Every design for Kuhmo

Russia is Kuhmo's next-door neighbour. The town fills the south-eastern corner of Kainuu, its eastern edge running along the oldest stretch of border still in force between the two countries, and water opening out from the town in every direction. It is one of the most wilderness-like towns in Finland, a vast spread of forest and lake with few people in it, Ulvinsalon luonnonpuisto out by the frontier and the Vartius crossing to the north.

Laukunkantaja, the bag bearer on the market square, is the town's signature. He stands for the Karelian and Russian merchants who came this way to sell their goods once Finland had become a Grand Duchy. Elias Lönnrot passed through too on his journeys to collect the poems of the Kalevala, doing some of his editing here, and a reconstruction of the hut where he stayed stands in the Kalevala village. Tuupalan museo and Ikolan pappila hold other chapters, and on Lake Lentua Akseli Gallen-Kallela spent his honeymoon painting.

If you come from Kuhmo, you know the quiet of a town whose nearest big city, Kostomuksha, lies across the border. Keep a little of that quiet with you.