The ruins at lake Verkkojärvi

The croft of Verkkojärvi (originally croft of Werkkoniemi) is located at the shore of lake Verkkojärvi close to Rajala’s hut.

In this croft Josef Johansson and Serafia Kaisasdotter had their sixth child Matts, called Matti, the last inhabitant of this croft. You can still see his handiwork on the shoreside. Matti was afraid of fire and frogs, so he built high stone walls around the wooden croft. The man and his horse pulled ever bigger stones around the housing so that the causes of his fear would not be able to reach his living space. He also laid a path covered in stones to the waterline. It is told that due to his fears Matti slept in a wooden coffin under a lid.

The stone walls didn’t help in the end, and Matti’s home was destroyed in a – you guessed it – fire. After this Matti left Verkkojärvi and went to work as a farmhand elsewhere.

The ruins are still visible at Verkkojärvi and you can really understand the amound of work Matti put into the project just by looking at the ruins.