14 heart attacks, 3 crazy people, 1 million tourists annually: what an ordinary factory worker did in the forest (12 photos)

A traditional joke on the topic:

Anyone can offend an artist, but you can't dodge an easel flying at your head.





Although, to be honest, the hero of today's article, Finnish artist Veijo Rönkkönen, didn't consider himself an artist at all. He was born in 1944 in a small Finnish village in Finland, where only Finns lived... surprising, right?

The boy's family wasn't wealthy; his parents were workers at a nearby pulp mill. The boy's fate was exactly the same as his parents': he got a job at the same factory, pressing buttons on an automatic press. Basically, he was a press operator.

The salary wasn't high, but since the boy hadn't attended personal growth courses, hadn't seen a coach or subtle vibration specialists, everything was fine with him. Except for one thing: at 16, his parents passed away, and the boy was left all alone.

Well, yes, it's a shame, but when you work and have your own home, life seems manageable. But that's where problems appeared. The thing is, his parents had built a house with borrowed money, and the first person to knock on the boy's door was a bank employee with a proposition:

"Are you going to give us the house right away, or will you suffer?"

To the young man's credit, he was able to explain to the bank employee where he'd seen him, what the bank was doing, and where they were all supposed to go in the near and distant future. However, the issue of repaying the money still had to be resolved, so Vejo had to take out a loan to buy the house, and... they gave him the loan.



You know, in principle, he could have given up the house, moved into a rented apartment, and tried to earn enough money to buy a smaller house. However... the boy's parents' house was:

A. Small

B. Convenient

C. Native

D. On the edge of the village

D. A 50-hectare plot of land, almost entirely covered by dense forest.

As you can imagine, a gift, not a home. So Vejo decided on a gamble: he took out a loan, continued working at the factory, and in the evenings began felling trees on what was now his own plot. And then selling it. Within a couple of years, he had significantly thinned out the dense forest on his plot and, thanks to this, was able to pay off the loan fairly quickly.





And then the eternal questions arose: what to do and how to proceed?

He didn't go crazy, and his life prospects didn't make him lose his mind. He continued working as a press operator at the factory, practiced yoga, and swam every day in the nearby lake in the summer and in the pool in the winter. Neighbors said he swam several kilometers every day and, overall, was always in very good shape.

And then something strange happened: human figures made of concrete began to appear on Vejo's property.

Yes! It was concrete. He made a wire frame himself, coated it with liquid concrete, sculpted a human figure, and painted it. At first, the neighbors dismissed this unusual hobby as a quirk, saying, "Well, he'll just make a couple of concrete friends and then be done with it."



However, the number of "precast concrete buddies" kept growing. At first, they filled the entire space in FRONT of the house, then began to grow toward the forest and further into the central Finnish jungle.

Over time, the boy's skill level improved, and the figures began to resemble real people. The resemblance was further enhanced by... teeth. Veijo inserted his father's lower jaw into his first more or less lifelike human figure. Then he went to a neighboring town and begged a dentist for the extracted teeth.

Don't ask how, but he got them!



By the way, toward the end of Veijo's life, when the park became famous and tourists began flocking there, people from all over the country began sending him teeth for the figures. Everyone wanted to support this unusual Finn who could truly make the country famous worldwide.

So, on a 50-hectare plot, 476 figures of people, not quite people, and not even people at all, grew up. In the park you can find:



"Smiling" figures: The most famous sculptures are hundreds of life-size human figures with very expressive, often unnaturally wide smiles and closed eyes. These smiles are simultaneously friendly, disturbing, and... so intense that seeing these smiles at night can make you want to do something.



Yogis and acrobats: Many figures are frozen in bizarre yoga poses, demonstrating incredible flexibility. This reflected Rönkkönen's passion for yoga—he was a vegetarian and practiced it daily. How he ever found the time, I can't imagine!



Animals and mythical creatures: Amidst the crowds, you can spot sculptures of animals and fantastical creatures. Believe it or not, many of them resemble James Cameron's avatars. The Finns don't say it outright, but they hint that the famous director quietly stole the idea from Veijo.



Self-portraits: The artist often placed himself within his own universe. His self-portraits also feature a characteristic smile, and there are nearly 200 of them. He really went wild!

Soundtrack: Toward the end of his life, Rönkkönen installed speakers in the park, playing recordings of birdsong and natural sounds, enhancing the atmosphere.



Vejo passed away at 66. Exactly a year earlier, he had given up making sculptures, opened his park to the public, and taken up yoga 24/7. They say he simply lost his purpose, and that was his undoing. Whether or not this is true, the municipality decided, "It's not worth wasting a good thing," and turned the strange Finn's house into a park.

Entrance is 5 euros.

Tourists flock there in droves, but before visiting the park, the particularly impressionable are asked to sign a receipt, saying that if your heart decides to pause for a moment, you shouldn't have any complaints against the municipality.



Today, the park is recognized as a Finnish cultural heritage site and is one of the most famous attractions in the eastern part of the country. It attracts tourists, art historians, and anyone seeking a unique experience. And there are plenty of those: since 2010, 14 heart attacks have occurred during visits to the park, and three people have suffered permanent attic collapse.

Furthermore, locals say that Veijo Park has recently begun to show its character: in the evenings, vehicles stop working. Tourists enjoy themselves at first, but when dusk falls and the bus fails to start, impressionable people can even build a Great Pyramid of Giza out of the bricks.



Vejo Park can be viewed in different ways. Some consider it nonsense, others a masterpiece. In any case, it's more than just a collection of concrete artifacts. It's the diary and life's work of one incredibly determined man, who created his own world out of concrete and poured a part of his soul into it. And they say that soul still lives there.

Brrrrrrrrrrr.....