Malax

Malax (Swedish, Finnish: Maalahti ) is a municipality in the western Finnish landscape Ostrobothnia. It is located about 20 kilometers south of the city of Vaasa in the archipelago of the Gulf of Bothnia. Around 89 percent of the 5591 population (as of 31 December 2012) are Finland Sweden, 8 percent speak Finnish as their native language. Officially, the municipality is bilingual.

Malax since the Middle Ages was a part of the parish Korsholm (now Korsholm ) and in 1607 of this on their own. Today's municipality Malax created in 1973 with the merger of the formerly independent villages Malax, Petalax and the island community Bergö; 1975, their the northern part of the dissolved municipality Pörtom was also slammed. Malax encompasses so today the districts Yttermalax, Övermalax, Petalax, Bergö, Långåminne, Nyby and Norra Pörtom.

Traditionally, agriculture, forestry and fisheries of great importance; But today employs around 60 percent of employment in the service sector.

The parish church of Malax is located in the old center, today Yttermalax, and was built in 1829 to designs by the Italian architect Charles Bassi. Of tourist interest remains the Kvarken -Boat Museum, the largest of its kind in Scandinavia.