How it works
Posio
The magic of Lapland
Posio is a municipality in the southeast corner of Finnish Lapland, renowned for its large water areas and as home of Pentik Oy interior design company. The municipality is unilingually Finnish. The local Finnish dialect belongs to the Eastern dialect group, while the rest of the Lapland speaks Western dialects. English is widely understood.
The Posio area has traditionally been inhabited by nomadic forest Samis and even the name Posio means a certain part of a traditional Sami pole tent. The first Finnish settlers arrived during the late 1500s, to the Sirniö area. They came from the south-east, following the lake district of eastern Finland northward. This is still heard in the speech of the locals as the Posio dialect belongs to the Kainuu dialects of the eastern dialect group instead of the far north dialects of the western dialect group, spoken in the rest of Lapland. The priests from Pudasjärvi parish are known to have traveled here to hold services already in 1688. However, the nearest church remained in Kuusamo until 1927, when Posio got its own one.
Geographically Posio belongs to the Koillismaa highlands. The landscape is hilly and most of the area is around 300 m above sea level. There are many more lakes in this area than elsewhere in Lapland, and Posio is a prominent "summer cottage municipality" (kesämökkikunta) as there are thousands of private holiday homes by the lakes. The specialty of these highland lakes is a local form of vendace, which is about 4–5 cm long and has soft bones. This vendace, known as Kitkan viisas, "the wise one of the lake Kitka", is considered a delicacy, and since 2013 the name has got protected designation of origin (PDO) status in the European Union.
The climate in Posio is sub-polar temperate. The area enjoys one of the heaviest annual snowfalls in Finland. A postcard-like view showing masses of frozen snow on tree branches is fairly typical to this area. Posio has around 3200 inhabitants of which 1300 live in the parish village called Ahola. The most famous person living in Posio is interior designer Anu Pentik (1942–) and around 100,000 admirers of Finnish design visit the Pentik Mäki Cultural Centre next to the Pentik ceramic factory annually. In addition to that Posio attracts mostly nature enthusiasts.
Getting Around
The easiest way to get around in Posio is by car. The sights are scattered around the municipality and the distances are long. In the town center, the main attractions are within walking distance. Hiking is the best way to reach the natural attractions, at least for the last kilometres. Most of the shops and services in Posio are located in the town center. There is no local public transport in Posio.
The Posio area has traditionally been inhabited by nomadic forest Samis and even the name Posio means a certain part of a traditional Sami pole tent. The first Finnish settlers arrived during the late 1500s, to the Sirniö area. They came from the south-east, following the lake district of eastern Finland northward. This is still heard in the speech of the locals as the Posio dialect belongs to the Kainuu dialects of the eastern dialect group instead of the far north dialects of the western dialect group, spoken in the rest of Lapland. The priests from Pudasjärvi parish are known to have traveled here to hold services already in 1688. However, the nearest church remained in Kuusamo until 1927, when Posio got its own one.
Geographically Posio belongs to the Koillismaa highlands. The landscape is hilly and most of the area is around 300 m above sea level. There are many more lakes in this area than elsewhere in Lapland, and Posio is a prominent "summer cottage municipality" (kesämökkikunta) as there are thousands of private holiday homes by the lakes. The specialty of these highland lakes is a local form of vendace, which is about 4–5 cm long and has soft bones. This vendace, known as Kitkan viisas, "the wise one of the lake Kitka", is considered a delicacy, and since 2013 the name has got protected designation of origin (PDO) status in the European Union.
The climate in Posio is sub-polar temperate. The area enjoys one of the heaviest annual snowfalls in Finland. A postcard-like view showing masses of frozen snow on tree branches is fairly typical to this area. Posio has around 3200 inhabitants of which 1300 live in the parish village called Ahola. The most famous person living in Posio is interior designer Anu Pentik (1942–) and around 100,000 admirers of Finnish design visit the Pentik Mäki Cultural Centre next to the Pentik ceramic factory annually. In addition to that Posio attracts mostly nature enthusiasts.
Getting Around
The easiest way to get around in Posio is by car. The sights are scattered around the municipality and the distances are long. In the town center, the main attractions are within walking distance. Hiking is the best way to reach the natural attractions, at least for the last kilometres. Most of the shops and services in Posio are located in the town center. There is no local public transport in Posio.
Juuri sitä parasta
