Every design for Riihimäki

Riihimäki became Finland's first railway junction when a line towards Lahti and on to St Petersburg branched off here from the country's first railway. The name means grain-drying-cabin hill, after the drying barns that once stood on the rise of today's Rautatienpuisto, and the town grew up around the station. Before the railway, this was a land of mire and slow water: the ancient lake of Silmäkeneva once reached into what is now the centre, and Käpälämäen luonnonsuojelualue keeps a patch of protected nature close to town.

What sets Riihimäki apart is glass. Riihimäki Glass worked here for most of the twentieth century, and Suomen lasimuseo, the Finnish Glass Museum, has a permanent display created by Tapio Wirkkala. Suomen Metsästysmuseo, the Hunting Museum of Finland, suits a town where Sako rifles are made, and the garrison has been part of life since the days of the Grand Duchy.

The sculpture Lasinpuhaltaja, the glassblower, is a fitting reminder that this railway town made its name in glass as much as in trains.