Every design for Hankasalmi

The name Hankasalmi first turns up in 1552, when the land here was wilderness held by Tavastians from Hauho. Savonian settlers soon followed, and the place has sat between those two old cultures ever since.

Hankasalmi lies in Central Finland, ringed by Laukaa, Konnevesi, Rautalampi, Pieksämäki, Kangasniemi and Toivakka, and water does most of the talking. The church village stands on a neck of land between Kuuhankavesi and Hankavesi, while Kynsivesi draws the border with Laukaa. Summer brings the cottage owners and the population swells; winter brings skiers to the slopes at Häkärinteet. A sawmill has worked in the station village since 1916, because the railway between Jyväskylä and Pieksämäki was laid south of the church village rather than through it.

Life moves at an easy pace here, with Hankasalmen kotiseutumuseo for visiting relatives and the Vapaussodan muistomerkki on the way past. The image that stays is the log church designed by Josef Stenbäck, its neo-Gothic gable tower standing on the isthmus between two lakes.