Brazilian Edson fell in love with Finnish Helena—and her lakeside sauna

Helena Cardoso sets the table with Arabia’s vintage cups. They’re not from flea markets, as one would expect, but cups that Helena’s mother bought for this cottage in the 1950s or ’60s.

“They’ve always been here, just like almost everything else. We never think about things here being old, it’s just how it has always been.”

Helena and Edson Cardoso’s summer retreat on Kiperonsaari Island in Leppävirta could be a cottage museum. The buildings are original, with no electricity or running water. In summer, the couple spends all their free time at the cottage. The trip takes less than half an hour.

“We used to come here for only a couple of weekends each summer, but two years ago we moved from Helsinki back to my hometown of Varkaus. Kipero was one of the biggest reasons for our return,” Helena explains.

The sauna cottage is right by the shore. Helena and Edson sleep in its fireplace room. There’s also a summer room upstairs.

The narrow island is kipero (Savonian dialect for ‘crooked’) like a goat’s horn, hence its name. The distance from the mainland to the southern tip of Kipero Island is 400 meters by boat. The island and the lands on the mainland in Saahkarlahti village largely belonged to Helena’s relatives and still do.

The narrow path on the ridge behind the cottage isn’t wide enough to walk hand in hand. There’s room for a kiss, though.

The Cardosos enjoy cottage life under two roofs. The oldest “upper cottage” was completed on the island in 1950 on a plot given to Helena’s parents by her grandfather. The cottage was built from the log frame of a granary over a hundred years old, moved onto the island from Helena’s mother’s home farm. The upper cottage has only 12 square meters of space.

“Dad built windows for the granary and built a porch. Since then, we’ve only lightly painted the walls and renewed the floors, stairs, and railings,” Helena says.

The frame of the small “upper cottage” is an old log granary. There is also a kitchen in the upper cottage.

The old numbering is still visible on the logs of the upper cottage. They were useful when the granary was moved from the mainland and reassembled on the island.

The Finnish-Brazilian art gallery couple enjoys their time on Kipero Island on Lake Unnukka in Leppävirta.

Helena’s father once moved two stones onto the shore where he and Helena’s mother used to sit. Helena hasn’t moved the stones since.

The evening sun shines on the sauna dock, where the couple can admire the sunset.

Eight years later, the 30-square-meter “lower cottage” was built on the plot, housing a sauna and a fireplace room. The building also has an attic that fits three double beds. Every summer, Helena’s daughter Katja and her family of five come visit from Sweden for three weeks. The whole family fits comfortably in the attic.

Helena recalls how nervous she was when she brought Brazilian Edson to Kipero for the first time 23 years ago.

“I was afraid that the island’s silence and the bright nights of May would be a shock for Edson, who had previously lived in Rio de Janeiro. Here you can only hear birds singing and the splash of waves.”

However, Edson was totally enchanted by Kipero. During his first summer at the cottage, he learned to row and chop firewood from trees felled by Helena’s son-in-law. Edson became a great sauna enthusiast, who still heats the sauna almost daily. He likes to enjoy the gentleness of the wood-burning sauna for hours, much longer than Helena.

“In the sauna, you can just sit quietly and think. All my best exhibition ideas have come to me in there,” Edson says.

The lake is so close that Helena and Edson don’t feel the need for installing a water pump in the sauna.

Brazilian Edson was so captivated by Kipero’s wood-burning sauna that he takes a sauna almost every day at the cottage.

The sauna looks the same as it did over 60 years ago. The stove, benches, and floor have only been replaced a few times over the years.

Helena’s father planed the wall panels in the sauna chamber himself. He planed panels for furniture as well, such as the light-colored cabinet in the sauna chamber.

Helena’s father crafted a handy brush rack for the sauna chamber. It’s still in use.

The cast-iron wood stove in the kitchen of the upper cottage spreads a sweet warmth to the room in the mornings. The kettle simmers on the stove in preparation for Brazilian drip coffee. Vintage dishes hide in the cabinets.

“Dad and mom’s opinion was that the cottage wasn’t some dump. Almost everything they brought here was new or made by dad. He could build anything. He even planed the wall panels of the lower cottage himself,” Helena says.

There is also other skilled handiwork on display. On the porch of the upper cottage, there lies a rag rug with intricate Karelian patterns, woven by Helena’s paternal grandmother in Karelia.

Nearly all the dishes in the small cottage are original, bought by Helena’s parents and received as wedding gifts.

The kitchen furniture in the small cottage has always been blue.

The hide of a moose felled by Helena’s father hangs on the wall of the cottage kitchen. The gas refrigerator appeared at the cottage in the mid-1970s and is still in use.

The kitchen’s wood stove is often heated with twigs.

Helena owns the cottages jointly with her sister. Since her sister lives in Sweden, she doesn’t visit Kipero often.

“In my childhood, we were here whenever dad and mom had time off,” Helena reminisces.

Her work as an instructor at Nokia took Helena abroad for years, but every summer she returned to Kipero for her vacation. The Cardosos still travel a lot because of their work as international gallerists. They have their own art gallery and art lending service in Varkaus.

“It’s always wonderful to return here from abroad,” Helena says.

Due to the six-hour time difference with Brazil, Edson’s work phone often starts ringing in the early evening. He then sits next to Helena on the veranda of the lower cottage and handles exhibition matters. Once work is done, they might play chess or cards, or simply sit quietly side by side in old wicker chairs.

“We love the light of candles and lanterns so much that we haven’t even bought solar panels. I know our cottages and the terrain so well that I could move around here with my eyes closed,” Helena says.

Helena recently found an unused lace curtain crocheted by her mother. It was a perfect fit for the upper cottage’s front door. The door’s previous lace curtain had become brittle.

Kipero has excellent phone service, so Edson can handle even worldwide art exhibition matters from the cottage.

You won’t find modern art on the gallery couple’s cottage walls. The small tapestry was woven by Helena’s mother. Helena and Edson placed the old bed and bench in the fireplace room side by side to create a double bed. The beautiful bedspread is from China, where Helena used to live.

There’s a cozy seating area in front of the fireplace room window.

The old radio in the cottage runs on batteries. It also has a cassette player.

A photographer friend of Helena’s parents once spent a day on Kipero and captured summer life as a memory. Some of the photos are now on the fireplace room wall. Helena’s father is in the leftmost picture.

The wooden ships on the fireplace room windowsill are from Brazil.

There are about ten cottages on the island, but the place is so secluded that there’s no need for swimsuits. The plot includes the ridge behind the cottages and a small island accessible by swimming. As a child, Helena named it Santa Helena.

The veranda of the lower cottage resides partially over the water, and the sun shines there all day. Helena often sits there, watches birds, and enjoys the silence.

In spring, ice blocks breaking off from Lake Unnukka change the shape of the shoreline every year. One time, the ice broke off with such force that it pushed the rocks on the shoreline into the cottage. The rocks broke the cottage wall and the fireplace in the room. Now the cottage is a bit tilted.

“Every spring, we wonder how much longer its foundation will last.”

Helena’s daughter’s family is currently renovating a neighboring cottage they purchased.

“We can move there if we need to,” Helena plans.

One of the cottage’s charming pieces of furniture is a chair used by Helena’s mother as a little girl. The rag rug under the chair is over a hundred years old.

The veranda of the lower cottage is the best place Helena knows.

Helena’s favorite pastime is collecting twigs on the cottage grounds.

Goosanders and arctic loons often swim in front of the dock. Helena has captured the lake scenery in thousands of photographs.

The stretch of water called Änäkänselkä on Lake Unnukka is near the cottage island.

Helena and Edson brought the white hammock from Brazil.

Although time has stood still on Kipero for decades, the couple has not entirely managed without some modern conveniences. Once, Katja’s friend unexpectedly glided to the cottage shore on a SUP board, towing another SUP board loaded with pizza boxes. It was the first time pizza was eaten on Kipero.