Where to Stay in Parikkala, South Karelia Region

Parikkala is known across South Karelia for its old parish churches and the deep Karelian past held in its lakeland ground. The wooden Parikkalan kirkko anchors the main village, while the Uukuniemen kirkko and the Saaren kirkko keep two further parishes that the municipality drew together. Churches mark the place.

Older still is the manor ground at Koitsanlahden hovi and the medieval village site of Papinniemi, and the town's heritage is gathered in the Parikkalan kotiseutumuseo and the Parikkalan meijerimuseo of this south-eastern corner of Finland.

The Parikkalan kirkko is the landmark that gathers the main village, the wooden parish church at the centre of this South Karelia town. Two further churches keep the parishes the municipality joined, the Uukuniemen kirkko and the Saaren kirkko out in the lake country. Old ground lies all around.

The manor of Koitsanlahden hovi preserves a noble estate of the Swedish era, the medieval village site at Papinniemi reaches back to the Karelian past, and the town's heritage is held in the Parikkalan kotiseutumuseo and the Parikkalan meijerimuseo of this eastern lakeland.

Parikkala's history runs deep in the Karelian borderland. The medieval village site at Papinniemi shows that people gathered by these eastern lakes long before the parish took its shape, and the manor of Koitsanlahden hovi later marked the reach of the crown into the frontier. The border ran close.

Chartered in the 17th century, Parikkala took form as a parish of the Swedish realm, its first centre set around the church among the waters of what is now South Karelia. Later centuries drew the surrounding parishes into one. The Parikkalan kirkko held the main village while the Uukuniemen kirkko and the Saaren kirkko served their own congregations, and the three were brought together as the municipality grew.

Farming and dairying shaped the working life of the lakeland, a story the Parikkalan meijerimuseo keeps in its dairy-museum rooms. Parikkala settled into its place as a parish town of the eastern Finnish lakeland, its memory gathered in the Parikkalan kotiseutumuseo of this south-eastern corner of the country.

Parikkala lies in the lake-and-forest country of eastern South Karelia, in south-eastern Finland, close to the long border. Lakes, narrow ridges and pinewoods fill the broad municipality, the main village gathered by the Parikkalan kirkko while water spreads on every side. The lakeland runs deep here.

The old parishes of Uukuniemi and Saari sit on their own waters with the Uukuniemen kirkko and the Saaren kirkko, and the headland of Papinniemi reaches into the lake where the medieval village once stood in this south-eastern corner of Finland.

Parikkala keeps the long, cold seasons of the eastern Finnish lakeland, its weather set hard by the waters and forests of South Karelia. Winters bite. Deep frost grips the lakes and the pinewoods around the parish town from early in the season until the late spring thaw, and snow lies long over the church village and the surrounding farms.

The summers are short, warm and bright, when the long northern daylight thaws the lakes and the lakeside cottages of this south-eastern corner of Finland fill before the snow returns.

Parikkala sits on the railway through eastern South Karelia, near the border, and the train is a classic way in. Trains stop at the station in the main village, close to the Parikkalan kirkko, on the line that runs up through the eastern Finnish lakeland. Rails reach the town.

Road and bus also serve Parikkala, linking it to the larger cities of South Karelia, and visitors from farther off usually come through those towns before the last stretch into the lake country.