Hello, today we left Kuopio and continued the journey into the Savo, Lake District region, some of the scenery is fantastic, mind you we did have a sunny day ... in the rain its not so dramatic, the first stop was in the lovely little town of Savonlinna, in the heart of the lakes ... the town is dominated by its Castle and harbour. The next stop was to visit the largest wooden church in the world !!! enough seats for 6000 people. Kerimaki, is fascinating just by its sheer size alone. The Kerimäki Church in Kerimäki, is the largest wooden church in the world. Designed by Anders Fredrik Granstedt and built between 1844 and 1847, the church has a length of 45m (148 ft), a width of 42m (138 ft), a height of 37m (121 ft) and a seating capacity of more than 3,000. Altogether there can be 5,000 people at a time in the church. It has been rumoured that the size of the church was the result of a miscalculation when it was built (supposedly the architect was working in centimetres, which the builder took to be inches, which are 2.54 times larger). Further studies, however, have shown that the church was actually intended to be as big as it is, so it could easily accommodate a half of the area's population at the same time.We later visited Retretti Art Museum, this is a unique building as it was purpose built into a series of underground caves, in the caves they have different art works mainly modern and probably a bit "of the wall" for most people, but some pieces are interesting ....if you like that sort of thing.....the main art collection this year featured Finnish Artist Couples, again some of the works were different and some well ..... it is art ... after all. We arrived in Lappeenranta for an overnight stay. Lappeenranta was originally formed around a headland pointing to Lake Saimaa. In the 16th century, the market place moved from Lappee's old centre Kauskila to the current fortress headland. The first mention of Lapees, as it was called, is in a privilege charter from 1542 that subjugated the market place under Viborg's authority.
The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden, legitimizing the trade in the then popular marketplace of Lapvesi. However, the parliamentary privilege charter and the coat of arms were attested in 1652 after the town layout by Erik Aspegren was affirmed. At the time, Lappeenranta was an important port for tar.
Here are a couple of pictures of the day ...
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| Savonlinna Harbour |
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| Kerimaki Church |
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