The Villages of Ikaalinen

Riitiala and its neighbouring villages, Heittola, Höytölä, and Kiiala, are ancient farming locations in Satakunta. A pivotal factor in the settlement of those villages is Lake Kyrösjärvi, whose shores were settled in the middle of the Iron Age. People have remained in the same location to this day. The villages of Riititala and Heittola are of great cultural and historical value, are still going strong, and still have a touch of the 19th century about them.

The village district of Iso-Röyhiö is the oldest settled area in eastern Ikaalinen and has been inhabited since the Iron Age. Iso-Röyhiö's Alaskylä was built as a group village in the typical Hämäläinen style. Its village structure is one of the best preserved in the area. The houses are clustered tightly along the village road, on the shore of Lake Kyrösjärvi.

Kallionkieli village, on the shore of Lake Kyrösjärvi, is a very old residential area with a name that may derive from a striking clifftop or ledge. The village is distinctive in that all seven farmhouses were built side by side on the same rock. Two farms were later moved a little apart from the others. Even today, these five farms and their buildings still form a tight 'hamlet.'