Encyclopaedia Fennica

Huittinen

At the crossroads of Roads 2 and 12, 65 km from Pori, 70 km from Tampere and 185 km from Helsinki

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About halfway between Tampere and Rauma there is a town named Huittinen. A town of less than 10,000 population 70 km southwest of Tampere, it is not especially notable. There are some crazy sculptures.

By the medieval church, which was significantly expanded in 18-19th centuries, there is a monument to the most famous person from Huittinen, Risto Ryti, the war president of Finland in 1940-1944. After the war he was convinced as a war criminal, under Soviet pressure, although he hadn't really done anything criminal; he got pardoned in 1949.

Somewhere nearby there are coffin-shaped sculptures (there aren't benches, these are actually meant to be coffins, I researched the question!), but I was in Huittinen in February 2022 and couldn't really see the coffins under snow, so here's a Wikipedia picture.

Wikipedia picture
Wikipedia picture

Some youth club in a nice-looking dairy factory, a harmonica museum, a coat of arms with horns and an elk head at the edge of the town. Why horns? According to a local legend, when the local church was built, the devil got mad and hurled a huge boulder into it, but missed and instead hit a man, who was plowing the field on an ox. But it's alright, because he was plowing on Sunday and therefore was a sinner anyway!

Otherwise this is a fairly ordinary place.


Public transport access: Daily buses Helsinki-Pori, Tampere-Rauma, Tampere-Huittinen and others

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