Every design for Kirkkonummi

The first rock painting ever identified in Finland was spotted by Jean Sibelius on the shore of Lake Vitträsk in Kirkkonummi, a reminder that people have lived on this stretch of coast since the Stone Age. Today Kirkkonummi, Kyrkslätt in Swedish, is a bilingual municipality on the Gulf of Finland, bordering Espoo, and its two peninsulas set the tone: Porkkala, on one of the Baltic's main bird migration routes, and Upinniemi, home to a naval base.

What makes it unusual is how much room there is. Many residents commute daily to Helsinki by train or bus, yet the municipality holds dozens of small villages, wide central plains crossed by the railway to Turku, and lake country that is still largely untouched. Everyday life gathers in the church village, Masala, Veikkola and Kantvik, while Gesterbyn museoalue and Ragvaldsin museoalue keep the older rural world in view.

Coming home means turning towards the hill where the old church still stands over the centre, the church that gave Kirkkonummi, the "church heath", its name.