Lake Keitele

The northernmost part of the lake is called Ylä-Keitele. A big part of Ylä-Keitele belongs to Natura 2000 protection program due to its clear water and natural condition.

A leading figure in modern Finnish painting, Akseli Gallen-Kallela first worked at Lake Keitele, in the summer of 1904. This Lake Keitele landscape is his third and most elaborate depiction of the lake, and he exhibited it in Helsinki that same year. The painting is signed with the Swedish form of the artist's name; in later years he used the Finnish form, as above, by which he is best known today. This painting now hangs in the National Gallery, London.

The lake is mentioned prominently in James Church's 2006 novel A Corpse in the Koryo.