Pajala is a locality and the seat of Pajala Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden with 1,958 inhabitants in 2010.[1]
[edit] History
Lars Levi Læstadius lived and worked in Pajala Municipality in the middle of the 19th century. More precisely his place of residence was Kengis, but during 1869 Læstadii house, grave and the whole church of Kengis was moved to Pajala.[2]
The town was mistakenly bombed by Soviet airplanes during the Finnish Winter War, in the spring 1940. Seven planes dropped 134 bombs, a mix of explosive and firebombs, causing six buildings to burn down, badly damaging telephone wires and making the streets impossible to drive on with 43 big craters. No human casualties were recorded, albeit two persons were slightly injured.[3] Soviet officers later inspected the destruction and the Soviet Union paid damage adjustments during 1940.
[edit] Literature about Pajala
The events in Mikael Niemi's book "Populärmusik från Vittula" (Pop Music from Vittula) occur mainly in Pajala. Vittula, or more properly Vittulajänkkä, is a colloquial denotion for a certain garden suburb in Pajala.
In another portrait over Pajala by this author the book "Mannen som dog som en lax" (The Man who Died like a Salmon). In this criminal novel the author relates to the state of the minority language Meänkieli's situation in Pajala of today.
[edit] References
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