Every design for Sonkajärvi

Sonkajärvi lies in the far north of North Savo, well north of Kuopio, with Iisalmi, Kajaani and Sotkamo among its neighbours. The Sonkajärvi lake route threads through rolling, bog-rich country scattered with more than two hundred lakes, the largest of them Laakajärvi, Sälevä and Kiltuanjärvi, and near Kangaslampi and Salmisenmäki grow the northernmost confirmed wild small-leaved limes in Finland.

What makes the place famous far beyond Finland is wife carrying. Every year the World Championships are held here: a man carries a woman around an obstacle track, the only equipment a belt for him and a helmet for her. The sport grew out of local lore about the brigand Rosvo-Ronkainen, who took into his band only men who could master a hard course. The coat of arms tells an older story, its water wheel and flames recalling the watermills and slash-and-burn farming of the past.

If you grew up here, the map holds two villages, Rutakko with its school and Sukeva with its railway station and prison, and between them the routes you knew by heart: to the Kotiseututalo, to the Kansainvälinen Pullomuseo with its bottles from around the world, and down to the shores of Laakajärvi.