Virrat
| coat of arms | map |
|---|---|
|
|
| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
|
| Landscape : | Pirkanmaa |
| Administrative community : | Oberpirkanmaa |
| Geographical location | 62 ° 40 ′ N , 23 ° 46 ′ E |
| Surface: | 1,299.09 km² |
| of which land area: | 1,162.36 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 136.73 km² |
| Residents : | 6,739 (December 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 5.8 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 936 |
| Language (s) : | Finnish |
| Website : | virrat.fi |
Virrat [ ˈvirːɑt ] ( Swedish : Virdois ) is a city in western Finland with 6739 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018). It is located in the north of the Pirkanmaa landscape , 106 kilometers north of Tampere and 115 kilometers west of Jyväskylä . Neighboring cities and communities are Alavus in the north, Ähtäri in the northeast, Keuruu in the east, Mänttä-Vilppula in the southeast, Ruovesi and Ylöjärvi in the south and Kihniö in the west. Virrat is monolingual in Finnish .
The urban area of Virrat is very extensive with around 1300 square kilometers. In addition to the city center, Virrat includes the villages of Äijänneva, Härkönen Jäähdyspohja, Killinkoski, Koro, Kotala, Kurjenkylä, Liedenpohja, Ohtola, Vaskuu and Vaskivesi. Virrat is located in a landscape rich in lakes at the northern end of the Näsijärvi lake system. In total there are over 300 lakes with a total bank length of 1000 kilometers in the urban area.
The municipality of Virrat was created by the municipal reform of 1868. In 1974, Virrat was elevated to a market town and in 1977 to a town. Virrat is badly affected by the rural exodus: in 1950 the population was still over 12,000.
The old church of Virrat is a wooden cruciform church built between 1772 and 1774. In the village of Killinkoski there is an Art Nouveau wooden church built by Josef Stenbäck in 1929 , and Liedenpohja also has its own village church, built in 1961. The historic industrial environment around the spinning mill founded in 1886 and the Killinkoski cord factory opened in 1899 is now a listed building.
Virrat is twinned with the municipality of Årjäng in Sweden, Gol in Norway and Aulum-Haderup in Denmark.
sons and daughters of the town
- Helena Leveelahti (* 1999), track and field athlete
References
- ↑ 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
