Lohtaja

Lohtaja [ lɔhtɑjɑ ] ( swedish Lochteå ) is a former municipality in the Finnish countryside Central Ostrobothnia and now part of the city of Kokkola.

Lohtaja located 33 kilometers northeast of the center of Kokkola, near the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. In addition to the same Kirchdorf the community Lohtaja comprised nor the villages Alaviirre, Karhi, Marin Kainen, Sorto, Väliviirre and Koskenkylä. The area of ​​the municipality was 519.4 km ², its population stood at 2,791.

The parish Lohtaja was founded in 1575 and initially covered a much larger area than the later church. In 1859, Kannus and Toholampi solved (including the chapel community Lestijärvi ) as a chapel communities from Lohtaja, 1898, it began Himanka. The beginning of 2009 Lohtaja was incorporated along with Ullava and Kälviä into town Kokkola.

Lohtaja is mainly known for on the Vattaja Peninsula (Finnish Vattajaniemi ) located longest sandy beach of the Nordic countries. Its greatest part is used by the Finnish armed forces as a training and shooting range. At the end of the peninsula after a short causeway is the island Ohtokari, on an old fishing village with a fishing museum, fishing port and Bake (now used as an observation tower ), an old Troy castle and a by LEAF ( Suomen Luterilaisen Evankeliumiyhdistyksen ) entertaining holiday center gefindet itself. One of the rituals of the island visitors to throw a stone on the cairn, situated in the territory of the holiday center part. Among the more important festivals in Lohtaja heard the allsommerliche Vexilla regis - Church Music Festival and the fish festival. In the river Viiretjoki a 70 cm long piece of mammoth tusk was found in 1930, whose age was estimated to 24,000 years.