Ylmaa
Ylämaa [ ˈylæmɑː ] was an independent municipality in south-eastern Finland until 2009 . It was formed in 1925 from parts of Säkkijärvi , on January 1, 2010 that of the city of Lappeenranta was incorporated. The parish village of Lahnajärvi as the administrative center and the surrounding villages of Häsälä, Hujakkala, Hyttilä, Ihaksela, Kallola, Lavola, Nurmela, Nutikka, Paakkala, Rumpu, Säämälä, Sirkjärvi, Timperilä, Väkevälä, Villala and Ylijärvi belong to Ylämaa. The community had an area of 408.9 km ² and had 1,408 inhabitants. The area is known for its occurrence of the rare gemstone spectrolite .
history
Until 1925 Ylämaa belonged to the municipality of Säkkijärvi, today's Kondratjewo in the Russian Oblast of Leningrad . The name Ylämaa (Finnish for "Oberland") refers to the elevated location compared to the southern part of Säkkijärvis on the coast.
The boundaries of the municipality were redefined in 1944 after Finland was defeated in the Continuation War , when Finland ceded large parts of Karelia to the Soviet Union and Ylämaa became a border municipality. The new, drawn with a ruler, the border between the two states ran diagonally through the districts of Ylämaa and its neighboring communities Säkkijärvi and Vahviala. Ylämaa itself lost an area of around 12 km² with the village of Timperilä. Almost all of Säkkijärvi and Vahviala (today's Jaschino ) were added to the Soviet Union and the population evacuated to Finland. Only the extreme north of the two communities, including the villages of Väkevälä and Häsäla, remained with Finland and in 1946 was divided between the communities of Ylämaa, Miehikkälä and Lappee .
The coat of arms of the former municipality of Ylämaa was designed by the heraldist Olof Eriksson. The blazon reads: a silver shield head divided into green by a fir rice cut .
Spectrolite degradation
During the excavation of positions of the Salpalinie , a fortification system on the Soviet border, the spectrolite deposits in Ylämaa were discovered in 1941. The spectrolite or labradorite is a very rare type of feldspar rock, an anorthosite . Only the noble feldspar from Ylämaa, which shimmers in all spectral colors, is called spectrolite. In the 1940s and 1950s, the scheduled mining of this gemstone began, which, along with agriculture, was the municipality's main livelihood. In 2009 around half of the companies registered in Ylämaa were active in the extraction or processing of the mineral. The gemstone deposits are also marketed as a tourist attraction. There is a “gemstone village ” ( Jalokivikylä ) with a gemstone cutting shop , shops with sales exhibitions and an adjoining gemstone museum , the construction of a 30–50 meter high granite pyramid is planned . Every year at the end of June there is a gemstone fair.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Status: January 1, 2009, source: Maanmittauslaitos ( memento of February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Finnish land surveying office): Suomen pinta-ala kunnittain January 1, 2009.
- ↑ Status: December 31, 2009, source: Väestörekisterikeskus ( Memento from December 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Finnish population register): Läänien, maistraattien, kihlakuntien ja kuntien asukaslukutiedot kuukausittain.
Coordinates: 60 ° 48 ' N , 28 ° 1' E