Every design for Ranua

Ranua lies south of Rovaniemi on the upper and middle reaches of the Simojoki, where Lapland meets Northern Ostrobothnia. The south and west of the municipality spread into great flat expanses of bog, and in the east the land lifts into hills, the worn-down remains of ancient mountains, with Palovaara the highest of them.

People from Ranua tend to remember the water: hundreds of lakes, Ranuanjärvi and Simojärvi the largest, and rapids where wild salmon still live. The Sámi were here first, until Finnish hunters pushed north. For a long time settlement clung to the village of Kuha, east of Lake Ranuanjärvi, and families made long journeys to church in Pudasjärvi, Simo or Rovaniemi before the parish of their own was founded. The Lapland War brought heavy fighting and evacuation, and rebuilding followed. The two-man saw on the coat of arms recalls the forestry work that gave the place its living, the wavy line its waterways.

Takajärvi lintutorni, the birdwatching tower, Apajalahti and Oravivaara are the kind of places that tell you where you are. Wear Ranua for the bogs, the rivers and the quiet of a place made of water and forest.