Valkeakoski

Valkeakoski
Town
Valkeakosken kaupunki
Sääksmäki Church in Valkeakoski Sääksmäki Church in Valkeakoski
Coat of arms of Valkeakoski Coat of arms
Location of Valkeakoski in Finland Location of Valkeakoski in Finland
Country	Finland
Region	Pirkanmaa
Sub-region	Southern Pirkanmaa sub-region
Charter	1923
Government
• Town manager	Jukka Varonen
Area (2011-01-01)
• Total	372.04 km2 (143.65 sq mi)
• Land	271.98 km2 (105.01 sq mi)
• Water	100.06 km2 (38.63 sq mi)
Area rank	256th largest in Finland
Population (2016-03-31)
• Total	21,305
• Rank	52nd largest in Finland
• Density	78.33/km2 (202.9/sq mi)
Population by native language
• Finnish	98.1% (official)
• Swedish	0.2%
• Others	1.6%
Population by age
• 0 to 14	16%
• 15 to 64	64.4%
• 65 or older	19.6%
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Municipal tax rate	18.75%
Website	www.valkeakoski.fi

Valkeakoski (lit. white rapids) is a town and municipality in Finland.

Valkeakoski is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Tampere and 150 km (93 mi) north of Helsinki in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of 21,305 (31 March 2016) and covers an area of 372.04 square kilometres (143.65 sq mi) of which 100.06 km² (38.63 sq mi) is water. The population density is 78.33 inhabitants per square kilometre (202.9/sq mi).

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

Valkeakoski is best known for its paper industry and domestically highly successful football team, FC Haka.

The town and the paper industry have both grown by the Valkeakoski rapids between the lake Mallasvesi in the north and the lake Vanajavesi in the south.

History

The Valkeakoski area is known to have been inhabited since the iron age. More than a thousand years ago, the ridges on the area served as a foundation of the Rapola fort. In the following Middle Ages, the mill town Sääksmäki was the center of the area. However, industrialization towards the end of the 19th century increased the importance of what became the contemporary town of Valkeakoski. The channel of Valkeakoski was opened in 1869, and the first paper mill was completed in 1873, marking the beginning of a continuing tradition of forest industry. The municipality of Sääksmäki, from which the town of Valkeakoski was detached in 1923 was consolidated with Valkeakoski in 1973.

Sports

Valkeakoski is notable for the football team FC Haka and also other Haka sections, especially the cross-country skiing section. The "skiing Haka" is one of the most successful skiing teams in Finland. The other major local sports organization Koskenpojat has also been really successful, winning many national championships in aerobic gymnastics.

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Finland

Twin towns — Sister cities

Valkeakoski is twinned with:

Gotland, Sweden Hajdúszoboszló, Hungary Kragerø, Norway (1954) Sokol, Russia (1971)

Vechelde, Germany (1976) Jelenia Góra, Poland (1979) Nanchang, China (1997) Mariehamn, Finland (1999)

Notable persons from Valkeakoski

• Veikko Hakulinen
• Mika Kallio
• Pentti Linkola
• Iris Sihvonen
• Emil Wikström
• Juhani Peltonen
• Alpo Suhonen
• Antti Muurinen

Notable places and events

• National Football Museum
• Työväen Musiikkitapahtuma music festival (freely translated as Workers' Music Event)
• Tehtaan kenttä

Gallery

• Tehtaan kenttä valkeakoski Finland.jpg

  Tehtaan kenttä – the football stadium in Valkeakoski, Finland, home of the football team FC Haka Valkeakoski

• Valkeakosken keskusta1b.JPG

  Valtakatu, the main shopping street of Valkeakoski

• Valkeakosken keskusta3..jpg

  Downtown Valkeakoski

• ValkeakoskiFabrik.jpeg

  Factories in Valkeakoski

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Town of Valkeakoski – Official site