Rantasalmi
| coat of arms | map |
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| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
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| Landscape : | South Savo |
| Administrative community : | Pieksämäki |
| Geographical location | 62 ° 4 ′ N , 28 ° 18 ′ E |
| Surface: | 925.85 km² |
| of which land area: | 559.23 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 366.62 km² |
| Residents : | 3,514 (Dec. 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 6.3 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 681 |
| Language (s) : | Finnish |
| Website : | www.rantasalmi.fi |
Rantasalmi [ rɑntɑˌsɑlmi ] is a municipality in the Finnish countryside Savo with a population of 3514 (December 31, 2018). It is located halfway between the cities of Savonlinna and Varkaus on the south bank of Lake Haukivesi , which is part of the Saimaa lake system. Much of the Linnansaari National Park is located in the municipality of Rantasalmi. The rural community lives mainly from agriculture, forestry and tourism.
geography
Position and extent
Rantasalmi is located in the eastern Finnish landscape of South Savo in the middle of the Finnish Lake District . The community center is 42 kilometers northwest of Savonlinna , 44 kilometers southeast of Varkaus and 82 kilometers northeast of Mikkeli . It is 311 kilometers to the capital Helsinki .
Neighboring cities and municipalities are Savonlinna in the southeast, Sulkava in the south, Juva in the southeast and Joroinen and Varkaus in the northeast.
The municipality of Rantasalmi covers an area of 926 square kilometers (slightly more than Berlin ). Due to its location in the middle of the Finnish Lake District, Rantasalmi is rich in inland waters: around 40 percent of the community area is covered by water.
Landscape and nature
Rantasalmi is characterized by the difference between the northern part, rich in lakes, and the forest and arable landscape in the southern part of the municipality, which is less water-rich. Traditionally, the north of Rantasalmis is referred to as Vesikansa ("water people"), the southern part as Maakansa ("country people"). Almost the entire northeastern part of the municipality is taken up by Lake Haukivesi , which is part of the Saimaa lake system. The coastline of the Haukivesi is heavily furrowed: open basins alternate with bays, creeks and groups of islands. Part of the Haukivesi island world is protected as the Linnansaari National Park . In the north-west lies the Haapaselkä Lake, which is separated from the Haukivesi by a narrow isthmus.
The southern part of Rantasalmis, which is less water-rich, is characterized by moraine ridges and Oser in a north-west-south-east direction . The settlements and agricultural areas are on the high altitudes, in the depressions between them are swamp areas and elongated lakes. The largest of these are the approximately 15 kilometers long Kolkonjärvi, Tuusjärvi and Alanen. The highest point in the municipality is the hill Hippinginmäki near the village of Osikonmäki, which rises 156.6 meters above sea level and around 80 meters above Lake Haukivesi.
The name Rantasalmi literally means “shore sound ” and refers to a sound that once connected the Haapaselkä and Haukivesi lakes. A remnant of the sound is the elongated Raudanvesi Lake, while the connection to Haapaselkä has meanwhile silted up. The Raudanvesi is divided into the Suuri Raudanvesi ("large Raudanvesi") and Pieni Raudanvesi ("small Raudanvesi").
Localities
The center of the municipality is the church village of Rantasalmi, which is located at the end of Lake Pieni Raudanvesi and was formerly known as Rantasalo. The church village is the only settlement center ( taajama ) in the community. 1552 people live here, around 40 percent of the residents of Rantasalmi (as of December 31, 2011). In addition to the church village, the Rantasalmi community includes the villages (or scattered settlements ) Asikkala, Haapaniemi, Haapataipale, Hiismäki, Hiltula, Ihamaniemi, Joutsenmäki, Kolkontaipale, Lahdenkylä, Mielojärvi, Osikonmäki, Putumäki, Pirilä, Porikosaliemi, Reikisaloi, Reijola, Porilä, Rep. Ritalahti, Riuttanen, Tammenlahti, Teemassaari, Torosalo, Tornionniemi, Tuusmäki, Vaahersalo and Voinsalmi.
history
The parish of Rantasalmi was founded in 1578 from parts of the parishes of Sääminki and Juva . Before that, Rantasalmi had been a chapel parish of the Sääminki parish since at least 1544 . The parish of Rantsalmi was originally much larger than today's municipality and also included the northeastern neighboring communities of Kangaslampi and Heinävesi . Heinävesi received its own prayer house in 1744 , was elevated to a chapel parish in 1810 and finally broke away from Rantasalmi as a separate parish in 1852. Kangaslampi became a chapel congregation in 1869 and an independent parish in 1894. Since 2005 it belongs to the city of Varkaus .
In 1781 Finland's first cadet school (founded in 1779) was relocated from Kuopio to Rantasalmi. In the Haapaniemen kadettikoulu cadet school , a total of 210 officers from Savo and Karelia had been trained by 1819 .
Until the Treaty of Fredrikshamn (1809), the border with Russia ran at Rantasalmi.
population
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1950 | 9478 |
| 1960 | 8652 |
| 1970 | 6477 |
| 1980 | 5473 |
| 1990 | 5191 |
| 2000 | 4587 |
| 2010 | 3996 |
The population of Rantasalmi is 3514 (as of December 31, 2018). The municipality is sparsely populated: the population density is 7 inhabitants per square kilometer (calculated on the basis of the land area without inland waterways). 98 percent of the residents of Rantasalmi speak Finnish as their mother tongue, officially the community is monolingual Finnish. At 1.5 percent, the proportion of foreigners is low, even by Finnish standards.
The population development of Rantasalmi is, as in most rural communities in Finland, decreasing. In the 1950s the community still had more than 9,000 inhabitants, but in 2010 it fell below the 4,000-inhabitant mark for the first time. The population is currently shrinking by an average of 1.4 percent per year. As a result of the steady emigration, the population of Rantasalmi is clearly over-aged: while the national average of over 65-year-olds is 18 percent, in Rantasalmi it is 27 percent of the population. The level of education and income are also lower than the Finnish average: only 17 percent of Rantasalmi's 15-year-olds have a higher level of education (national average: 28 percent). The average taxable income per employee is around 18,500 euros, around a third lower than the Finnish average.
politics
administration
As in general in rural Finland, the Center Party is the strongest political force in Rantasalmi . In the local elections in 2012 she received over half of the votes, in the municipal council, the highest decision-making body in local affairs, she holds an absolute majority with 12 out of 21 MPs. The second strongest party are the Social Democrats with almost a quarter of the votes and five seats on the local council. The conservative rallying party , although one of the three big parties nationwide, plays only a subordinate role in Rantasalmi with an election result of around 10 percent and two seats. The right-wing populist “ True Finns ” are also represented in the municipal council with two seats .
| Political party | Election result | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| Center Party | 51.8% | 12 |
| Social democrats | 23.3% | 5 |
| National rally party | 10.4% | 2 |
| True Finns | 8.7% | 2 |
coat of arms
The coat of arms of Rantasalmi was designed by the heraldist Ahti Hammar and adopted in 1958. The blazon reads: A wavy black sloping bar in the golden shield . The speaking coat of arms refers to the name Rantasalmi ("Ufersund") and symbolizes the name-giving sound between two banks. The colors black and gold are taken from the coat of arms of the historic Savo landscape.
Community partnerships
Rantasalmi has parish partnerships with the following parishes:
Economy and Infrastructure
economy
Traditionally, the most important occupations in Rantasalmi are agriculture and forestry, which today still employ 26 percent of the working population. Around 90 percent of the extensive forest areas in the municipality are privately owned. In agriculture, the dairy industry is the main activity. 19 percent of the workforce work in the industrial and construction sectors. In Rantasalmi there are mainly small and medium-sized companies in the wood processing industry, as well as the metal industry. The service sector, which employs 52 percent of the residents of Rantasalmi, is playing an increasingly important role. First and foremost, tourism should be mentioned here. Rantasalmi benefits from its attractive location in the Saimaa lake area. There are 2000 holiday homes ( mökki ) as well as several holiday villages and hotels in the municipality .
The unemployment rate in Rantasalmi is 17 percent, above the Finnish average of 10 percent (as of 2010).
traffic
The most important traffic connection in Rantasalmis is the regional road 464, which runs right through the municipality and connects Rantasalmi with the cities of Varkaus and Savonlinna . From the church village of Rantasalmi it leads to the northwest and connects to the north of Joroinen with state road 5 in the direction of Varkaus. In a south-easterly direction, regional road 464 joins state road 14 , which runs through the southern part of the municipality and leads to Savonlinna. In the direction of Juva and Mikkeli , regional road 467 leads south from the church village of Rantasalmi via Rantasalmi station to state road 14. The other places in the municipality are connected to the road network by smaller, mostly unpaved roads.
The railway line runs through Rantasalmi from Parikkala via Savonlinna to Pieksämäki . The Rantasalmi train station is six kilometers south of the church village. Since 1988 no passenger trains have been running on the section from Savonlinna to Pieksämäki, the route is only used for freight traffic. There are direct bus connections to Varkaus, Savonlinna and Pieksämäki from the bus station in the church village of Rantasalmi.
Rantasalmi has a small general aviation airfield . The nearest airports that are served by scheduled services are Varkaus Airport (38 kilometers northwest) and Savonlinna Airport (60 kilometers southwest).
Attractions
The Kirchdorf Rantasalmi is scenic between the shore of Lake Pieni-Raudanvesi and a parallel Os . On the Os, surrounded by an old cemetery, stands the church of Rantasalmi, which shapes the townscape with its towering church tower. The red brick church was built in 1904 according to plans by Josef Stenbäck in the neo-Gothic style. In 1984 it burned down to the outer walls after a lightning strike. After the fire, the church was rebuilt with a modern interior while retaining the old outer walls and consecrated again in 1989. The former rectory of Rantasalmi, a representative wooden building from 1870, is now privately owned. The well-known architect Eliel Saarinen was born in the rectory in 1873 , whose father was a pastor in Rantasalmi at the time. Also in the church village is the Rantasalmi Museum, an open-air museum with historical buildings from the 19th century.
The main attraction of Rantasalmi, located in the heart of the Finnish Lake District, is likely to be the nature of the municipality. Most of the Linnansaari National Park with the eponymous island Linnansaari belongs to the municipality of Rantasalmi. The national park was established in 1956 to protect the island landscape of Haukivesi Lake and is home to a population consisting endangered Saimaa ringed seals and one of the largest osprey populations in southern Finland. On the island of Linnansaari, to which there is a boat connection from Porosalmi, there is an old cottage , in the area of which since 1993 the construction of schwend has been resumed according to traditional methods as it was practiced until the 1930s. There are also several hiking trails on Linnansaari as well as a lookout point on the Linnanvuori rock. The information center of the national park, the "Oskari Nature Center", is located in the church village of Rantasalmi.
Sons and daughters of the church
- Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950), architect
- Jarkko Immonen (* 1982), national ice hockey player
literature
- Arvo M. Soininen: Rantasalmen historia. Rantasalmi: Rantasalmen kunta ja seurakunta, 1954.
Web links
- Website of the municipality of Rantasalmi (Finnish)
- Rantasalmi tourism website (Finnish, English, Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Source: Suomen kunnat: Rantasalmi and Tilastokeskus (Finnish statistical office): Väestö iän (1-v.) Ja sukupuolen mukaan alueittain 1980 - 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.
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ↑ Status: 2011, source: Tilastokeskus (Finnish statistical office): Väestö kielen mukaan sekä ulkomaan kansalaisten määrä ja maa-pinta-ala alueittain 1980 - 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.
- ↑ Mean value from 2001 to 2011, source: Tilastokeskus (Finnish statistical office): Väestö iän (1-v.) Ja sukupuolen mukaan alueittain 1980 - 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. .
- ↑ a b as of 2010, source: Tilastokeskus: Kuntien avainluvut. Rantasalmi.
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Justice: Results of the 2012 local elections
- ↑ Suomen ystävyyskuntasuhteet. ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Website of the municipality of Rantasalmi: Kunta-Info. ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2012 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.
Enonkoski | Heinävesi | Hirvensalmi | Joroinen | Juva | Kangasniemi | Mikkeli | Mäntyharju | Pertunmaa | Pieksämäki | Puumala | Rantasalmi | Savonlinna | Sulkava