The Rock paintings of Astuvansalmi at Ristiina

These T List rock paintings are, in our view, well worth visiting, despite being somewhat off the main route in this part of SE Finland. It turns out that prehistoric rock paintings are something of a "Finnish speciality" and contribute to an understanding of the early population and even to the current cultures of Fennoscandia. These are around 1.5 hours by road NE of Verla mill on the route to Savonlinna but the return detour at Ristiina and the walk to/from the paintings will add around 2.5 hours to the direct journey to S.

In Ristiina the destination is signed both at the town’s entrance and exit along 4323. There are no more signs along a good road until the car park 19kms further on. The sign there gives no indication of how far the walk to the paintings is - for most people around 30-45 minutes each way I would guess plus “viewing time” of c30 minutes. The start of the path is marked by a small wooden pointer on which is marked an example of a painting of an Elk from the site – the dot/circle represents the animal’s heart (photo). The path rises and falls a bit and was a bit muddy in places (we faced intermittent rain!) but, despite it being August, we were not bothered by mosquitoes. There was a small number of mainly Finnish visitors (with some Russians) along the track on the Wednesday pm we visited. The car park only takes around 10 …

It's hard to miss this place when you're driving around eastern Finland. There are roadsigns to this site from all the main roads and it's good thing because these rock paintings are in the middle of nowhere. Walk from the road to the paintings can feel long for those who are not fit and in summer the forest is full of mosquitos. But when you get to the site it's all worth of suffering. Paintings are really clear and there is lots of them. Usually Finnish rock painting sites include only one painting or the paintings are almost disappeared. Surroundings are beautiful with Lake Saimaa sparkling in summer sunshine. Information is available in English at the site. There is a dock for a boat if you are sailing around Saimaa. I think this would be good add to the World heritage list.It really represents eastern Nordic history.