Kuhmoinen

Kuhmoinen is a municipality with 2441 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) in Central Finland. It lies about halfway between the cities of Jyväskylä and Lahti on the western shore of Lake Päijänne.

Community

In addition to the Kirchdorf Kuhmoinen belong to the municipality of the villages Äkämäki, Anttula, Harmoinen, Kaukola, Leppäkoski, Lästilä, Närvä, Pihlajakoski, Pihlajalahti, Puukkoinen, Päijälä, Rasi, Ruolahti, Sappee, Suurijärvi, Tapiala, Tehi and Valkeala.

Coat of arms

Description of coat of arms: In the silver shield three red bars with wavy on the upper side cutting edge.

Location

The municipal area is situated next to the Päijänne still 160 smaller lakes; the picturesque landscape inspired mainly around 1900 painter of the Finnish National Romanticism as Pekka Halonen, Kalle Löytänä, Marcus Collin and Väinö Hämäläinen. The 19 km ² national park Isojärvi located south of the community and was established in 1982.

History

Kuhmoinen has been inhabited since the Stone Age, only in 1992 discovered rock carvings near the village Lästilä are estimated at an age of 6,000 years. On the island Papinsaari medieval artifacts were found, including one called " cocks of Kuhmoinen " ( Kuhmoisten kukot ) known amulet that may be of Byzantine origin.

Attractions

The parish church of Kuhmoinen is a simple wooden cross church with a free-standing bell tower and was built in 1784-85, designed by Matti Åkerblom. The site of the church village and other settlements today is largely a history of new buildings. An exception is the way village Päijälä who collected wood houses for good part of the 19th century. The farm Huhtalan talo in Isojärvi National Park was built in the early 17th century.

Policy

In Kuhmoinen the conservative National Coalition Party is the strongest political force. They surpassed in the local elections of 2008, the hitherto dominant center party, received more than a third of the votes and provides and in the council, the highest decision-making authority in local affairs, 8 out of 21 deputies. The Centre Party received after great loss of votes nurmehr 30.9% of the vote and seven seats. The third largest group are the Social Democrats with five seats, a mandate won the Christian Democrats.