Every design for Ilmajoki

Opera out on the open plain, the memory of a peasant uprising and some of Finland's widest fields: that is the Ilmajoki most Finns know. Every June the Ilmajoki Music Festival brings thousands of visitors to this farming municipality in South Ostrobothnia, and for the rest of the year the Kyrönjoki river, chosen as one of the country's national landscapes, sets the pace.

Ilkan patsas stands for the darker chapter. Jaakko Ilkka of Ilmajoki led the peasants in the Cudgel War and was executed by his opponents, and the war's last and largest battle, at Santavuori, was fought here the following month. The Ilmajoen museo and the Yli-Lauroselan talomuseo keep the old farming life within reach, alongside the red two-storey farmhouses and log storehouses that still line the river. Grandfather clocks were once made here, and the village of Nopankylä was known for its blacksmiths.

Ilmajoki (Ilmola in Swedish) also has a habit of producing athletes, from the javelin thrower Tero Pitkämäki to the wrestler Marko Yli-Hannuksela. For anyone from here, the statue of Ilkka is a reminder that this calm countryside has always had a stubborn streak, which is a fine reason to carry its map around with you.