Kouvola

Kouvola [ kɔu̯vɔlɑ ] is a city in southern Finland. Located on the River Kymi city is the administrative headquarters of the landscape Kymi and an important railway junction. Besides the city itself is one of Kouvola administratively a vast area of over 2,800 square kilometers in the surrounding area. Kouvola has a total of 87 323 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012), of which lives a good third in the core city.

Geography

The core city of Kouvola is located in the northern part of the landscape Kymi 134 kilometers northeast of the capital Helsinki. In addition, an extensive area is part of the administrative city area since a large congregation merger at the beginning of 2009 in the surrounding areas with a total area of ​​2885 km ² (slightly more than Luxembourg ). This area is mostly rural with structured individual intervening settlement centers ( taajama ). The main population centers in addition to the core city, the industrial towns Kuusankoski, Myllykoski, Inkeroinen and Anjala.

The Salpausselkä ridge divides the region of Kouvola in a sea-rich and densely forested northern part and a southern part, which is poor in inland waters and is intensively used for agriculture. The area is traversed by the Kymi River, one of the largest rivers in southern Finland.

Neighboring communities of Kouvola are Mäntyharju in the north, Savitaipale in the northeast, Luumäki in the east, in the southeast of Hamina, Kotka in the south, Loviisa and Lapinjärvi the southwest, Iitti in the west and Heinola in the northwest.

History

The area of Kouvola, the northern part of Kymi, historically the border region of Uusimaa landscapes and Karelia. In the Treaty of Åbo, the area was divided in 1743 along the river course of the Kymi River between Sweden and Russia. 1809 finally came all the territory of present-day Finland to Russia and became the Grand Duchy of Finland.

The place Kouvola is already occupied since the 15th century, was to the 19th century an obscure village of the parish Valkeala. The upturn Kouvolas began after the place in 1875 received a stop on the railway line from Riihimäki to St. Petersburg. Within the next two decades, more rail lines were completed from north to Kuopio and south towards Kotka, Kouvola so became a railway junction and soon grew into a populous place. As industrialization emerged in the late 19th century to the rapids of the Kymi River in the area of Kouvola several paper mills. In Kuusankoski the corporation Kymin osakeyhtiö was founded in 1872. From this the Kymmene Group showed in 1996 again in UPM -Kymmene, one of the world's largest forest and paper companies, came up.

1922 Kouvola was released from the community Valkeala. Just one year later the place to a small market town ( kauppala ) was charged. The city was chartered Kouvola 1960. Between 1955 and the province reform of 1997 Kouvola was the capital of the province of Kymi. As part of the ongoing restructuring of the Finnish municipalities there came the beginning of 2009 in a large municipality fusion, in which the cities Anjalankoski and Kuusankoski and the municipalities Valkeala, Jaalah and Elimäki united with Kouvola. This has tripled the number of inhabitants Kouvolas, the area grew even over the more than sixty times.

Policy

Management

The strongest political force in Kouvola is the Social Democratic Party, which has traditionally strong support, especially in the industrial locations. In the local elections 2008, she received about a quarter of the votes in the city council, the highest decision-making authority in local affairs, makes them 20 out of 75 deputies. In second place is the conservative National Coalition Party with 17 seats in the city council. The third major party in the country, the Centre Party, which has its electorate, especially in the rural areas of Finland, comes to thirteen seats. Furthermore, represented in the City Council are the independent electoral list Kouvolan Seudun Sitoutumattomien yhteislista with ten, the Christian Democrats and the right-wing populist base with five Finns, the Left Alliance with three and the Green belt with two deputies.

Coat of arms

The city of Kouvola adopted by the municipality merger of 2009, a new coat of arms, which was designed by artist Tapani Talari. It shows in black and a golden sechsspeichiges Glevenrad over a abgesteilten with wave cut silver sign foot. The six spokes symbolizing the six municipalities that went up in Kouvola, while the glaives for the sword lily, the flower landscape of Kymi stand. The waves indicate the river Kymi. Black and silver are the heraldic colors of the landscape Kymi.

Before the fusion community Kouvola led from 1952 to 2008 by a heraldist Gustaf of Numers lined coat of arms. It was in black and a silver cross Schrage, is two crossed keys in red

Twinning

Kouvola entertains with Balatonfured, Hungary, Mülheim an der Ruhr in Germany and Vologda in Russia since 2009 twinning. The rest of twinning, which had risen in Kouvola entertain the communities, ended at the end of 2008, since the former municipalities legally no longer exist by the municipality merger.

Traffic

Kouvola is a major railway junction. From here run rail lines in four directions: About Lahti to Helsinki and Riihimäki, to Kotka, Mikkeli and from there to Pieksämäki and after Luumäki where a route to Joensuu and via the border town Vainikkala leads to Russia. The capital Helsinki can be reached in under one and a half hours. The trains stop at " travel center" of Kouvola, a combined bus and rail maintenance.

By Kouvola and the state highways 6 of Pernå to Kajaani and 15 of Kotka lead to Mikkeli. In addition, Kouvola endpoint of coming from Rauma state road is 12

Culture and sights

Kouvola is a rather faceless city, which is dominated by commercial buildings from the 1970s. Some valuable monuments are found but outside the urban core: In the village of Verla is a cardboard factory founded in 1882, which was in 1964 transformed into an industrial museum. In 1996, the factory complex was included as an outstanding example of the industrial architecture of the 19th century in the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage. Worth seeing are also the manors Anjala and Sippola. In the north of the urban area of ​​Kouvola is a part of the Repovesi National Park.

The modern central church of Kouvola was completed in 1977. The Orthodox Holy Cross Church dates back to the 1915 's built in Russian-Byzantine style and was originally used as a garrison church for Russian soldiers. According to the Finnish independence it was transformed into an Evangelical Lutheran church, but again left with the completion of the Central Church of the Orthodox faithful. In the central city of Kouvola is also the locus of the Church Käpylä (1952) and the Roman Catholic St. Ursula Church (1993). Among the churches in the other locations in the city, built in 1638 and 1678 to cross church converted church of Elimäki is the oldest. Also the built in 1755-56 Church of Anjala is a wooden cruciform church. The neo-Gothic style represented the wooden church of Jaalah (1878 ) and the built of brick church of Sippola (1879 ). From the 20th century the churches of Inkeroinen (1910 ), Voikkaa (1925 ) Valkeala (1927 ) Kuusankoski (1929 ), MYLLYKOSKI (1936) and Koria (1951 ) derived, as well as the orthodox chapel Myllykoski (1954).

Sports

The part belonging to Kouvola MYLLYKOSKI place is the home of the football club Myllykosken Pallo -47 ( MyPa ), which won the championship title in the Finnish First Division in 2005. In addition, from Kouvola come the pesäpallo Club Kouvolan Pallonlyöjät (KPL ) and two hockey clubs in the Mestis, the second highest Finnish ice hockey league play: Kouvolan Kiekko -65 ( KooKoo ) and Lempäälän Kisa ( LeKi ).

In Kouvola is the ski jumping normal hill Palomäen Hyppyrimäki. Kouvola was a venue of the U-18 Football Championship in 1982. 1997 was the European Championship in wrestling held in the city. Twice, on 18 July 1937, on 1 September 1949, the world record was run in the 10,000 - meter race in Kouvola.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Juhani Aaltonen ( born 1935 ), jazz musician
• Arto Bryggare (* 1958), hurdler
• Niilo Halonen ( born 1940 ), former ski jumper
• Tommi Nikunen (* 1973), ski jumping coach
• Toni Gardemeister (* 1975), rally driver
• Ville Nousiainen (* 1983), cross-country skiers
• Sami Kaartinen ( born 1979 ), ice hockey player
• Ari Koivunen ( born 1984 ), singer and talent show winner
• Hannu Salama ( b. 1936 ), writer
• Niki Sirén (born 1976 ), ice hockey player