Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi lies at the meeting of the Kemijoki and Ounasjoki, where river routes join in the northern interior. First named in records in 1453, it consisted of villages whose households farmed and kept livestock, supplementing their livelihood with fishing and hunting. Its inhabitants belonged to the great parish of Kemi, whose church stood far downstream near the sea.

The people of Rovaniemi contributed to the rebuilding of Kemi's church in stone after its wooden predecessor burned in 1517. A local preaching house at Korkalonniemi was destroyed in a Russian raid in 1611. Another church was erected there, traditionally dated to 1632, and a resident chaplain served the district by 1642. Rovaniemi remained a chapel parish of Kemi until 1785, when it gained a parish of its own.