Pieksämäki is one of Finland's four "Mäki's" known of and developed by railways (the other three being Haapa-, Riihi- and Seinämäki). Pieksämäki happens to be a place, where one of the joints of the state's railways was formed in 19th century. This village, rapidly populated by railway labour was declared a city in 1962, but recent times have been tough for the city, since railways no longer employ that many people.

Partially because of rationalisations of railway company, and partially because of other reasons there are many buildings around the town that are not used, or that have very secondary use. Practically all of them have been built by the former state's railway company.

Finns should know that Pieksämäki is provenly the worst city of Finland (according to a "research" about unhappiness in Finnish cities, published by the paper Helsingin Sanomat in 1990's). But it has it's good bits. I will not comment anything about the rest that the town has to offer, but all the railway stuff is something that gives a reason to visit the place every now and then.