Where to Stay in Enonkoski, Southern Savonia

Enonkoski is known for its water and its ancient rock art, a small municipality of Southern Savonia deep in the lakeland of eastern Finland. The painted cliffs of the Ukonvuoren kalliomaalaus and the Kurtinvuoren kalliomaalaukset look down on the lakes near the edge of Kolovesi, the rock paintings left by a people who hunted these shores long ago. Stone holds their hands.

The wooden Enonkosken kirkko stands at the village centre, the old museosilta crosses the rapids that gave the place its name, and the Enonkosken kotiseutumuseo keeps the local past.

The painted cliffs are the landmark that sets Enonkoski apart, the ancient rock art of the Ukonvuoren kalliomaalaus near Kolovesi, the Kurtinvuoren kalliomaalaukset and the Haukkalahdenvuoren kalliomaalaukset left on the stone of the Southern Savonia lakeland. Old hands marked these rocks. The wooden Enonkosken kirkko anchors the village in eastern Finland, the old museosilta spans the rapids that named the place, and the Enonkosken kotiseutumuseo and the boulder of Repokivi keep the everyday and the stranger past of Enonkoski.

Enonkoski's history runs from Stone Age hunters to a parish of the lakeland. The painted cliffs of the Ukonvuoren kalliomaalaus, the Kurtinvuoren kalliomaalaukset and the Haukkalahdenvuoren kalliomaalaukset show that people lived along these waters of eastern Finland thousands of years ago, leaving their marks in red on the rock above the lakes near Kolovesi. Hunters came first.

Across the long centuries the farming families settled the islands and shores of this corner of Southern Savonia, the rapids of Enonkoski turning mills and the slow work of clearing the forest going on from one generation to the next. The parish grew around water and faith. The Enonkosken kirkko was raised to serve the scattered settlement, the municipality was set on its own footing in the 19th century, in 1882, and the old museosilta later crossed the rapids that gave the place its name.

Water shaped every road. The Enonkosken kotiseutumuseo keeps the tools and timber of that lakeland life, while the boulder of Repokivi and the old burial ground hold the older memory of Enonkoski in the forests of Southern Savonia.

Enonkoski lies deep in the lakeland of Southern Savonia, in eastern Finland, where water fills more of the map than land. Lakes, narrows and forested islands break the municipality into shore and channel, the village gathered by the rapids that gave it its name. Water rules the ground.

The wild lakes of Kolovesi reach up to the eastern edge, the painted cliffs of the Ukonvuoren kalliomaalaus rise straight from the water there, and the centre around the Enonkosken kirkko sits among the narrows and woods of Enonkoski.

Enonkoski has the cool, four-season weather of the Southern Savonia lakeland, its seasons set by the deep water and forests of eastern Finland. Winters are long and snowy, the lakes around the village freezing hard from early in the season until the late spring thaw breaks the ice. Summers are warm and bright.

The long northern light warms the water and the wooded islands through a short, generous season, the lakes near Kolovesi holding the day's heat into the evening, before the cold and the early dark return over Enonkoski.

Enonkoski is reached by road, the car the usual way into this lakeland municipality of Southern Savonia. Roads wind through the narrows and forests of eastern Finland to the village by the Enonkosken kirkko, crossing water again and again on their way in. The lakes shape every route.

Buses serve the parish from the larger towns of Southern Savonia, while in summer the water itself becomes a road, and visitors bound for the painted cliffs of the Ukonvuoren kalliomaalaus and the wilds of Kolovesi set out by boat or canoe from Enonkoski.