Akaa
| coat of arms | map |
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| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
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| Landscape : | Pirkanmaa |
| Administrative community : | South Pirkanmaa |
| Geographical location | 61 ° 10 ′ N , 23 ° 52 ′ E |
| Surface: | 314.38 km² |
| of which land area: | 293.14 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 21.24 km² |
| Residents : | 16,611 (Dec. 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 56.7 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 020 |
| Language (s) : | Finnish |
| Website : | www.akaa.fi |
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Akaa [ ˈɑkɑː ] ( Swedish : Ackas ) is a city in western Finland with 16,611 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018).
geography
Akaa is located in the south of the Pirkanmaa landscape , halfway between Tampere, 42 kilometers north, and Hämeenlinna, 41 kilometers south-east . The capital Helsinki is 140 kilometers south. Neighboring towns and municipalities of Akaa are Lempäälä in the north, Valkeakoski in the northeast, Hämeenlinna in the southeast, Urjala in the southwest and Vesilahti in the northwest.
The area of the city of Akaa is 314.4 square kilometers (of which 21.2 square kilometers inland water). The city has three settlement centers ( taajama ): Toijala (8363 inhabitants) and the church villages Viiala (5460 inhabitants) and Kylmäkoski (674 inhabitants). The seat of the city administration is Toijala. Viiala is eight kilometers northwest, Kylmäkoski 14 kilometers west of Toijala. Akaa is located on Lake Vanajavesi .
history
The city of Akaa has existed since the beginning of 2007, but the history of Akaa goes back to the Middle Ages. The Akaa parish was created in 1483 when it was separated from the Sääksmäki parish . The village of Akaa was the place Toijala. From the medieval wooden church of Akaa only the brick sacristy is preserved. This was built around 1510 as the first construction phase of a planned but unfinished stone church.
After the administration of the rural parishes was separated from the church administration, the political municipality of Akaa was established in 1870. After Akaa was connected to the railway network in 1876, industrialization began in the community. Above all the place Viiala, where a steam-powered sawmill was founded as early as 1873, but also Toijala developed into important industrial locations. In 1895 the municipality of Kylmäkoski split off from Akaa, and in 1932 the municipality of Viiala was founded from parts of Akaa and the neighboring municipalities of Lempäälä and Vesilahti . In 1946 the Akaa community was dissolved. Toijala , the parish of the municipality, became an independent market town ( kauppala ), the rest of the area was divided between the municipalities of Kylmäkoski, Viiala and Sääksmäki. In 1977 Toijala received city rights.
Akaa was brought back to life in early 2007 when the merger of Toijala and Viiala created the city of Akaa. In 2011, Kylmäkoski was also incorporated into Akaa again.
politics
City council
Akaa's city council ( kaupunginvaltuusto ) has 35 members. The Finnish left is traditionally strong in the industrial town of Akaa: Since the local elections on April 9, 2017, the largest parliamentary group in the city council has been made up of the Social Democrats with twelve seats; the left-wing alliance is represented by three members. The second largest faction is the conservative rallying party with eight seats. The peasant center party is represented with four seats. The Greens with four, the right-wing populist “ True Finns ” with three and the Christian Democrats with one MP are still represented in the city council .
| Political party | Share of votes | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| Social democrats | 32.9% | 12 |
| Collection party | 23.0% | 8th |
| center | 11.8% | 4th |
| Green | 11.8% | 4th |
| Left alliance | 8.2% | 3 |
| True Finns | 7.8% | 3 |
| Christian Democrats | 2.5% | 1 |
| Other | 1.9% | 0 |
| total | 100% | 35 |
The term of office lasts four years, from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021.
coat of arms
After its reconstruction in 2007, the city of Akaa adopted a new coat of arms . It is a design by Kari J. Tähtinen, which the city council selected as the winner of a competition. The blazon reads: "The shield, split from red and silver by tin cuts , shows a silver wall anchor in front ". The tin cut refers to the old sacristy of Akaa, the wall anchor to the union of Toijala and Viiala. Red and silver are the heraldic colors of the Häme landscape , to which Akaa historically belongs. The old municipality of Akaa (until 1946) did not have its own coat of arms.
Town twinning
Akaa has partnerships with the following cities and municipalities:
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Economy and Infrastructure
Akaa's economy has traditionally been shaped by industry, but has undergone structural change . Viiala was an industrial town with three large factories until the Finnish economic crisis of the 1990s. However, the leather and file factories were closed in 1995 and 1996 respectively as a result of the Finnish economic crisis, and in 2004 wood-based panel production in the UPM-Kymmene Group's factory was also discontinued. Toijala is home to the largest factory for Mämmi , a traditional Finnish dish consumed at Easter. The town is so proud of the production of this porridge made from rye malt, which is known for its rather repulsive appearance, that the world championship in Mämmi eating competition was held in Toijala in 2005 .
Akaa is located at the crossroads of the traffic connections between the three largest Finnish conurbations Helsinki (142 kilometers south), Turku (133 kilometers southwest) and Tampere (42 kilometers north). In the city, state road 3 , which has been converted into a motorway and which leads from the capital Helsinki via Tampere to Vaasa , and state road 9 from Turku via Tampere to Tohmajärvi in eastern Finland connect . In addition, the Helsinki-Tampere and Turku-Tampere lines converge at Toijala station. A second train station is in Viiala.
Culture and sights
There are three churches in Akaa: The Church of Toijala is a wooden cruciform church with a west tower, which was built in 1816–1817 according to plans by Charles Bassi and Anton Wilhelm Arppe . In Kylmäkoski there is a red brick church from 1900. Finally, the church of Viiala is a modern building from 1950. Also in Toijala, in the middle of an old churchyard, is the sacristy of Akaa, the only remnant of the medieval church of Place. It was built around 1510 in connection with a wooden church that later fell into disrepair.
Other sights in Akaa are a locomotive museum in Toijala, the local history museum of Viiala and a wallpaper museum in Toijala. The latter made it into the world's top 20 worst summer vacation destinations in 2011 on the show by American comedian Conan O'Brien .
sons and daughters of the town
- Arvo Ylppö (1887–1992), pediatrician and university professor specializing in neonatal medicine
- Tenho Sauren (1926–2001), actor and comedian
- Eeles Landström (* 1932), track and field athlete
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maanmittauslaitos (Finnish land surveying office): Suomen pinta-alat kunnittain January 1, 2011. (PDF; 81 kB)
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ↑ pxweb2.stat.fi/dialog/varval.asp?ma=150_vaerak_tau_320&ti=Population+in+urban+settlements+and+sparsely+populated+areas+by+age%2C+sex+and+municipality%2C+31+Dec + 2011 & path =% 2E% 2E% 2FDatabase% 2FStatFin% 2Fvrm% 2Fvaerak% 2F & xu = & yp = & lang = 1 & multilang = en (link not available)
- ↑ Website Akaa - Akaa info, Twin cities , accessed on November 8, 2018
- ↑ TeamCoco.com: The Terrible 20: World's Worst Summer Vacation Destinations.
