Every design for Kempele

Kempele rose from the sea late. There was no Stone Age settlement because the land was still under water, and when people did settle here the coastline ran much closer than it does now. The name itself may come from a Sámi word for a seal's front flipper. Kempele first appears in the records with just three houses, and it lived for centuries on farming, selling its butter and cheese in Oulu.

The old church of Kempele, one of the oldest wooden churches in Finland, was built after the parishioners decided that a mere prayer room would not do and raised a church with a steeple. Notable locals lie in its crypt, and the painter Mikael Toppelius decorated it. A new church now stands beside it. Modern Kempele has its own claims to fame: Polar Electro, maker of the heart rate monitor, has its headquarters here, Pekka Rinne was born here, and Kempeleen Kiri plays pesäpallo in the Superpesis league at Sarkkiranta.

Kempeleen Kotiseutumuseo keeps the story of the farms that fed Oulu, a fine reason to wear a place that grew from three houses into a lively municipality on the city's doorstep.