Nurkkakuva
Vuokkiniemi
Latvajärvi
Venehjärvi
Ponkalahti
Pirttilahti
Tsena
Tollonjoki
Uhtua
Vuonninen
Lonkka
Jyvöälahti
Haikola
Jyskyjärvi
Pistojärvi
Paanajärvi
Kontokki and Kostamus
Akonlahti
Rimpi
Kuivajärvi and
Hietajärvi
Vuokinsalmi

Search Help
- Main page Background Villages Revitalisation Cultural tourism Map
- - - - - - -

What to see in Kuivajärvi and Hietajärvi

Kuivajärvi and Hietajärvi
What to see
Panorama
Audio sample
Tsasouna
The present tšasouna was built in 1957 and consecrated the following year. The previous tšasouna was destroyed in the Winter War in February 1940 when Finnish soldiers burnt the village following its evacuation. That tšasouna had only been in use some five years. The one before it also burned: a small storage shed-like structure in the yard of Hilippä Huovinen, its fate was to be destroyed when the main house burned down at the beginning of the century.

Old Kalmosaari
The graveyard, shared by Hietajärvi, Kuivajärvi and Vuokinsalmi (across the border), is located on an island in Lake Vuokkijärvi, which is next to Hietajärvi. When the border was closed in the 1920s, the villages on the Finnish side had to start a new graveyard, because old Kalmosaari was right on the border.

Kalmosaari
The new graveyard in Kuivajärvi was established when burials were forbidden in the old one; a national border had been imposed which prevailed over established cultural patterns. The graveyard has been in use since the 1920s.
Domna House
Upon an initiative by the Karelian Cultural Society, the Väinölä Foundation built Domna House to honor the bards from Finnish Viena. The house has served both villagers and travellers to the village as a visitor center and training venue since 1964. The House gets its name from the bard Domna Huovinen, who moved from Vuokinsalmi to Kuivajärvi when she married.

The Wilderness of Finnish Viena
The wilderness forest surrounding Hietajärvi and Kuivajärvi has served village residents for two centuries as a place where they can engage in traditional livelihoods and pastimes. The area's richest source of fish is Lake Murhijärvi, which has old fisherman's huts on its shores. Since the 1980s, The Finnish National Forest and Park Service has sought to implement logging plans that would threaten the virgin forests of the area, and to a certain extent its activities have detracted from the wilderness character of the region. Attitudes have changed in the 1990s, at the Forest and Park Service as well, and in 1999, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the second edition of the Kalevala, the wilderness area, including the Viena villages in Suomussalmi will most likely be made part of a "Kalevala Park" nature preservation area.

Kuivajärvi and Hietajärvi
What to see
Panorama
Audio sample