Every design for Joensuu

What do you picture when someone says Joensuu? For most people who have lived here, it is the River Pielinen, running right through the middle of town before it meets the northern shore of Lake Pyhäselkä, the northern reach of Saimaa. The city's name means nothing more than river's mouth, Jovensuu in Karelian.

What sets Joensuu apart is how much of that river story is still visible. Nicholas I founded the town in the days of the Grand Duchy, Karelian traders worked the river for centuries, and after the canals opened steamboats, barges and log rafts crowded the water; by the end of the nineteenth century Joensuu was one of Finland's largest harbour cities. Today the students of the University of Eastern Finland and Karelia University of Applied Sciences give it a younger rhythm, and the Russian border lies to the east.

Vapaudenpuisto, the park in the centre, and the Kosiosusi sculpture are where many Joensuu memories are made, the kind of places worth carrying with you once you have moved on.