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Raahe

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Template:Infobox Finnish Municipality

Per Brahe the Younger established the city of Raahe in 1649.

Raahe (Template:Lang-sv) is a town and municipality of Finland. Founded by Swedish statesman and Governor General of Finland Count Per Brahe the younger in 1649, it is one of 10 historic wooden towns (or town centers) remaining in Finland. Examples of other Finnish historic wooden towns are Kaskinen (Kaskö), Old Rauma, Porvoo (Borgå), Jakobstad (Pietarsaari), and Vaasa (Vasa). After a devastating fire in 1810, Raahe was rebuilt adhering to new design principles which minimized the risk of fire and enlarged some civic spaces. Old Raahe is noted for its Renaissance-inspired rectilinear town plan featuring an unusual central-square (called Pekkatori) with closed corners.

Raahe is located on the northern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia in the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of Template:Infobox Finnish Municipality/population count (Error: Invalid time.)[1] and covers an area of [convert: invalid number] of which [convert: invalid number] is water.[2] The population density is [convert: invalid number]. Historically an agricultural and maritime region, Ostrobothnia supplied the largest number of immigrants from Finland to the US and other countries such as Canada and Australia during the great migration of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Founded as a Swedish- and Finnish-speaking town, the municipality is now unilingually Finnish.

The asteroid 1786 Raahe was named after this town and municipality.

Economy

Raahe was granted staple port rights in 1791, and was traditionally a harbor town. With industrialization, Raahe was reinvented as a steel and heavy industry city, and has further developed with engineering services, ICT and software production. Raahe is known for steel, heavy machinery, engineering works, shipping and ICT. The Rautaruukki steel mill, which up to the 1980s was the largest single industrial site in the Nordic countries, is located in Raahe. The mill produces steel plate, coil and sheeting and semifinished products for the engineering works.

Traditionally, Raahe was a port city. In the late Age of Sail, 1850s and on, shipping companies in Raahe owned Finland's largest fleet of sailing vessels, 60 in total at their height. Currently, the port of Raahe is the sixth busiest port in the country, with 700 ships visiting each year. Cargo that is transported through the port includes raw materials and loose cargo, steel, lumber, containers and contract-shipped goods.

With the steel industry, Raahe has grown into the third largest city in the ex-Oulu province, after Oulu and Kajaani. Like Oulu, the city promotes the ICT business, with the help of the steel industry (ProMetal and Steelpolis) and ICT industry (Softpolis) business incubators/business parks.

The municipal tax rate is 19.75%. In 2007, the structure of the economy was as follows: agriculture and forestry 1%, construction 6%, manufacturing 43%, and retail, services and public services 50%. The sub-region includes the municipalities of Pyhäjoki and Siikajoki.

International relations

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

Twin towns — Sister cities

Raahe is twinned with:

References

Notes
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference population_count was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference total_area was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Twin cities of the City of Kosice". Magistrát mesta Košice, Tr. Retrieved 2013-07-27.
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