Since 1889
The colourful history of Mestarin Kievari started in 1889, now it is the 4th generation hosting the inn leaded by Lasse Ketonen.
Mestarin Kievari opened the doors in 1889 at Kirkkokatu in Kemijärvi by Lasse’s great grandmother Maria Snicker. Perusaded by her relatives, she came to Kemijärvi from Karelia (North-eastern Finland) with her 4 sons and built an inn. There were 2 floors and a cellar. Four rooms were for lodgings.
At that time inns were much more than just a place to rest, they were shops, coffee shops, bakerys, stables for horses, storage rooms and jails. By the time Fanny’s husband Heikki came to Kemijärvi with their 2-year old daughter by wagon, the inn blossomed. Fanny also made medicine from herbs and cured fever diseases and frostbites.
The exodus back to Finland brought people to the north for logging sites; it was the times of green cold (Forests were and still remain as Finlands greatest natural resource). Lasse’s grandmother Jenny Snicker got married. The inn was sold and it became a co-operative shop. Jenny and her husband built a new inn beside the old one. Grandmother and her daughters ran a coffee shop, bakery and lodgings nearby. The shop also expanded to the nearby villages of Pelkosenniemi and Isokylä.
During the war the bakery baked bread for the army. In the inn there lived a German commander who was in charge of the maintenance of the front in Salla. There were no common language between the inn keepers and the German but everything got sorted out. Instead the servant of the commander caused trouble; he did not know how to heat the oven and he frequently used a bathing towel for polishing his shoes.
Lasse’s mother Elna was very young when she started to help in the shop and became a shopkeeper while still at school. All the brothers were killed in the war, only the sisters survived. She met Ahti at Kemijärvi. Ahti was a man who had travelled since he was a young man and had seen the world. Ahti had abandoned his career in the navy while in Marseille and joined the French Foreign Legion. As a multilingual man he worked as a porter in the famous hotel KAMP. Later he ended up in Petsamo to work in the local post office; he also employed himself as a boat and bus driver. He founded "Ketosen Liikenne", a transportation company, which is still operating in the family.
Lasse Ketonen had received only one instruction for life from his father; there is always warm and plenty of work in the restaurant branch. After the schools Lasse worked in ships and in top restaurants in Finland and Sweden. In Sweden he found himself a spouse, she happened to come from the same village.
After settling in Kemijärvi the couple built a cottage. Later they started to dream of a business of their own; nice lodgings, excellent food and good company –Mestarin Kievari was arised.
The business has developed year after year. The hotel has expanded and is now more versatile. The entrepreneur couple found an old log house just by the centre of Kemijärvi by the lake. This beautiful log house is now restored and extended; it is a very popular place for festive occasions and conferences. In the courtyard there is also an old storehouse from the 19th century and just by the lake shore a sauna with a nice chamber.
The old saying "the rolling stone gathers no moss" reflects perfectly Lasse Ketonen. He has plenty of new ideas and plans how to develop the business, there will be more room for lodgings and new ship M/S Ahti is cruising soon on Kemijärvi lake and river...