Every design for Nousiainen

Nousiainen lies on the main road between Turku and Pori, close enough to Turku for an easy commute, with Aura, Masku, Mynämäki, Pöytyä and Rusko as neighbours. In its north-eastern corner stands Kuhankuono, a boundary stone once shared by eight municipalities, and the Kurjenrahka national park spreads across the bogs nearby.

Ask anyone who grew up here and the memories tend to be of fields and hills: farming has always been the main trade, and the land rises at Miekkavuori and Tervavuori. Koljolan linnavuori and Laihoisten linnamäki, two ancient hillforts, are reminders of a far older past. The village of Nummi, the centre of the municipality today, was already the biggest village in the parish centuries ago, and the Nousiaisten kotiseutumuseo keeps the everyday objects of those years. At the table, the local favourite is sweetened potato casserole, named the parish dish a generation ago.

Long before any of that, Nousiainen was the first seat of the bishop of Finland and a pilgrimage site, where tradition places the grave of Bishop Henry. Find the church by the Hirvijoki on the map and the walk to school past the fields comes straight back.