Sodankylä | Exploring Finland
Sodankylä, or Sodankylän kirkonkylä, is the central village of the Sodankylä Municipality within Finnish Lapland. Around 4.800 people live in this small urban area in northern Finland. This is the church village of the former parish, which is the actual translation of “kirkonkylä”. The center of the village lies between the rivers Kitinen and Jeesiöjoki.
The village is the seat of the second largest municipality in Finland, covering an area of around 12.000 square kilometers. In this vast wilderness, there are only around 8.000 inhabitants. Only Inari Municipality to the north covers a larger area.
A Short History of Sodankylä
The area around Sodankylä has been inhabited by the semi-nomadic Sámi People for centuries. The Swedish Crown wished to settle Lapland in the 17th century and it introduced incentives for settlers to move north. The first church in the village was funded by the monarchy in 1688. It was completed in 1689 and became a satellite church of the Kemi Parish, a parish covering a large part of Finnish Lapland. Sodankylä became an independent parish first in 1747 and the old church was replaced by the new Sodankylä Church in 1859.
Things to Do and See
The center of Sodankylä houses the main commercial center of the surrounding region. Here you will find a few stores as well as other smaller businesses. It is also here that you will find the Old Church, just follow the smell of tar, as well as the new church. Don’t miss to enjoy the nice views of the rivers.
In the center you will also find the Museum-Gallery Alariesto. Andreas Alariesto (1900-1989) was a Finnish painter who died in Sodankylä in 1989. The public gallery had opened here three years earlier in 1986. It is, however, the statue “A Reindeer and a Lapp” by Ensio Seppänen that is probably the most iconic art piece in the village.
If you decide to visit Sodankylä, you probably don’t do it to spend the whole days in the village. It is the surrounding wilderness that attracts many visitors to the area. Hiking, fishing, and gold panning is just a few of the activities that attracts tourists to the area.
How to Get to Sodankylä
- Flights: The closest airport is the Sodankylä Airfield (SOT), at the outskirt of the village. Larger airports are a bit further away, such as the Ivalo Airport (IVL), the Kittilä Airport (KTT), and the Rovaniemi Airport (RVN).
- Car: Sodankylä lies at the intersection between the roads E63 and E75. To the north is Ivalo, to the southeast is Kemijärvi, and to the southwest is Rovaniemi.
The driving distance from 5 major Finnish cities, according to Google Maps:
- Helsinki – 954 kilometers (10 h 50 min)
- Turku – 966 kilometers (11 h 20 min)
- Vaasa – 667 kilometers (8 h)
- Oulu – 349 kilometers (4 h 10 min)
- Joensuu – 677 kilometers (7 h 50 min)
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