Where to Stay in Kirkkonummi, Uusimaa

Kirkkonummi is known for Hvitträsk and its broken coast, a municipality of western Uusimaa on the Gulf of Finland in southern Finland. The artists' house of Hvitträsk draws visitors above its forest lake, while the Porkkalan majakka lighthouse marks the seaward tip of the Porkkala peninsula. Sea and woods frame it.

The medieval Kirkkonummen kirkko stands over the old centre, the Oitbackan kartano keeps a manor of the parish, and the skerries and shores of the Gulf of Finland reach out below this corner of southern Finland.

Hvitträsk is the landmark that carries Kirkkonummi's name, an artists' home and studio set above a forest lake in western Uusimaa. It draws the visitors. The medieval Kirkkonummen kirkko stands over the old centre with its bell tower the Kirkkonummen kirkon tapuli, the Haapajärven kirkko and the Masalan kirkko mark the outer villages, and the Porkkalan majakka lighthouse guards the tip of the Porkkala peninsula on the Gulf of Finland.

Older marks survive too. The rock paintings of the Juusjärven kalliomaalaus, the Oitbackan kartano manor, and the Ragvaldsin museoalue gather the deeper past of this coastal corner of southern Finland.

Kirkkonummi's story reaches back to the first people of the Uusimaa coast. The rock paintings of the Juusjärven kalliomaalaus and the Vitträskin kalliomaalaus were left on the cliffs above the inland lakes long before any parish, the oldest marks of human life in the district. Stone gave way to church.

The medieval Kirkkonummen kirkko rose at the church headland that gave the place its name, with the bell tower of the Kirkkonummen kirkon tapuli beside it, and the manors of the Oitbackan kartano and the Biskopsbölen kartano gathered the farm estates of the surrounding country. Salt water has shaped the modern story. The Porkkala peninsula, its tip marked by the Porkkalan majakka lighthouse, guarded the seaward approach to the Gulf of Finland, and the military road of the Kabanovin tykkitie still traces the years when the peninsula was held as a foreign naval base.

Art came to the lakes as well. Hvitträsk was raised as an artists' home and studio above its forest lake, the village of Masala grew with the rail line west of Helsinki, and Kirkkonummi settled into its place as a coastal municipality of western Uusimaa on the edge of the Helsinki country.

Kirkkonummi lies on the broken southern coast of Finland, in western Uusimaa. The Porkkala peninsula reaches out into the Gulf of Finland, its skerries and headlands edged by the open sea, while inland the forest lakes and ridges spread back toward the Helsinki country. Sea meets forest here.

The artists' house of Hvitträsk stands above one of those inland lakes, the centre gathers around the Kirkkonummen kirkko, and the shores and islands of the Gulf of Finland fringe this coastal corner of southern Finland.

Kirkkonummi has a cool maritime climate, its seasons tempered by the open water of the Gulf of Finland. Winters are cold and snowy, the sea ice and frost gripping the skerries off the Porkkala peninsula through the dark months until the late thaw clears the shore. Summers are mild and bright.

The long northern daylight warms the coast and the inland lakes around Kirkkonummi through the short growing season, drawing boats onto the Gulf of Finland before the snow returns to this part of southern Finland.

Kirkkonummi sits close to Helsinki on the coast of western Uusimaa. The commuter rail line runs out from the capital to the centre and the village of Masala, carrying most travellers in by train. Many arrive by rail.

The coastal motorway brings cars west from Helsinki in well under an hour, and from the centre the roads run out to the Porkkala peninsula and the shores of the Gulf of Finland.