Konnunsuo landscape area

The Konnunsuo bogs began to be drained into the fields by prison labor in 1917. After the Second World War, new fields were handed over to migrants evacuated from Karelia. Part of the bog area has also been used for peat production and bird wetlands have been planned for the old peatlands, e.g. cranes and geese stop in the area during migration times.

The construction of the current prison buildings in Konnunsuo began in 1921 and the prison complex was completed in the 1930s. The prison is no longer in use in its original purpose. Prison care ended in Konnunsuo in 2011. Konnunsuo Prison is a nationally significant built cultural environment.

The geological elements of Konnunsuo area are the First Salpausselkä deposited on the edge of an ancient continental ice sheet 12,300-12,100 years ago, bordering the northern part of the cultivation areas, and an esker ridge that crosses the area. Farmland has been cleared in the marshes south of the First Salpausselkä and on silt and clay sediments deposited on the bottom of the ancient Baltic Sea. The settlement is located on the esker ridge layered by a glacial river flowing at the bottom of the continental ice sheet. The fragmentary esker ridge runs from the village of Joutseno through the area from northwest to southeast. The rock types of the bedrock resting under the soil layers are rapakivi granite in the southern part of the area and mica gneiss and granodiorite in the northern part.

Photo: Saimaa Geopark