The road winds between green birch forests, cows graze in an idyllic field landscape and water lurks behind the trees. A cuckoo is falling somewhere nearby. In the completely Karelian landscape, you start humming the song "Karelian municipalities" without noticing it. We are in Uukuniemi, right next to the Russian border.
Uukuniemi area is already mentioned in 1500 as a village belonging to the keep of Sortavala. In 1589, Uukuniemi became the chapel congregation of the Kurkijoki Orthodox congregation. Uukuniemi, which lost most of its territory in the Second World War, is now part of Parikkala municipality.
Uukuniemi's Papinniemi, a strip of land reaching into the clear-water Pyhäjärvi, is particularly interesting from an Orthodox perspective. There is an Orthodox village that was already deserted in the 17th century.
