the writer's home of Kanttila preserves the rooms of Minna Canth.

Museums gather the wider story in the Kuopion museo, the Kuopion taidemuseo and the wooden streets of the Kuopion korttelimuseo across this eastern Finland city.

Kuopio's history runs back to the founding of a market town on the shores of Kallavesi. The settlement was chartered in 1653 as a trading and church centre for the lakeland of Pohjois-Savo, its grid of wooden streets laid out beside the water of eastern Finland. Trade came by lake.

For long stretches the boats of Kallavesi carried timber, tar and goods between the scattered settlements of Savo, and the town grew as the natural hub of the region. Kuopio became a centre of Finnish culture and learning in the nineteenth century. The statesman and philosopher J.V.

Snellman lived and worked here, his home kept as the J.V. Snellmanin kotimuseo, and the writer Minna Canth made the town a literary stage from her house at Kanttila. Orthodox tradition gathered strongly in the city, crowned by the Pyhän Nikolaoksen katedraali and the church museum now known as the RIISA - Suomen ortodoksinen kirkkomuseo.

The Puijo ridge above the town was opened for recreation and crowned with the Puijon torni, and museums such as the Kuopion museo and the Kuopion taidemuseo gathered the heritage of the lakeland capital, while old wooden quarters survive in the Kuopion korttelimuseo.

Kuopio sits on a peninsula and a scatter of islands in the lake of Kallavesi, in the heart of the Pohjois-Savo lakeland of eastern Finland. Water surrounds the city on most sides, broken by wooded ridges, of which the forested Puijo rises highest above the centre. The lake runs everywhere here.

Bays, sounds and islands spread out from the grid town across the broad municipality, the ridge of Puijo and its lookout the Puijon torni giving the long view over the waters of Kallavesi and the Savo lakeland.

Kuopio has a cold lakeland climate set by the waters of Kallavesi and the long winters of Pohjois-Savo. Snow and frost grip the city and the lake for months, the ice thickening on Kallavesi until the ski trails on the Puijo ridge run deep into the spring. Winter holds the lakeland long.

Warm, light summers follow, the long northern daylight drawing boats onto the open water of eastern Finland and walkers up the wooded slopes of Puijo before the cold returns to the Savo capital.

Kuopio is the transport hub of the Pohjois-Savo lakeland, and it is reached by several routes. The railway through eastern Finland stops in the city, the fast and common way in from the south, with trains running along the line that links Kuopio to the rest of the country. Flights add a quicker option.

The airport north of the city carries air traffic into the region, main roads cross the lakeland to the grid centre below the Puijo ridge, and in summer lake boats ply the open water of Kallavesi into the harbour of Kuopio.