Oravais

Oravais ( Swedish), Finnish Oravainen, is a former municipality in the western Finnish landscape Ostrobothnia. The beginning of 2011, it merged with the municipality Vörå - Maxmo together for new community Vörå.

Oravais is located 50 km northeast of the city of Vaasa on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. The municipality covered an area of 208.5 square kilometers ( excluding sea areas ) and last 2,207 inhabitants. Of these, 79% spoke Swedish and 10% Finnish as their mother tongue. Officially, the municipality was bilingual with Swedish as majority and Finnish as a minority language.

Oravais has long been one of the centers of the Finnish metal industry. A first ironworks was built in 1703 on the banks of the river Kimojoki; it was operated by descendants of Liège Forge, who had emigrated in the 17th century Sweden. With the obtained in the pig iron production slag, the roads were long fixed in Oravais. The old ironworks is now a museum. In the 19th century, boasts a large sawmill was built in the place, even textile industry, which came to be.

On September 14, 1808, the bloodiest battle of the Russo- Swedish war was fought at Oravais. The Finnish-Swedish troops under Carl Johan Adlercreutz subject here the Russian associations under Nikolai Kamensky; 740 Sweden and about 900 Russians died during the fighting. The battle was the decisive turning point of the war and ultimately led to Sweden's defeat and Russian rule in Finland. The Battle of Oravais is also one of the highlights of Runeberg's epic poem Ensign steel. Today a memorial and museum Ensign Ståhl center commemorate the battle.