Lappeenranta Things to Do

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Lappeenranta is an old spa, cavalry and tar town which was founded by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1649. The history is still living in the old fortress. You find museums, the oldest Orthodox church in Finland, craftmen's shops and beautiful cafeterias there.

The Cavalry Museum is in the oldest building of the town, a guardhouse from 1772. The museum displays the history of the Finnish cavalry from the Thirty Years' War until today.

The South Karelian Museum is situated in the buildings with thick walls made of limestone and used to be storehouses for provisions and gans.

The South Karelian Art Museum is situated in two barracks from the end of the 18th century.

The Sports Hall is situated in a former prison building completed in the 1880's. The Town Archives is situated in an old barracks building from the 18th century, also served as a prison.

The Pictorial Art School is situated in a building which was designed in 1884 as a sauna, laundry and workshop for a labour prison. Between 1961 and 1985 it served as a cocoa roastery.

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The biggest sandcastle in Scandinavia has been built only of three million kilos of concrete filler sand (that means 180 truckloads), no supporting structures have been used. The sand comes from Rudus sandpit in Rutola, Lappeenranta. The moisturized sand has beeb packed up with the help of plywood moulds and has been sculptured proceeding from the top downwards. The sculptures have been sprayed with a mixture of water and woodglue which composes a protectice coating against raindrops and wind. The sandcastle is open during summer months (new kind of castle in every summer). Free admission.

The nicest place to go to while you are in Lappeenranta is probably the fortress.
Here you can not only find museums and coffee places but also this wonderful church. The church which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary was built as early as 1785 and therefore it is the oldest orthodox church in Finland.

In the 'Central Park' you will find this wooden church that was built in 1794 and which was situated outside the city's boundaries in those days.
The bell tower, by the way, was added to the church much later.

Lappeenranta's wooden town hall was built in 1829 after the drawings of C. Engel (who also designed the Senate Square in Helsinki) and only in 1983 the city's officials moved to a new building.
With its characteristic clock tower the town hall has become one of Lappeenranta's most famous buildings.

As I arrived at night this is actually the first thing I saw when I arrive to Lappeenranta, this church located somewhere at the top of the hill in town and with the special lights its look beautiful and you can see it almost from any place in town.

This art museum located at the fortress just opposite of the Orthodox Church, the museum containing old and modern arts, but as I was here on New Years day, it was closed and I could not visit inside.

Saimaa is the largest lake in Finland, in a country of 200,000 lakes that is something and Lappeenranta is on the southern shores of Saimaa.