Lohja
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| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
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| Landscape : | Uusimaa |
| Administrative community : | Helsinki |
| Geographical location | 60 ° 15 ′ N , 24 ° 5 ′ E |
| Surface: | 1,109.73 km² |
| of which land area: | 939.14 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 170.59 km² |
| Residents : | 46,296 (Dec. 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 49.3 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 444 |
| Postcodes : | 08100 |
| Language (s) : | Finnish , Swedish |
| Website : | lohja.fi |
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Lohja [ ˈlɔhjɑ ] ( Swedish Lojo ) is a town in southern Finland with 46,296 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018).
geography
Lohja is located 60 kilometers west of Helsinki in the west of the southern Finnish Uusimaa region on the banks of Lake Lohjanjärvi . Neighboring cities and municipalities are Karkkila and Vihti in the northeast, Siuntio in the southeast, Ingå in the south, Raseborg in the southwest, Salo in the west, Somero in the northwest and Tammela in the north.
Since the incorporation of several neighboring municipalities, the urban area of Lohjas comprises, in addition to the actual core city, an extensive area totaling 1,109.7 square kilometers (of which 170.6 square kilometers inland water).
In addition to the core city, seven other settlement centers ( taajama ) belong to the city of Lohja ; In addition, a smaller part of Nummela, the capital of the neighboring municipality of Vihti, is in the urban area of Lohja (population as of December 31, 2011):
- Core city (33,393 inhabitants)
- Saukkola (1,038 inhabitants)
- Sammatti (872 inhabitants)
- Pusula (787 inhabitants)
- Karjalohja (597 inhabitants)
- Nummi (512 inhabitants)
- Vasarla (257 inhabitants)
- Ikkala (256 inhabitants)
- Nummela (part) (255 inhabitants)
history
The oldest written mention of Lohja comes from the year 1323. The St. Laurentius Church, one of the most important medieval church buildings in Finland, dates from the late 15th century. The stone church is decorated with exceptionally well-preserved wall paintings from the 16th century and is now the city's most important attraction. The first ore mine in Finland was built in Lohja in the 16th century. In 1926 Lohja was detached from the surrounding rural community of Lohja as a market town . In 1969 the market town was elevated to a town. In 1997 the city and the municipality of Lohja merged. At the beginning of 2009 the neighboring community of Sammatti was incorporated, followed by Karjalohja and Nummi-Pusula in 2013 .
population
The population of Lohja is 46,296 (as of December 31, 2018). With the incorporation of Sammatti, Karjalohja and Nummi-Pusula, the number of inhabitants has increased by more than 10,000 since 2009. Almost 1700 residents of Lohja, 3.8 percent of the population, speak Swedish as their mother tongue (as of 2012). Despite the low percentage of the Finnish-Swedish minority in the population, the municipality makes use of a special regulation of the Language Act for historical reasons and is officially bilingual with Finnish as the majority and Swedish as the minority language.
politics
The strongest parties in Lohja are the Social Democrats and the conservative rallying party . In the 2012 local elections, the Social Democrats received 23 percent of the vote, in the city council, the highest decision-making body in local affairs, they have 12 out of 51 MPs. The rally party follows as the second strongest force with 20 percent of the vote and eleven seats on the city council. The country's third big party, the Center Party , on the other hand, plays only a subordinate role with a single-digit election result and five seats on the city council, as is generally the case in the cities of southern Finland. The right-wing populist “ True Finns ” are well represented with seven, the left alliance with six and the Green Bund with five. The local electoral alliance Meidän Lohja (“Our Lohja”) has three seats on the city council . Also represented on the city council are the Swedish People's Party , the political representation of the Finland-Swedes, and the Christian Democrats , each with one seat.
| Political party | Election result | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| Social democrats | 23.2% | 12 |
| Collection party | 20.2% | 11 |
| True Finns | 13.3% | 7th |
| Left alliance | 11.6% | 6th |
| Center Party | 9.7% | 5 |
| Green covenant | 9.6% | 5 |
| Meidan Lohja | 6.2% | 3 |
| Swedish People's Party | 3.0% | 1 |
| Christian Democrats | 2.8% | 1 |
traffic
The motorway-like state road 1 from Helsinki to Turku crosses Lohja. Lohja is also on the Königsstrasse , the old route of the Swedish kings from Turku to Viborg . Today the Königsstrasse is a tourist route.
Attractions
The Church of Lohja is one of the most famous medieval stone churches in Finland . It was built at the end of the 15th century and is dedicated to St. Lawrence . Particularly noteworthy are the rich furnishings with secco paintings from the early 16th century. There are six other places of worship in the former parishes belonging to Lohja: The church of Sammatti is a small wooden church from 1755. In Nummi , the church of Nummi , built in 1822 in classicistic style from field stone , is located . The wooden church of Pusula was built in 1838 according to plans by Carl Ludwig Engel . The church of Kärkölä from 1842 is also wooden. In Karjalohja there are two churches right next to each other: The stone church of Karjalohja , built in 1860, burned down after a lightning strike in 1970 and was not repaired until 1991. In the meantime, the modern glass church of Lohja was built in 1977 .
Lake Lohjanjärvi, the largest lake in Uusimaa with an area of 122 square kilometers, is largely located in the municipality of Lohja. On the shore of the lake is the Torhola Cave, the largest cave in Finland. In a now disused limestone pit, the 60 kilometer long network of tunnels can be visited today.
Town twinning
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Vaxjo , Sweden -
Ringerike , Norway -
Aabenraa , Denmark -
Skagastrond , Iceland -
Sátoraljaújhely , Hungary
sons and daughters of the town
- Ari Salin (* 1947), hurdler and sprinter
- Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (* 1965), cross-country skier and politician
- Marjut Rolig (* 1966), cross-country skier
- Mikko Kouki (born 1967), actor
- Christian Selin (* 1976), track and road cyclist
- Timo Pärssinen (* 1977), ice hockey player
- Sanna Stén (* 1977), rower
- Samuel T. Turvey (* 1977), British zoologist
- Laura Mononen (* 1984), cross-country skier
- Henri Laaksonen (* 1992), Swiss-Finnish tennis player
- Jenni Vähämaa (* 1992), figure skater
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maanmittauslaitos (Finnish land surveying office): Suomen pinta-alat kunnittain January 1, 2013 . (PDF; 199 kB)
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ↑ Tilastokeskus (Finnish Statistics Office): Taajama- ja haja-asutusalueväestö iän ja sukupuolen mukaan kunnittain December 31, 2011. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tilastokeskus (Finnish Statistics Office): Väestö kielen mukaan sekä ulkomaan kansalaisten määrä ja maa-pinta-ala alueittain 1980–2012. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Justice: Results of the 2012 local elections
