Culture Attractions

Starting point: Croft of Lepikko, Urho Kekkosentie 121, 72400 Pielavesi

What you need: A phone and Salmi app.

You can download the free SALMI AR app from the app store. Open the app and write “Urho Kekkosen kierros” in the search box. Download the package by clicking on the Download button. When the download is complete, click the Scan button and point your phone at the board. Keep the distance to the board so that the whole board is visible on the phone screen. After scanning, enjoy the content!

Availability: All year round

The boards in the Pielavesi Town Hall are available for viewing during the opening hours of the Town Hall.
The Croft of Lepikko is open from the beginning of June until the end of August. (The boards are located outside, so the tour is available outside the Croft’s service hours).

Urho Kekkonen: Actor Kari Suhonen

Manuscript and directing: Pekka Laasonen, InnoArt Oy

Filming and editing: Jere Lahti, OuWau Design & Productions Oy

AR execution: Salmi Platform Oy

Subscribers: Northern Savo’s Lakeland 2 project and municipality of Pielavesi

Involved in the implementation: Lepikko Foundation, Olavi Savonsalmi, Lepikko Foundation’s agent, Archive of Urho Kekkonen and Jaakko Hakkarainen

Church of Pielavesi was designed by Carl Ferdinand Öhmann and the building was completed in 1878. The church was renovated in 1990 by the plans of Architecture office Aulis Jääskeläinen. The church is described as a transept long church. There are also about 1500 seats and an unobstructed access with a wheelchair ramp. The large cemetery is part of the church area. The heroes’ grave can be found beside the church and the statue “Sentinel” (Vartiomies) is standing, guarding the grave site.

You can find more information about the church here: Nilakka’s Congregation/Church of Pielavesi(opens in a new window, switching to another service)

The church is located about 30 kilometers from the centre of Pielavesi and it was completed in 1940. Later on, a congregation hall was established in connection to the church building. Close to the church is the cemetery and the heroes’ grave. There is also the monument of “Farewell” (Hyvästijättö) by Armas Tirronen.

You can find more information about the church here: Nilakka’s Congregation/Church of Laukkala(opens in a new window, switching to another service)

Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul and the Priestly Martyr Blaise

The church was designed by a master builder, W. Korhonen, according to the drawings of the monastery of St. John the Baptist in Valamo, Ladoga. The church was consecrated to use 6.7.1958 by KS Auxiliary Bishop Paul. The iconostasis is from the former Russian garrison church in Mikkeli.

You can find more information about the church here: Finnish Orthodox Church(opens in a new window, switching to another service)

Greek Orthodox village chapel, which was build by Archbishop Leo. You can visit the chapel by making an appointment from Väinö Väänänen or ask him more information about the chapel.

Address: Karttulantie 645, 72530 SÄVIÄNTAIPALE
Väinö Väänänen: phone number 050 302 2184 or e-mail vaino.vaananen@elisanet.fi

The smoke cottage was brought to its current location from the village of Laukkala in Northern Pielavesi. It was inhabited until the turn of the 1940s and 1950s. The smoke cottage in the museum area has been decorated to reflect the life in a smoke cottage.

The smoke cottage, cabin, was the living quarters of the household, which was used according to the seasons. During the winter season, the cabin room served as everyone’s home and sleeping quarters. The cabin room was heated at least once a day, so the smoke from the stove would escape through a hatch in the ceiling. The stove in the cabin was stacked on top of a wooden frame, a box-like bench. The walls show an area of blackened smoke, up to which the smoke was settled. The floor area has been free of smoke in all times. The stairs leading to the oven and the top of the oven served as a children’s playground.

The food was made in the cabin, either in the oven or on embers. From a wooden trammel hook in front of the oven hangs a pot in which the food was cooked. Next to the oven is also found a ladle, a pestle and a trivet. On the table, there are utensils and a head torch, which served as a light source. The large bench in the smoke cottage dates from the 1830s.

The cabin room is also furnished with beds on which straws have been spread as mattresses. The straws are covered with a cloth. There are a cradle, a chest and a churn on the floor, and a cabinet and a coat rack on the wall. In the doorway can be found a man’s work shirt, a lunchbox from the 1880s and on the other side a tobacco shredder with which tobacco was crushed. A lantern hangs from the girder. In the hallway, there is a ladder, a small bucksaw and a wood carving tool, which was used to smooth the rough surfaces of wooden objects. At the back of the hallway is a small space that has been used to store food or as a small animal shelter.

A teacher Oskar Pulkkinen started to collect museum objects in 1930s to store the object history of Pielavesi. The local history museum project was started in 1940 by a merchant J.P. Nousiainen. The museum project gained momentum in 1947, when the Savonian department of the University of Helsinki donated 2000 Finnish marks for the establishment of a local history museum during a summer trip.

In the 1950s, the local history museum project became more active, and in 1952 a museum committee was established in Pielavesi. A property in Teijunmäki was rented from the congregation for the museum area, where they started looking for suitable buildings to be attached to the outdoor museum area. The congregation of Pielavesi donated the old rectory as the main building of the museum and also a previously preserved smoke cottage and barn were moved to the museum area.

In the beginning, museum affairs belonged to the museum committee, later to the local heritage commission and now to the cultural board.

The main building of the museum, the old rectory, was moved to the museum area in 1958. One of the oldest museum buildings is the fish-hut, which was moved from Jylhänkylä in the 1700s. The windmill, on the other hand, was brought from Leppämäenkylä, Mieronmäki in 1961. The loft barn was moved to the museum area in 1962 and the drying barn was set up on the site in 1983.