Iisalmi Things to Do

Olvi Ltd is a beer brewery in the upper part of Middle-Finland, in the city of Iisalmi. Olvi is also the mark of their most famous beer.

The parent company Olvi plc was founded on 5 October 1878. Today the company is listed in Helsinki exchanges, has business in many countries and employs 1000 persons.

Olvi organises guided tours; you can see the equipment with which and how the beer is brewed. You also get a chance to taste the beer.

The museum of local history and culture of Ylä-Savo is situated in a very beautiful and nice location just a few hundred metres from the centre of Iisalmi. The main building is about 300 years old and has been moved to this location from Vieremä. Other buildings (shed, storehouse, granary, windmill) are originally situated all over Ylä-Savo. The museum of local history and culture was opened to the public in 1964. The main building is a tradiotional finnish smoke cabin. You can still smell the smoke which is coming from the walls of cabin. In the museum you can familiarize yourself with everyday life of Finnish farmers of the 18th and 19th century.

The museum is open from tuesday to friday 11-17, saturdays 11-16 and sundays 12-16. Admission fee is 2 euros for adults and 1 euro for childrens.

The independent Iisalmi Parish was established 15.2.1627. The first parish church burnt down in 1699. By the late 18th century, a new parish church was needed. By the Swedish law all churches in at the time were to be built of stone. In lack of suitable stone material and skilled labour, and lacking the necessary funds, the people of Iisalmi got a royal permission for a new wooden church. The church was finished in 1779 and named after the future king Gustav IV Adolf. To commemorate the 225th anniversary of the old church, a small church museum was opened in the church in June 2004. The exhibition portrays the vicissitudes of congregation and operations throughout its entire history. Church is open at summertime daily 11am-6pm, otherwise by arrangement.

The Juhani Aho museum offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the writer`s home and parsonage culture predominant during the end of the 1880s. Many of the articles in the museum are those that have once belonged to Juhani Aho himself. A windmill, wartime storehouse, cellar, servant`s quarters, storage houses, barn and sauna are dotted the area of the yard. The museum is open 1.-31.5. Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, 1.6.-31.7. Mon-Sun 10am-6pm, 1.-31.8. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm.

Situated in Iisalmi town centre, in the heart of Yla-Savo (Northern Savo district), the eminent byzantine Karelian Orthodox Cultural Centre with its domes blends in beatifully with the area. Harmony, the essence of the Karelian Otrhodox Cultural Centre, creates an attractive ambience and enhances the atmosphere of festivities or an everyday conference. The Karelian Orthodox Cultural Centre maintains the Orthodox culture and offers for visitors an opportunity to admire the beautiful frescos and the stained glass windows as well as models and icons of churhces and tsasounas that were left in Karelia after the war. Don`t forget to visit in St. Eliah Church which is situated in the Immediate vicinity of the Karelian Orthodox Cultural Centre. The church features wall paintings which were completed in 1995. These magnificent painting, which cover approximately 450 square meters, are unique in Northern Europe.