Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi [ rɔvɑniɛmi ] is the capital of the northern Finnish Lapland landscape and is located at the confluence of Ounasjoki and Kemi in the immediate vicinity of the Arctic Circle. The door to the north is not only important shopping center for the settlements around, but also a tourist destination. Rovaniemi is the seat of the Chamber of Santa Claus, of the Arctic Circle even has its own post office in the Santa Claus Village. On 1 January 2006, the city was merged with the rural community Rovaniemi. Furthermore, the city hosts the International Secretariat of the University of the Arctic.
- 2.1 prehistory
- 2.2 Swedish and Russian time
- 2.3 independence
- 3.1 Historical Development of the Population
- 4.1 Administrative
- 4.2 Coat of Arms
- 4.3 Town twinning
- 5.1 Structures
- 5.2 Museums
- 5.3 churches
- 5.4 seat of Santa Claus
Geography
Location and extent
Rovaniemi is located centrally in the landscape Lapland in the far north of Finland. The city center lies at the confluence of the rivers Ounasjoki and Kemi a few kilometers south of the Arctic Circle.
In addition to the actual core of the city, live in the more than 80 % of the population, includes the administrative city of Rovaniemi since the incorporation of the rural municipality of Rovaniemi a very wide area of 8017 km ² (more than three times of Luxembourg ). This Rovaniemi is the area 's largest city in Europe. The largest part of this area, however, is only sparsely populated. Thus, for all Rovaniemi low population density of 7.2 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Neighboring communities of Rovaniemi are Ranua in the south, Tervola in the southwest, and Ylitornio Pello in the West, Kolari in the northwest, Kittila and Sodankylä in the north, the east, and Posio Kuusamo in the southeast. With the community Ranua to Rovaniemi became affiliated to the administrative community Rovaniemi. The nearest large town is 207 km south of Oulu, the distance in the Helsinki capital is 815 km.
Landscape and Nature
Geographically, the city of Rovaniemi is part of the transition region of the Peräpohjola region to the actual Lapland. The landscape is dominated by forests and moors. Among the tree species prevail pines before (62%) and spruce (22% ), 16 % is held by deciduous trees. About 5 % of the city consist of inland waters. In contrast to most of Finland, the area of Rovaniemi is poor in large lakes. In contrast, characterize the two powerful, partly seeartig extended rivers Kemijoki and Ounasjoki the landscape. At the time of snow melt in the spring, with periodic flooding.
Rovaniemi belongs to the area of the Finnish Hillsbrad ( Vaara - Suomi). According to the hills in the urban area as opposed to the fells in the northern Lapland rather flat and wooded. The highest point is 358 meters high Kaihuanvaara. Far better known, however, is the 204 meter high Ounasvaara. The mountain rises Rovaniemi, directly opposite the city center and is a popular recreation destination for residents represents a well-known natural landmark is the 16 -meter high waterfall Auttiköngäs in the southeast of Rovaniemi.
Boroughs
The city of Rovaniemi is divided into the urban built-up center and the surrounding rural areas. For statistical purposes, Rovaniemi is divided into six districts ( suuralue ), which further subdivide into small statistical areas. The population is distributed as follows on the urban districts and statistical divisions:
- Center ( 50 132 inhabitants) I. district ( 4,084 inhabitants)
- Rantavitikka ( 6,234 inhabitants)
- Ratantaus ( 6,923 inhabitants)
- Pullinpuoli ( 2,118 inhabitants)
- Ounasrinne ( 3,170 inhabitants)
- Pöykkölä ( 2,556 inhabitants)
- Lapinrinne ( 1,561 inhabitants)
- Karinrakka ( 6,280 inhabitants)
- Ounasmetsä ( 1,986 inhabitants)
- Koskenkylä ( 793 inhabitants)
- Saarenkylä ( 9,769 inhabitants)
- Ylikylä ( 3,256 inhabitants)
- Alakorkalo (775 inhabitants)
- Kauko ( 627 inhabitants)
- Niesi (276 inhabitants)
- Olkkajärvi (503 inhabitants)
- Ounasjoki ( 2,339 inhabitants) Lohiniva (159 inhabitants)
- Meltaus ( 585 inhabitants)
- Sinettä ( 1,101 inhabitants)
- Sonka ( 497 inhabitants)
- Hirvas ( 669 inhabitants)
- Rautiosaari (631 inhabitants)
- Muurola ( 1,190 inhabitants)
- Jaatila (436 inhabitants)
- Ranuantie ( 659 inhabitants)
- Autti (314 inhabitants)
- Vanttauskoski ( 788 inhabitants)
- Oikarainen ( 477 inhabitants)
History
Prehistory
The first human occupation spread in the area of Rovaniemi after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, 7000-5800 BC A found in Lehtojärvi in Rovaniemi wooden moose head, which probably served as Bugschmuck a boat, is the time to 5800 BC dated. The original inhabitants lived by hunting and fishing in the resulting by the melt water from the glaciers Ancylus Lake, which covered parts of present-day urban area.
By mixing the Stone Age aborigines and from the 3rd millennium BC immigrant Finno - Ugric Sami ( Lapp ) population of Lapland, long remained predominantly in Rovaniemi was born. From the early Middle Ages sedentary, farming driving Finns settled in the valley of Kemi. The Finnish settlement pushed in the 11th century up to the level of Rovaniemi before. The place names in the area of Rovaniemi point out that these settlers were mainly from the Häme and Satakunta landscapes. Through the Finnish immigration and the takeover of farming culture, the semi-nomadic living seeds were gradually pushed back or assimilated. Rovaniemi Sami inhabited parts remained but until the 18th century.
Swedish and Russian time
In the High Middle Ages, the influence of the Swedish Empire in Lapland reinforced. Although the area under the provisions of the Treaty of Nöteborg of 1323 nominally belonged to the sphere of Novgorod, the valley of Kemi was incorporated into the early 15th century as the parish church Kemi in the management of the Swedish diocese of Turku. The name Rovaniemi is first detected in a document on a purchase of land from the year 1453. The name is derived from the common Sami word for a wooded ridge roavve or geschwendete surface. From Peräpohjola dialects of Finnish is also rova known as a bunch of stones or rocks, especially in rapids. Niemi is Finnish for " peninsula " or " headland ".
Beginning of the 17th century was Rovaniemi to a chapel of the parish church Kemi. A first church was built in 1605-11 but burned down shortly afterwards at a Karelian raid. The church was rebuilt in 1688 to 1622 and already replaced by a new bridge subsequently. 1785 Chapel community Rovaniemi was raised into an independent parish.
Independence
1929 became the community center of Rovaniemi as a market town ( kauppala ) municipal independence. The surrounding area has been converted ( Rovaniemen Maalaiskunta ) in the rural municipality of Rovaniemi. In 1938 the province of Lapland was established from the northern areas of the province of Oulu. While in the largest city Kemi hopes were nurtured to become provincial capital Rovaniemi was awarded the contract because of its more central location.
During the Lapland War, German troops destroyed as part of the doctrine of the scorched earth from 11 to 14 October 1944 as planned, around 90 % of the fabric of the city. The approximately 25,000 civilians in the town had been evacuated the previous day along with the livestock.
The city was chartered the market town until 1960. At the beginning of 2006, the city and rural municipality of Rovaniemi reunited to the city.
Population
Historical Development of the Population
( since 1983 is 31 December)
For the population growth, the integration of the rural municipality of Rovaniemi in the urban area on 1 January 2006 is responsible. In terms of area is enlarged so Rovaniemi to 8,000 km ², equivalent to slightly more than three times the size of Luxembourg. It is thus one of the geographically largest cities in the world.
Policy
Management
The largest faction in the city council of Rovaniemi, the highest decision-making body for local affairs, presents the Finnish Centre Party, with 23 of 75 seats. Your support is with a vote share of less than one-third but less than in the rural areas of Lapland. The National Coalition Party and the Social Democratic Party of Finland combined at the municipal election in each case about one fifth of the votes and make 17 or 13 deputies. The Left Alliance is relatively strong with a vote share of 14 percent and ten seats in the City Council as common in northern Finland. Also represented in the City Council is the Green waistband with seven, the right-wing populist True Finns with three, and the Christian Democrats with two deputies.
Coat of arms
The town of Rovaniemi, has been leading the congregation merger of 2006, the coat of arms of the former rural community of Rovaniemi on. It was designed in 1956 by Toivo Vuorela and shows in the green plate with a silver fork cross, the upper arms are serrated, and in the top corner a golden flame. The fork cross symbolizes the confluence of Ounasjoki and Kemi, while the flame represents the signal fire that should have previously burned on the hills along the river.
Before the fusion community Rovaniemi had a 1930 signed by Väinö Tiger emblem out. In a blue field, it pointed a silver Fjell, about the silver Gothic letters R and as the top a crown of rays of aurora, also in silver.
Twinning
Rovaniemi is twinned with the following cities:
- Kiruna (Sweden, 1950 )
- Narvik (Norway, since 1951 )
- Frederikshavn (Denmark, 1964 )
- Murmansk (Russia, 1965 )
- Neustrelitz ( Germany, since 1966)
- Kassel ( Germany, 1972 )
- Drvar (Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 1973)
- Veszprém (Hungary, 1974 )
- Olsztyn (Poland, since 1976)
- Grindavík ( Iceland, since 1982)
- Cadillac (United States, since 1983)
- St. Johann in Tirol ( Austria, since 1989 partner city of the rural municipality of Rovaniemi )
- Ajka (Hungary, since 1992 Partner City of rural municipality of Rovaniemi )
- Harbin (PR China, since 2006)
- Alanya (Turkey, since 2009)
Culture and sights
The famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto has left its mark in Rovaniemi. Together with the architects Yrjö Lindegren and colleagues Viljo Revell 1945 he designed the new layout of the town of Rovaniemi, which had been totally destroyed by the German Wehrmacht. The three architects chose for the layout of the shape of a reindeer.
From Alvar Aalto buildings in Rovaniemi is the most famous center of culture and administration. Belonging to the complex of three buildings include the City Hall of Rovaniemi ( 1988), the Library (1965) and the Lappi Ahaus.
The building, designed by Alvar Aalto Lappi Ahaus (1975 ) serves as a theater, concert hall and a convention center. Furthermore, a college of music and a radio transmitter are housed in Lappi Ahaus.
Other buildings designed by Alvar Aalto ( built in 1959 ) in the center of Rovaniemi on the Koskikatu 18 and Jaakonkatu 3 ( built in 1963 ) to find and the house of the Aho family ( built in 1965 ). Furthermore, Alvar Aalto worked from 1958 to 1961 in the hamlet of Tapiola in Rovaniemi.
Structures
Worth seeing is the 1989 finished Jätkänkynttiläsilta ( lumberjack candle Bridge ) in the north- west of Rovaniemi.
Museums
Situated on the banks of the river Ounasjoki and opened on 6 December 1992 Arktikum Museum is a center of science. Arktikum actually consists of two institutions, the Provincial Museum of Lapland and the Arctic Centre. In the exhibition Paths of the North is reported about people in Finnish Lapland, on the Sami and their habitat, as well as on the nature of Finnish Lapland. On display are also costumes of seeds and exhibits that with the traditional life of the Sami, reindeer herding, deal. The seeds are considered to be the indigenous people of Lapland. The exhibitions in the Arctic center report from areas throughout the Arctic. They provide a picture of the interaction between man and nature and the seasons in Arctic regions. Auroras are shown in a multi -media show. The Arctic Centre is part of the University of Lapland, which is also located in Rovaniemi.
Churches
In Rovaniemi there is a Lutheran church (1950) and an Orthodox church (1957).
Seat of Santa Claus
The legend of Santa Claus live in Finland, goes back to the popular in the 1920s, the Finnish broadcaster Markus Rautio. After his Christmas stories of Santa Claus lives in the mountain Korvatunturi in northern Finland, shaped like an ear, where he can hear the wishes of children around the world. Since the mountain on the Russian border was too remote for simplicity Rovaniemi was declared a second residence of Santa Claus.
A few kilometers north of the city is since 1985 the Santa Claus Village, a tourist attraction (not only) children all year welcome the incarnate Santa Claus in. Connected a " Santa Claus Post Office", letters from children from all over the world is processed to Santa Claus and answered. Another attraction of this Santa Claus Village is drawn at the bottom of the Arctic Circle. The actual Arctic Circle is located but nowadays about 120 meters to the north of the Santa Claus village. Due to the nutation of the Earth's axis and concomitant change in the obliquity of the ecliptic, the position of the polar circles is not fixed stationary on a certain line, but varies slightly.
Economy and infrastructure
The Rovaniemi Airport is eight kilometers away from the city center on the main road 4 ( E75 ) direction Ivalo and Inari.
Rovaniemi is connected to the rail network since 1909. It operate long-distance trains (day and night trains ) to Helsinki and Turku. The station has a loading dock for car trains.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Arvo Aalto ( born 1932 ), communist politician
- Antti Autti, snowboarders
- Antti Hyvärinen, ski jumping and ski jump designer
- Ville Kähkönen, Nordic combined
- Lordi, Lordi Tomi Putaansuu, singer and founder of the eponymous band. According to him, the Lordi Square was named
- Hannu Manninen, Nordic combined
- Olli Muotka, ski jumpers
- Pirjo Muranen, cross-country skier
- Sami Niemi, ski jumpers
- Harri Olli, ski jumpers
- Sanna -Leena Peurunka, biathlete
- Tanja Poutiainen, skier
- Janne Ryynänen, Nordic combined
- Esko- Juhani Tennilä (* 1947), politician ( Left Alliance )
- Jouko Törmänen, ski jumpers
- Antti Tuisku, pop singer
- Tuomo Ylipulli, ski jumpers
- Kimmo Yliriesto, ski jumpers