Paltaniemi

Paltaniemi is a village on the shores of Lake Oulujärvi, about north of the Kajaani's town center in Kainuu, Finland. It has a population of 291 inhabitants (in December 2020). The Kajaani Airport is located in the eastern side of the village.

From the 17th century until the end of the 19th century, Paltaniemi was the spiritual center of Kainuu, where the most important priests and officials of the parish lived. Paltaniemi's current wooden church, completed in 1726, is the village's third; the first church was destroyed in an earthquake in 1626 and the second church was burned by the Russians during the Great Wrath in 1716. Paltaniemi belonged to Paltamo municipality until 1954, before the village was incorporated into Kajaanin maalaiskunta.