Sysmä Summer Sounds

The ”Church of A Million Bricks” in Asikkala is located six kilometres from Vääksy in the direction of Sysmä. The church was built in 1880 and designed by architect Georg Wilenius, who also chose the location for the church. Located on Makasiininmäki Hill, the church can be seen from almost all of the villages of Asikkala. The bricks of the church were manufactured in the village of Pulkkila. Altogether one million bricks were needed for the church.

Asikkala Church is unusually large, as it seats 1,200 people. The interior height is 16 metres. The cross at the tip of the tower extends to 54 metres. The style of the church is primarily neo-Roman, but there are also neo-Gothic details.

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This information only in Finnish

Hartolan nykyinen uusi kirkko on rakennettu vuosina 1911-13. Sen suunnitteli arkkitehti Josef Stenbäck. Kerrotaan, että osa kirkon rakennuskivistä on louhittu kirkon paikalta, osa Ylemmäisten kylästä. Kirkko on uusgotiikan ja jugend-tyylin vaikutteita sulattanut kansallisromantiikan tyylinen graniittikirkko.

Hartolan kirkko sijaitsee Hartolan keskustassa, 20 kilometriä itään Sysmästä.

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When Donizetti’s Il Campanello was premiered at Sysmä Summer Sounds in 1987, Sysmä got its own opera house (oopperatalo), the Opera Barn (oopperalato). The old log house, situated in the courtyard of the Ilola Manor, had functioned as a venue of parties and entertainment over the years, and was already known through another pun, ”Ilolan riemuriihi”, which means ’the merry kiln of the merry place’.

The fantastic crowd of Summer Sounds volunteers renovated the old building, which was named Ilola Opera Barn. This was at the time of the debate about the opera house in Helsinki, and so the press drew a headline about the courageous Sysmä project: ”When there was dawdling in Helsinki, Sysmä went ahead and built its own opera house”.

Ilola Opera Barn is located six kilometres from the centre of Sysmä in the direction of Suopelto.

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Luhanka Church is one of the biggest wooden churches in Finland. It was designed by Josef Stenbäck and inaugurated in 1893. It seats up to 2,000 listeners. The romantic lighting of paraffin lamps and candles – there is no heating in the church – brings extra atmosphere to many occasions and captivates the audience. In addition, the good acoustics has brought Luhanka Church fame as a concert venue.

Luhanka Church is located right at the centre of Luhanka, 45 kilometres north of Sysmä.

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The Nordenlund manor estate, situated on the shore of Lake Nuoramoinen in Sysmä, has a long and colourful history. The estate's first owner was officer Sigfrid Henricsson, renamed Silferbögel through ennoblement, to whom it was awarded for his war efforts by King Carlus IX in 1605. The estate has been owned by the current family since 1740.

The main manor house is about 200 years old, though its current facade, designed by Alfred Cawén is from 1868. The estate, currently comprising 330 hectares, is home to 100 heads of beef cattle. In addition to beef, sugarbeet and barley are also farmed.

Tourism also forms part of the activities. Two large and luxurious suites on the upper floor of the main manor house are available at a cost of 100/120 € per room/night including breakfast. A sauna by the lake with accommodation for four is also available for rent.

Nordenlund is part of the Sysmä Manors Tour ("Sysmän Kartanokierros"), where the owners give guided group tours of their manor estates. Coffee and catering can also be arranged.

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The history of Olkkola Old Manor, situated in the Nuoramoinen village, dates to the first half of the 17th century and the start of the Olkkola horse farm. Pieces of ceramics from the Iron Age that have been found in the Manor premises give insight into the area’s long inhabited history.

At the end of the 18th century the Olkkola horse farm was divided into two. Factory owner Gustav Adolf Bökman then gained ownership of the Olkkola Old Manor. After that the Manor was owned by the Orraeus and the Haartman families before Carl Wilskman bought it in 1885. He had the present main building of the Manor built in the area between Lake Nuoramoinen and the road to Kalkkinen. The building is lined in the style of New Renaissance but also demonstrates decorative craftsmanship, and its floor plan shows aspiration to asymmetry characteristic of the fashionable villa architecture of the era.

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This information only in Finnish

Läpi kumpuilevien niittyjen ja peltojen, ohi maalaistalojen ja lehmihakojen, osittain Päijänteen rantaviivaa mukaillen johtaa Päijänteen Maisematie idylliseen Särkilahden kylän Soiniemeen ja Tunnelmaravintola Kivilinnaan. Maalaispihapiirin aurinkoisella rinteellä, luonnonkauniin niittypellon vieressä odottaa Kivilinna, vanha 1800-luvun jykevä kivinavetta vieraitaan.

Kivilinnan muutostyöt ja sisustus on rakennettu perinteitä vaalien. Vanha navetta on muuttunut persoonalliseksi 120 paikkaiseksi A-oikeuksin varustetuksi ravintolaksi.

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Restaurant Uoti is located right in the centre of Sysmä.

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The bookshop is located at the very centre of Sysmä, and was erected on its current spot in 2004. The beautiful bookshop was mainly built by Heikki Oksanen, the shop owner himself. The logs used in the building were those of the former old people’s home of Sysmä.

In addition to the bookshop, there is also a space for small events in the building as well as a showroom on the upper floor.

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The earliest record on churches in Sysmä dates from 1398. The present stone church is mentioned for the first time in 1442 in a letter from King Christopher. Around those days Sysmä had become the spiritual centre of the eastern part of Tavastia (Häme) province. The precise time of the building of Sysmä church has not been firmly concluded, but it is considered one of the oldest in Finland. The legend has it that the church started being built in Kuokanmäki, in the village of Linna, but what was built during the day, got somehow demolished during the night. Hence the place was found unsuitable. So a stone considered holy was placed on a sleigh, and a bull was harnessed to pull the sleigh. It was decided: ”There shall the church rise, where the bull shall halt.” The bull stopped where the church stands today.

The medieval, Gothic church of Sysmä is build of grey granite stone and burnt bricks. During its 550-year history, it has experienced many changes and repairs, brought by the Reformation, other developments and the changing needs of each period. The most substantial external change was carried out in 1833, when the church was changed into a cross-form church according to the plan of Carl Ludwig Engel, most renowned for designing the monumental centre of Helsinki.

Sysmä Church is located one kilometre from the centre of Sysmä in the direction of Suopelto.

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Sysmän Yhteiskoulu (Sysmä Secondary School) is located right in the centre of Sysmä.

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Suvisaari is located right in the centre of Sysmä, 300 metres south of public square.

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This information only in Finnish

suvi-pinx on suomalaisen nykytaiteen kesäkatselmus, jonne vuosittain kutsutaan noin 50 maamme eturivin kuvataiteilijaa. Heiltä on esillä näyttävät kokoelmat maalauksia, veistoksia ja grafiikkaa. suvi-pinx sijaitsee Sysmän Suopellossa kauniin Päijänteen itärannalla kuusi kilometriä Sysmän keskustasta. Kesällä 2008 näyttelyä ei järjestetä.

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The Theatre House of Sysmä was designed by the architectural firm Nyström-Petrelius-Penttilä in 1898 to function as the office building of the Savings Bank of Sysmä. Today it is owned by the municipality of Sysmä. The building represents National Romanticism.

The Theatre House is located right in the centre of Sysmä.

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The history of Virtaa manors is known to have started in the 16th century, for an atlas describing Finnish settlements in the 1560’s shows that there have been two houses in Virtaa at that time. In 1688 the possession of Virtaa family estate, under obligation to equip cavalrymen with mounts, was obtained by Johan Tandefelt (1648–1712).

The legend has it that the present Vanha-Kartano manor dates to the 18th century. It is likely that this building was commissioned after the 1720’s by Johan Tandefelt’s heir, captain Adam Wilhelm Tandefelt (1683–1742), after he had returned from Sweden, where he and his family had fled during the Great Northern War (1700–1721). He himself did not live in Virtaa, but in Hovila manor which he owned as well. His widow is told to have moved to Virtaa from Hovila.

Vanha-Kartano is located seven kilometres south of Sysmä, on the road from Sysmä to Vääksy. Vanha-Alasin is an idyllic concert hall and a stylistic club house built by voluntary workers in an old cowshed in the courtyard of the manor.

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Virtaan kartanosta maanjaon yhteydessä muodostettu uusi kartano sai nimekseen Fredriksgård (Uusikartano) ilmeisesti omistajansa Jacob Fredrik Stormbomin (1778-1809) mukaan. Hän on mitä todennäköisimmin kartanon rakennuttaja ja rakennustyöt on tehty aivan 1700-luvun lopussa. Vuonna 1871 Fredriksgård siirtyi Stormbom-suvulta Magnus Fredrik Tandefeltille (1830-1902). Vuonna 1876 tilasi Magnus Tandefelt Virtaan kartanon päärakennusta varten muutospiirustukset arkkitehti Florentin Granholmilta. Kartanon alkuperäisen, pohjakaavaltaan karoliinisen päärakennuksen pohjoispäähän liitettiin kaksikerroksinen poikittainen lisäosa, joka on pohjamuodoltaan neliömäinen.

Virtaan kartano sijaitsee seitsemän kilometriä Sysmästä etelään, Sysmä-Vääksy-tien varrella.

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