Where to Stay in Paimio, Varsinais-Suomi

Paimio is known across Varsinais-Suomi and far beyond for the Paimion parantola, the white modernist sanatorium that stands among the pinewoods outside the town. The former tuberculosis hospital draws architects from across the world to its long curved wards. Design made its name.

The older parish gathers around the medieval Pyhän Mikaelin kirkko and the Pyhän Jaakobin kirkko, the manor of Viksbergin kartano keeps a noble estate, and the wooden Paimion rautatieasema recalls the railway that built the modern town in this south-western corner of Finland.

The Paimion parantola is the landmark that gives the town its fame, the white modernist sanatorium whose long curved wards stand among the pinewoods of this Varsinais-Suomi town. Older faith gathers in the centre. The medieval Pyhän Mikaelin kirkko anchors the parish, the second church of the Pyhän Jaakobin kirkko serves its own congregation, and the manor of Viksbergin kartano keeps a noble estate among the fields.

Rails and wires mark the rest. The wooden Paimion rautatieasema recalls the railway age, and the Paimion Sähkömuseo holds the story of electric power in this south-western corner of Finland.

Paimio's history reaches from a medieval parish to a landmark of modern design. The stone Pyhän Mikaelin kirkko rose in the Middle Ages at the centre of a farming parish in what is now Varsinais-Suomi, and the manor of Viksbergin kartano marked a noble estate among the river fields. Farming came first.

A second church, the Pyhän Jaakobin kirkko, served a further part of the parish as the settlement spread across the south-western country. The railway and a hospital reshaped the town. A wooden station, the Paimion rautatieasema, brought the line through the parish and drew trade and growth to a new centre, and the story of electric power that followed is kept in the Paimion Sähkömuseo.

The town's name then went out into the world with the Paimion parantola, the white modernist sanatorium built among the pinewoods to treat tuberculosis, its long wards drawing visitors to this corner of south-western Finland ever since.

Paimio lies in the river-and-field country of Varsinais-Suomi, in south-western Finland, where farmland runs down toward the Archipelago Sea. A river valley threads the compact municipality, the town centre gathered by the Pyhän Mikaelin kirkko while clay fields and pinewoods spread around it. Fields run to the sea.

The white sanatorium of the Paimion parantola stands apart in the woods, the manor of Viksbergin kartano holds its own ground among the fields, and the whole parish sits within easy reach of Turku in this south-western corner of Finland.

Paimio takes the milder weather of coastal Varsinais-Suomi, softened by the nearby Archipelago Sea. The sea tempers it. Winters run cold but rarely as hard as the inland, with snow over the river fields and the pinewoods around the town from midwinter into the spring, and the frost loosening its grip earlier near the coast.

The summers are long, warm and bright across the south-western country, when the river valley around Paimio greens under the northern daylight and the fields ripen before the cool autumn returns off the sea.

Paimio sits on the main road and rail line through Varsinais-Suomi, a short way east of Turku. The wooden Paimion rautatieasema marks the railway that runs through the town, and the motorway carries cars and buses past on the route between Turku and Helsinki. The road is the quick way in.

Regional buses link Paimio to Turku and the surrounding towns, and most visitors from farther off come through Turku before the last short stretch into this south-western corner of Finland.