Valkeakoski
Template:Infobox Finnish Municipality 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 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].
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.[3]
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
Twin towns — Sister cities
Valkeakoski is twinned with:
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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
References
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
population_countwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
total_areawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ History of Valkeakoski
- ^ "Nanchang City and Sister Cities Intercommunion". Nanchang Municipal Party Committee of the CPC and Nanchang Municipal Government. Nanchang Economic Information Center. Archived from the original on 2013-05-22. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
Gallery
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Tehtaan kenttä – the football stadium in Valkeakoski, Finland, home of the football team FC Haka Valkeakoski -
Valtakatu, the main shopping street of Valkeakoski -
Downtown Valkeakoski -
Factories in Valkeakoski
External links
Media related to Valkeakoski at Wikimedia Commons
- Town of Valkeakoski – Official site
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