Vammala
Vammala [ ˈvɑmːɑlɑ ] is a former town in the Pirkanmaa region in western Finland . It is located around 50 km southwest of Tampere on the railway line to Pori . The almost 17,000 inhabitants are almost exclusively Finnish-speaking .
history
Vammala was founded in 1907 as a market town (kauppala) by decree of the Russian Tsar and Finnish Grand Duke Nicholas II . In 1965 the town was granted city rights. In 1973 the neighboring communities of Karkku and Tyrvää were incorporated, and Suodenniemi followed in 2007 . At the beginning of 2009, Vammala merged with Äetsä and Mouhijärvi to form the new town of Sastamala .
The two oldest districts of Vammala are the towns of Karkku and Tyrvää, incorporated in 1973, where two medieval stone churches can be found. The first wooden church was built in Karkku in the 12th century. The church of Sastamala still preserved today was built around 1500. In the village, which has only around 600 inhabitants, there are two other churches, including the Church of the Apparition of Christ (Kristuksen tulemisen kirkko) built in 1913.
The Olav Church (Pyhän Olavin kirkko) in Tyrvää was built in the early 16th century. Its interior from the 17th century, which was extremely well preserved until then, was completely destroyed in a fire in 1997, but efforts are being made to reconstruct it. The church of Suodenniemi with the church tower designed by Carl Ludwig Engel was built in 1831.
Vammala is also known in Finland as the “City of Books” due to its numerous second-hand bookshops . Every summer a book fair is held in the school in the Sylvää district, which attracts up to 20,000 visitors a year.
sons and daughters of the town
- Akseli Gallén-Kallela (1865–1931), the most important painter of Finnish national romanticism
- Mauri Kunnas (* 1950), Finland's most successful children's book author
Town twinning
- Skovde , Sweden
- Ringsted , Denmark
- Kashin , Russia
- Kuressaare , Estonia
- Vásárosnamény , Hungary
References
- ↑ Website ( 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. the planned city of Sastamala: Sastamala syntyy kolmen kimppana , December 27, 2007 (Finnish)
