Caskinen
| coat of arms | map |
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| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
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| Landscape : | Ostrobothnia |
| Administrative community : | South Ostrobothnia |
| Geographical location | 62 ° 23 ' N , 21 ° 13' E |
| Surface: | 175.36 km² |
| of which land area: | 10.49 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 0.16 km² |
| of which sea area: | 164.71 km² |
| Residents : | 1,262 (Dec. 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 120.3 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 231 |
| Language (s) : | Finnish , Swedish |
| Website : | www.kaskinen.fi |
Kaskinen , in Swedish Kaskö , is the smallest town in Finland with 1262 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018) . It is located around 90 km south of the city of Vaasa on the island of the same name in the Gulf of Bothnia . 67% of the population speak Finnish as their mother tongue, 30% are Finland-Swedes . The city is officially bilingual.
geography
The municipality of Kaskinen includes several islands on the archipelago coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. With a land area of 10.65 km², Kaskinen is the second smallest municipality in Finland after Kauniainen . In addition to the main island of Kaskinen, on which the city itself is located, these include the islands of Sälgrund, Tunngrund, Ronnskär and Rennskär. The city is connected to the neighboring city of Närpes on the mainland via two bridges . The distance to the center of Närpes is 12 km, the next larger city Vaasa is 93 km north.
history
The founding of Kaskinen was preceded by a dispute about a reorientation of the government's trade policy. Cities in the Swedish Empire required a special permit in order to trade with foreign countries, the so-called stacking rights. Until 1765, only Turku and Viipuri owned these in Finland . In 1765 these rights were granted to the four towns of Kokkola , Oulu , Pori and Vaasa in Österbotten . In 1774, the government of King Gustav III announced. started to concentrate all stacking rights of the Österbotten region in the newly founded town of Kaskinen. While the official justification referred to the curbing of smuggling, the cities of Österbotten attacked the project as a preference for the traders in Stockholm . Because of the coastal conditions, Kaskinen was difficult to sail, especially from the north, and the innovation would in fact have forced many traders to conduct foreign trade via Stockholm instead of via the domestic port. The resistance, represented in particular by the politician Anders Chydenius , proved successful and the cities retained their stacking rights. Kaskinen was nevertheless founded in 1785 and also received the stacking rights.
The foundations for the rise of Kaskinen had been laid by the merchant Johan Bladh , who resided in the nearby Benvik Manor , who had already erected a customs building and a loading quay at his own expense at the location of the conveniently located natural harbor of Kaskinen and had advocated the founding of a town. His son Peter Johan Bladh built a lucrative merchant fleet that brought the city prosperity. This heyday ended when the merchant fleet was sunk in the coalition wars and Bladh was captured during the Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 .
Until recently, the town's main industries were fishing and sawmill industries. In 1913 the railway line to Kaskinen was completed. The industrial upswing hoped for initially failed to materialize. Large- scale industrialization did not take place until the 1970s, when the paper company Metsä-Botnia opened its plant in Kaskinen.
population
The population of Kaskinen is 1262 (as of December 31, 2018). This makes it the smallest city (but not the smallest municipality) in Finland. At the beginning of the 1980s, Kaskinen's population was just under 2000, but then fell sharply before it consolidated again at the turn of the millennium.
67.4% of the population of Kaskinen speak Finnish , 30.1% speak Swedish as their mother tongue. The city is officially bilingual with Finnish as the majority and Swedish as the minority language. In 1950 the Finnish-Swedes still made up 60% of the population , but the majority situation shifted due to industrialization and the influx of Finnish-speaking workers from other parts of the country. Thus, Kaskinen forms a predominantly Finnish-speaking island in the almost entirely Swedish-speaking area on the coast of Ostrobothnia: In the neighboring town of Närpes, for example, nine out of ten residents of Finland are Swedes.
politics
The strongest party in Kaskinen is the Social Democratic Party of Finland . It provides seven out of 17 representatives on the city council, the highest decision-making body on local affairs. In second place is the Swedish People's Party , the political representation of Finland-Swedes, with five seats. The National Gathering Party and the Left Alliance with two seats each and the Green Bund with one seat are still represented in the city council . The largest party in Finland, the Center Party , did not even run in the local elections, and the 2007 parliamentary elections were also their result at 8.3% below average. The city director of Kaskinen is Marlene Svens.
| Political party | 2008 election results | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| Social democrats | 38.0% | 7th |
| Swedish People's Party | 26.7% | 5 |
| National rally party | 15.4% | 2 |
| Left alliance | 11.0% | 2 |
| Green covenant | 9.0% | 1 |
The coat of arms of Kaskinen shows in the split shield a silver stern rudder in front in blue, in the back a green laurel branch in silver . The rudder indicates the importance of shipping, which made the founding of the city possible, the laurel branch is possibly related to the name of Peter Johan Bladh (in German "sheet"), the founder of the city.
Kaskinen has twinned cities with Maribo in Denmark (since 1947) as well as Namsos in Norway and Hudiksvall in Sweden (both since 1948).
Economy and Transport
Kaskinen is an industrial city: 57.3% of the employed population work in the manufacturing sector. By far the most important branch of industry in Kaskinen today is the paper industry. In 1977, the paper company Metsä-Botnia opened its main factory around two kilometers from the center on the east coast of the island, which today is the city's largest employer with 230 employees. With an annual capacity of 450,000 tons of pulp per year, the mill is one of the largest in Finland. In 2005, a state-of-the-art market pulp plant of the M-real group went into operation on an adjacent site , which is designed for an annual capacity of 300,000 tons of bleached chemo-thermomechanical pulp ( BCTMP ) and employs 50 people. The two factory sites make up a total of 10% of the community area.
Kaskinen is the terminus of the Suupohjan rata , the railway line to Seinäjoki , which is now only used for freight traffic. The end point of the route is the Kaskinens industrial area. The city's port is a natural deep-water port, through which the production of the local pulp mills, but also wood, paper and bulk goods from inland Finland are shipped. The capacity of the extensive port facilities has recently increased; in 2006 515 ships docked in Kaskinen, the trading volume was 1.9 million tons. The Kaskinen fishing port is the largest in Finland and, in particular, an important base for the Finnish herring fleet . In 2005, 27 million kg of herring and sprat were landed here.
Until the 1980s there was a regular ferry connection from Kaskinen to Gävle , Sweden , operated by the KG-Line shipping company. A resumption of ferry traffic to Sweden has been considered for several years; These plans include Härnösand as the port of destination .
Cityscape, monuments and museums
The road network of Kaskinen is laid out at right angles, as in most of the planned cities ; Most of the recently built blocks also follow this pattern. The historic town center around the harbor on the west coast of the island is well preserved and characterized by neat wooden houses from the 19th century. The public facilities such as the town hall, library, bank and pharmacy are grouped around the market square at the harbor. To the east of the rail tracks are the squares built in the second half of the 20th century, and to the south the small, newly built district of Anttila, which is the only residential area that does not correspond to the regular layout of the city.
One of the most striking buildings is the two-story house of the city's founder, Peter Johan Bladh. In the absence of a church, the services of the Protestant parish took place on the upper floor of the house since 1798. This circumstance, initially only intended as a temporary measure, lasted until 1965; only in this year the city received a church building. The building designed by Erik Kråkström stands out clearly from the surrounding old structure with its functionalist- modern design.
A former pilot station with a lighthouse is located on the Kaskinen island of Sälgrund to the south . The 30.2 meter high tower was built in 1875 according to plans by Hampus Dalström ; At that time it was the first lighthouse in Finland to be fired with kerosene instead of rapeseed oil. In 1966 the company was electrified and automated. The surrounding pilot huts from the 19th century now serve as tourist accommodation.
There are two museums in Kaskinen, but they are only open during the tourist season in summer. The local history museum is housed in the town house of the shipowner and manufacturer Carl Daniel Rehnström, which was built around 1850 and illustrates in several rooms the bourgeois life in the Kaskinen of the 19th century. Many of the exhibits, such as furniture and textiles, come from the city's long-established merchant families. The fishing museum is located at Sjöbobacken, the old fishing port of Kaskinen. It was opened in 1983 after the city administration bought the old salt factory and around 30 historic beach granaries. Today old boats, nets and other fishing equipment are shown in the buildings. A windmill , built around 1870, stands on the “Mühlhügel” ( Myllymäki ) next to the harbor .
Web links
swell
- ↑ Maanmittauslaitos (Finnish land surveying office): Suomen pinta-alat kunnittain January 1, 2010 . (PDF; 199 kB)
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ^ Pentti Virrankoski, Suomen historia 1 . SKS, Helsinki 2001, ISBN 951-746-341-3 , p. 326 f.
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ↑ stat.fi ( 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.
- ↑ stat.fi ( 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.
- ↑ John Westerholm: Kansa ja alue . In: Markku Löytönen, Laura Kolbe (Ed.): Suomi. Maa, kansa, kulttuurit , Helsinki 1999, here p. 287.
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Justice: Result of the 2007 parliamentary elections
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Justice: Result of the 2008 local elections
- ↑ kunnat.net Suomen kuntavaakunat (Finnish)
- ^ Website of the city (Finnish)
- ↑ botnia.com ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ m-real.com ( 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 Port Association: Vessel traffic 2006 ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Goods traffic 2006 ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry ( 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. .
- ↑ Kaskisten Yleiskaava: 2004 - 2006 Selostus ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rakennettu kulttuuriympäristö . (Monument register 1993; Finnish)
- ↑ Merenkulkulaitos (Finnish Maritime Administration) ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Finnish)
- ↑ Heimatmuseum Kaskinen ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German)
- ↑ Fischereimuseum Kaskinen ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German)
