Kokkola

Kokkola, or Karleby in Swedish, is a town and municipality of Finland. The town is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of 36 516 (2007) and covers an area of 332.44 km² of which 4.92 km² is water. The population density is 107.6 inhabitants per km². The municipality is bilingual with 81.0% being Finnish and 17.9% Swedish speakers.

1 Getting there
2 History
- 2.1 The name of the town
3 Economy
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Getting there

By bus: The town of Kokkola lies in the middle of Finland on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. There are main roads from Turku, Jyväskylä, Kajaani and Oulu to Kokkola. Between Kokkola and Jakobstad along the coast is also the scenic '7 Bridges Archipelago Road' road 749.

By air: From Helsinki there are daily Finnair flights to Kruunupyy Airport, which is situated 22 km from Kokkola. There is a bus connection to the departures, 60 min before from Mannerheiminaukio.

By train: You can also get to Kokkola by train, the train station is in the very centre of Kokkola. Express trains from Helsinki to Kokkola take 4 hours, we also have fast Pendolino-connections daily (3 h 54 min).

By ferry: The nearest ferry connection (120 km) to Sweden is via Vaasa—Umeå.

[edit] History

The town of Kokkola was chartered in 1620 by king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden (Finland at that time being a part of Sweden). Kokkola was founded as a shipping port for the tar trade. It also became an important shipbuilding centre in Finland. As a result of tar trade and shipbuilding industry Kokkola was for a time the richest town in Finland.

An interesting historical affair, known as the Skirmish of Halkokari, occurred at the town of Kokkola in May 1854 during the Crimean War. British marines from HMS Vulture and HMS Odin tried to come ashore to ransack the town, but were repelled by local defenders, of which many were civilians armed with hunting rifles. One of the 9 smaller British craft (a gunboat) fell into the hands of the defenders. As such, this boat was the only Royal Navy vessel still in foreign possession in 1914. The boat is still today a museum-object and can be seen in Kokkola's English Park. The town council has refused to return the boat despite several requests by the United Kingdom, most recently by John Stuttard, the Lord Mayor of London. The British Treasury annually pay a small sum for the maintenance of nine graves of nine marines killed in action during the skirmish to the local church congregation. [1]

The city had a Swedish-speaking majority until 1933.

In 1977, the surrounding municipality of Kaarlela (Swedish: Karleby) was merged into Kokkola (Swedish until then: Gamlakarleby). In 2009, the municipalities of Lohtaja, Kälviä and Ullava merge to Kokkola, which will then have 45,000 inhabitants.

[edit] The name of the town

The Finnish name Kokkola means 'The place of bonfire' or 'The place of eagle' since the Finnish word kokko has two meanings: bonfire and white-tailed eagle (the suffix '-la' denotes a location). The town was known in Swedish by the name Gamlakarleby until January 1, 1977 when the surrounding land municipality of Kaarlela (swe. Karleby) was united with Kokkola, and the town took over the Swedish name of Karleby. Gamla means 'old', Karl means 'man' or 'peasant' and by means 'village'. So it literally means Old village of peasants. The Latin name was Carolina Vetus.

[edit] Economy

Kokkola is the capital and only city in the region of Central Ostrobothnia. The chemical industry is a major employer. An industrial area and a port is located in the Ykspihlaja. OMG has a cobalt plant and Boliden has a zinc plant in there. Kemira, a chemical conglomerate, built an industrial park that is now divided between several corporations. The area has Kemira's own sulfuric acid plant, a Kemira GrowHow site, KemFine's fine chemicals plant, Tetra Chemicals calcium chloride plant and a Nordkalk plant. In addition, industries represented in the town include metalworking, casting, textiles, plastics, food and carpentry. Largest employers are as follows:^[1]

The city of Kokkola approx. 2,080
Regional Central Hospital 1,140
Boliden Kokkola (zinc) 640
Health care centre 450
OMG (cobalt) 375
KPO group (retail) 355
Halpa-Halli (retail) 300
KemFine (fine chemicals) 170

The port of Kokkola is located in Ykspihlaja, approximately 5 km from the city center, and it is one of the most trafficked ports in Finland. Oil, ore and limestone are imported, refined products and timber are exported, and iron ore is transited. Kokkola is located on the main railway connecting Oulu and Helsinki via Seinäjoki and Tampere.