Helvetinjärvi

Helvetinjärvi National Park was founded in 1982 in the municipality of Ruovesi, in the Pirkanmaa region, and covers some 50 km². Its name, which literally means "hell's lake", comes from the place names with which local tradition christened its most abrupt formations.

The landscape is dominated by geological features formed millions of years ago: a system of fractures in the bedrock that has produced straight valleys, vertical cliffs and deep clefts, occupied today by long, narrow lakes set between rock walls. The best-known formation is Helvetinkolu, "hell's gorge", a narrow cleft between walls that is descended with the help of ladders and that was already a tourist attraction in the nineteenth century, despite how remote and unpopulated the area was.

Between the cliffs and the lakes extend pine and spruce forests and some peat bogs, and on the shores there are sandy beaches such as Haukanhieta, beside Lake Haukkajärvi. The park is one of the starting points of the Pirkan Taival trail network, some 300 kilometres long, which it shares with neighbouring Seitseminen. The combination of cliffs and dark water has inspired Finnish artists since the nineteenth century.