Every design for Parikkala

Where do you head on a warm day when the lake is Simpelejärvi? If you grew up in Parikkala, you already know: down to Likolammen uimaranta for a swim, or out along the paths of Saharannan ulkoilualue.

Parikkala sits in the north-eastern tip of South Karelia, close to the Russian border, on the main railway line from Helsinki to Joensuu. The countryside rolls between the Salpausselkä ridges, all hills, eskers, fields and water, and most of it drains towards Lake Ladoga rather than Saimaa. Borders have shaped the place for centuries. After the Treaty of Nystad in 1721 it was the only present-day Finnish municipality left on the Russian side, and after the Second World War a third of its land was handed over to the Soviet Union. Saari and Uukuniemi joined it to form today's municipality, and the parish takes its name from a farmer called Parikka, on whose land the church was built.

Parikkalan Meijerimuseo recalls the dairies that once made the parish famous, and Piika-patsas, the maid statue, honours the hands that did the work. Wear the map, and you wear both.