Sights and Attractions in Rimpi

The Rimpi Village has a big cultural and historical significance. A man called the Uljaska of Rimpi, a.k.a. Elias Ahtonen, lived there and served as the model for Väinämöinen in Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s iconic paintings and illustrations of Kalevala. Many enthusiastics of Carelia went through Rimpi on their way to Viena Carelia. There are many interesting attractions to see in the village although it is uninhabited at the moment. In summertime there are people living in the village.

Juortana House

In the account of his fourth field trip, Lönnrot wrote: "I intend to finish this account of my journey here in Juortana, and I have a very good reason, indeed. When I arrived here, I noticed that the sole of my boot was wholly worn out."

Water mill

There is a restored water mill along the river that has its source in the gold spring.

Gold Well or Gold Spring

Mention is made as early as 1789, in Christfrid Ganader's Mythologica Fennica, of a "Gold Well" whose waters flow into both the Gulf of Bothnia and the White Sea.

The Lapinsärkkä graveyard

Before the border was closed in the 1920s, Rimpi buried its dead in Akonlahti. When this was no longer possible, the village established its own Orthodox graveyard.

Houses in Rimpi

Ala-Rimpi and Ylä-Rimpi (Lower and Upper Rimpi) houses are situated in the old property of the Uljaska of Rimpi, Elias Ahtonen, who served as the model of Väinämöinen in Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s iconic paintings and illustrations of Kalevala. Finnish soldiers burned Uljaska's carelian-styled house during the evacuation of the village in the Winter War. The people were forbidden to build again carelian-styled houses after the war in Finland's side of the border.