Where to Stay in Tuusula, Uusimaa

Tuusula is the home of an artists' colony. The town is known across Uusimaa for the cluster of painters' and writers' houses strung along the Tuusulanjärven rantatie, the lakeside road where Finnish artists settled by the water of Tuusulanjärvi around the turn of the last century. The lake shore made its name.

Halosenniemi, the lakeside home of the painter Pekka Halonen, and the cottage where the writer Aleksis Kivi died, the Aleksis Kiven kuolinmökki, draw visitors to a southern Finnish town whose creative past is written along its shore.

The artists' homes along the Tuusulanjärven rantatie are the landmarks that define Tuusula. By the water of Tuusulanjärvi stand Halosenniemi, the painter Pekka Halonen's house, the poet's home of Taiteilijakoti Erkkola, and the Aleksis Kiven kuolinmökki, the cottage where the writer died. The museums spread wide.

The military collections of the Ilmatorjuntamuseo and the Lottamuseo sit near the Tuusulan kirkko, while the Tuusulan taidemuseo, the Taidekeskus Kasarmi, and the local-history houses of Kotiseutumuseo Klaavola and the Tuusulan työläiskotimuseo carry the wider heritage of this corner of Uusimaa.

Tuusula grew as a parish in the lake country of Uusimaa. The settlement took its modern administrative shape early, chartered in 1643 around the church and the farms of the southern Finnish countryside, with the wooden Tuusulan kirkko serving the scattered community by the water. The lake shaped the place.

Life gathered along the shore of Tuusulanjärvi, where the old road that became the Tuusulanjärven rantatie linked the farms and villages of the parish. Artists made the town's name. Around the turn of the last century painters and writers settled by the lake to form one of Finland's best-known creative colonies, building the houses that still stand along the shore, among them Halosenniemi, the home of the painter Pekka Halonen, and Taiteilijakoti Erkkola, the home of the poet J. H. Erkko.

The writer Aleksis Kivi died in the parish, in the cottage now kept as the Aleksis Kiven kuolinmökki. Later history left its own marks. The military collections of the Ilmatorjuntamuseo and the Lottamuseo grew at Tuusula, while the local past endures in the Kotiseutumuseo Klaavola.

So a quiet lake parish became a town remembered for its art.

Tuusula lies in southern Finland, in the lake country of the Uusimaa region. The town wraps around Tuusulanjärvi, the long lake whose wooded shore carries the historic road of the Tuusulanjärven rantatie, with the centre of Hyrylä set on the higher ground nearby among fields and forest. The land is low and green.

Roads run south across the gentle country toward Helsinki and the coast, threading the cultivated farmland and woods of a well-settled corner of the region close to the capital.

Tuusula has the cool, moist climate of southern Finland. Winters are long and snowy, with frost and lying snow across the shore of Tuusulanjärvi for months as the short days dim early through the cold heart of the year. Summers are mild and bright.

The warm season brings green to the lake country of Uusimaa and long days to the artists' shore before the cold returns, with spring and autumn passing quickly between the two.

Tuusula is reached by road. Drivers come on the motorways that run north from Helsinki through the lake country of Uusimaa, the short route that brings most visitors to the lakeside colony and the Tuusulanjärven rantatie by car. Buses serve the town and its centre of Hyrylä.

The international airport lies close by to the south, and the main rail lines pass through neighbouring towns, the usual gateways for travellers arriving from farther afield, while local roads thread the shore of Tuusulanjärvi to the museums and artists' homes.