Resort Information

It is a church village of Sweden, located at the Muonio River on the border to Finland.

On the Finnish side of the river the Finnish village of Karesuvanto is located (pop. about 140). According to Finnish tradition they are one and the same village (with pop. about 470), but they are usually considered different, since there is a national border in between (although both are called Karesuvanto in Finnish).

The village got its first buildings in 1670, when Måns Mårtensson Karesuando, called "Hyvä Maunu Martinpoika" in Finnish and "Good Maunu, Son of Martin" in English, bought land from Sami Henrik Nilsson Nikkas. The vicar and botanist Lars Levi Laestadius worked in Karesuando where he founded laestadianism named after him.

The area is traditionally Finnish speaking and the border was drawn for political reasons in 1809, not because of any cultural or any other border existing at that time. Later of course a cultural and language difference has grown because of school and church influence.