Larsmo

Larsmo ( Swedish), Finnish Luoto, is a municipality with 4965 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) in Western Finland. It is located in the archipelago off the coast of Ostrobothnia landscape. Larsmo is next Korsnäs and Närpes one of the three Finnish communities outside Åland, where only official language is Swedish. 93.2 % of residents are Finland Sweden, approximately 6% are Finnish speakers.

Geography

The territory of Larsmo extends over hundreds of islands and islets in the Gulf of Bothnia, the coastline measures around 500 km. The straits between the two main islands and Eugmo Larsmo and mainland were closed in 1962 by dams; the underlying bay was separated from the Baltic Sea and is now a freshwater lake represents the Larsmosjön. With an area of 85 km ² and a capacity of 213 million cubic meters, it is one of the largest artificial freshwater reservoirs in Finland. About the dams, the so-called "Seven Bridge Road", the Larsmo leads with the cities of Kokkola in the north and Jakobstad connects to the south.

History

The municipality consists Larsmo since 1867. It maintains partnerships to places Klæbu (Norway) and Malå (Sweden). The most important industry in Larsmo is the boat building; several medium-sized companies in this industry have settled here.

Attractions

The wooden church of Larsmo was built in 1787 by Jacob Rijf. Also worth seeing is a monument on the small island Orrskär, reminiscent of the SS John Grafton. This British steam boat had had to smuggle weapons in 1905 for the Finnish resistance movement into the country during the Russian Revolution, but then ran at Orrskär due. Under the help of the local population, the weapons were unloaded, the ship's crew blew up the ship and fled across the Baltic Sea to Sweden.