Every design for Loimaa

Loimaa has drifted between provinces. For centuries it was a corner of Satakunta, but once the railway between Turku and Toijala arrived, the town was pulled towards Turku, and today it belongs firmly to Southwest Finland. Its name comes from the river Loimijoki, which was also its old Swedish name.

What makes Loimaa feel like home is how closely it stays tied to the countryside around it. Sarka, the Finnish Museum of Agriculture, is here, and so is the Heikintalo bison farm, while basketball fans follow Bisons Loimaa, twice national champions. Every August the Rompepäivät junk market takes over the old market square, and the local speciality piapo, a version of kama, is something only people from here seem to know. Kurkijoki-museo honours the families from Kurkijoki who settled here after the war, and Leipätyttö, the bread girl, stands among the town's familiar sights.

Grow up in Loimaa and the map is full of small markers: Loimaan rautatieasema, where the town centre began, the old mill at Vesikoski, and the August market you never missed.