Savonranta
Savonranta is an idyllic small village on the shores of Lake Orivesi, right next to Kolovesi National Park. The heart of the village is the guest harbour – all that one might need can be found at the guest harbour or in its immediate vicinity.
From Savonranta you can easily reach the rugged lake scenery of Kolovesi National Park. If you are canoeing at Kolovesi, you might be greeted by the ever-curious endangered Saimaa ringed seal. Kolovesi National Park and Linnansaari National Park are the only two areas in the world where the Saimaa ringed seal has a protected living environment.
Savonranta used to also be known for its wealthy mills, of which two, the mills of Vuokala and Säimen, are still standing. There has been a mill at the village of Säimen since 1880. The current mill building is from the year 1937. It functions as a museum where objects relating to logging, forestry, farming and house-hold work are on show. Along the route of Vuokala, a water channel going right through the village, there is an old mill built in the 1930s and 1940s. The rapids of Vuokala have been restored to revitalize the stocks of the endangered lake trout.
Did you know that Lake Paasselkä in Savonranta was born by the impact of a meteor 230 million years ago? Stories of light phenomena have been told for 300 years and they are still seen today. Are they ghost fishermen in the night, drowned sailors, an electromagnetic phenomenon or perhaps a biological, conscious creature? This mystery, called the Devils of Paasselkä, is still unsolved.
