Every design for Leppävirta

As far back as the fourteenth century, the Leppävirta waterway was drawing hunters and fishers into the wilderness of Savo; today the same route carries freight and passengers on through the Saimaa Canal to the Gulf of Finland. Leppävirta lies in the south of North Savo, south of Kuopio on national road 5, with Suvasvesi, Unnukka and Sorsavesi spreading out around its villages. Daily life here has long revolved around metalwork: Hackman began at Sorsakoski, and engineering firms still cluster nearby.

Ask someone who grew up here what they remember, and the answer may well be the cold of Orinoron rotko, a sheer-sided gorge cut by glaciers into Mustinmäki, where a spring rises from the floor and snow lies until June. It counts among the seven wonders of Savo. Others think of Alapihan kartano and the old manors that once owned most of the land, or of the Civil War, when Leppävirta and Varkaus held out as a red island in white territory, a story told by Kalmalahden taistelun muistomerkki and the collections of Leppävirran museo.

The map shows Kirkkopuisto, Ruutanalammen puisto and the narrow sounds between the lakes, the backdrop to many childhood summers in Leppävirta.