In 1976, Toikanniemi in Pieksämäki was changing. From behind the alder trees by the shore rose a concrete, aluminum-clad, glass-surfaced hotel that brought a touch of the big world to a small Finnish town. The newly opened Hotel Savonsolmu felt like a promise of things to come – a landmark of a new era that blended modern architecture, Finnish design, and the confidence of the 1970s.
The project was commissioned by the Pieksämäen Osuuskauppa (Pieksämäki co-op) and designed by architect Maunu Kitunen and interior architect Harry Boström from SOK’s construction division. Together, they created a building that was both a child of its time and ahead of it: exposed concrete, bright aluminum, wide windows, and futuristic interiors.
Combining elements of brutalism and futurism, Hotel Savonsolmu consisted of two parts: a fan-shaped restaurant and conference wing, and a guestroom wing raised on pillars so that the landscape flowed beneath the building all the way to the lake. The design paid homage to Le Corbusier’s ideals – letting nature run freely through the architecture.
The lobby was a temple of its era. The two-story-high space opened to a fountain whose glass bottom revealed a view straight down into the nightclub below – to its dance floor, to the flickering lights shimmering through the moving water. As night fell, the beat of the music pulsed up through the fountain, and reflections from the disco lights sparkled like scenes from a movie.
The main restaurant hall featured a ceiling covered with hundreds of aluminum tubes of various sizes. Lighting, ventilation, and sprinklers were hidden seamlessly within the structure. Light danced across the metallic surfaces, creating illusions of movement and depth – as if dining or dancing inside a spacecraft.
The guestroom floors embraced bold colors and materials: green doors, turquoise carpets, white brick walls, and recesses with built-in ceiling lighting. Spherical door handles, green sinks, and brightly colored towel racks were hallmarks of 1970s design – functional yet playful.
The stylish interiors included Yrjö Kukkapuro’s Saturnus armchairs, Olli Mannermaa’s Kilta chairs, and finely crafted Finnish built-in furniture – beds, sliding-door wardrobes, and luggage racks. Every detail was intentional, because Hotel Savonsolmu aimed to be more than a place to stay – it was an experience in Finnish design, modernism, and comfort.
The pool area, with its saunas and fireplace lounge, was a world of its own. Green tiles, wooden ceilings, and parquet floors contrasted with the concrete elsewhere. A fire burned in the lounge fireplace, where guests gathered after meetings or late-night dances in massive armchairs.
Life and Experience – The Glory Years of Savonsolmu
From the moment it opened, Hotel Savonsolmu became the beating heart of Pieksämäki’s social and nightlife scene. It was a blend of hotel, mini-spa, dance hall, and banquet venue – a place where everyday life was left behind. In the 1970s and ’80s it was famous for events like the legendary “Night of Long Drinks”, when the booze flowed freely, the dance floor was packed, the band played every evening, and the party lasted until dawn.
The restaurant served classics of the era – Chicken Kiev, for example, flambéed theatrically at the table. Downstairs, the Solmu Dance Club was one of the best-known nightclubs in Eastern Finland – a mirror-ball-lit disco where top DJs spun the latest hits and, for a while, the small-town world felt much larger.
The indoor pool was the first of its kind in town, and in summer, a small beach called Solmu Beach opened right in front of the hotel, complete with a water slide. In winter there were tandem ski races and pool parties. Many young people from Pieksämäki and the surrounding towns first felt the thrill of disco – and of celebration – right here.
Savonsolmu was also a business and conference hotel, where people came to negotiate, represent their companies, and train their staff. More than a few contracts were signed at the restaurant’s tables – often after a long dinner.
Expansion, Silence, and the End
In 1982, the hotel was expanded with a new wing featuring balconies and more conference rooms. The addition followed the original style but leaned toward a more stripped-down brutalism – cast-concrete balconies, visible wood-grain formwork, massive pillars. Yet it also broke the harmony and lightness of the original design.
By the late 1980s, the Pieksämäen Osuuskauppa had merged into the regional Cooperative Suur-Savo, and SOK’s hotel strategy was shifting. Savonsolmu changed ownership for the first time.
From the 1990s through the 2010s, the hotel’s yard and lakeside park filled with music each summer during the Savonsolmu Beach & Blues Party – where slide guitars, jazz melodies, and the lapping of lake waves blended together. Since 2002, the Big Wheels car event, held between Savonsolmu and the Poleeni Cultural Center, brought the area alive a few times each summer, making the hotel once again the center of attention, just as it had been in its prime.
Savonsolmu survived the recession of the 1990s and the turbulence of the 2000s, even as the world changed around it. When the hotel finally closed its doors in 2020, it was still surprisingly well preserved – a time capsule of 1970s colors, shapes, and atmosphere.
It remained profitable until the end – barely, but still operating, even as maintenance debts grew. Bankruptcy came only after long attempts to sell, when the last active owner couldn’t find anyone willing to continue the business.
Then came the emptiness. The final link in the chain of owners, an obscure real estate investor named Kalle Kroon, left the building to decay without electricity or heat, both cut off for unpaid bills. Vacant, Savonsolmu soon fell victim to vandalism, and a fire severely damaged the newer wing.
Eventually, the Town of Pieksämäki terminated the land lease due to unpaid rent and was forced to take demolition into its own hands after the building had deteriorated beyond repair.
Now, in October 2025, excavators are about to arrive in Toikanniemi, and the rats that have taken up residence in the old hotel will have to find a new home. The demolition is estimated to cost just under €400,000, and by the summer of 2026, Savonsolmu will be gone for good.
The Legacy of Savonsolmu
Savonsolmu was more than a hotel. It was a monument to its era, a hub of local community life, a collision of modern concrete architecture and a changing way of life. Its aluminum and concrete walls contained thousands of stories: wedding dances, secret affairs, business deals, parties, summer nights.
And even as the building disappears, its light still lingers in those who once walked through its glass doors, heard the trickle of the lobby fountain, and saw the silhouettes dancing below its glass floor.
When the site of Hotel Savonsolmu is nothing but an empty field, the memories will remain – along with the feeling that once, in Pieksämäki, people truly believed in the future.
Savonsolmu was a generation’s dream by the lake – and now, maybe it’s time for new dreams to begin.