Penedo Finnish Village

A group of Finns arrived here in 1929 following the teachings of Toivo Uuskallio, who preached vegetarianism, abstinence and a return to the land, and bought a farm in the hills below Itatiaia to build a colony. The agricultural project largely failed - the crops they knew did not suit the climate - but the community stayed, and Penedo kept the language, the sauna culture and the folk dance for generations. What a visitor finds now is largely commercial: a Finnish cultural centre with a small museum and dance evenings, wooden buildings in a northern idiom, sauna houses, chocolate and jam shops, and a Christmas house open all year. It is not a preserved settlement so much as a themed one built on a real history.

What you actually see

• A 1929 Finnish colony - founded on a vegetarian back-to-the-land doctrine.
• Sauna houses - the tradition kept and now sold to weekend visitors.
• A cultural centre - the small museum and folk dance evenings.
• A year-round Christmas house - the commercial layer over the history.

When to go

April to September. A day.

Honest expectations

This is a weekend commercial destination rather than a living immigrant village, and the Finnish content is thin outside the cultural centre. Weekends are crowded and the single main street jams. Prices are aimed at day trippers from Rio and Sao Paulo.

Nearby

Itatiaia National Park is above; Resende and the Dutra highway are below.