Heinola is a town in the province of Päijät-Häme, about 30
kilometers northeast of Lahti. The city is home to 18,552 people and
covers an area of 839.28 square kilometers, of which 163.29 square
kilometers are water bodies. The population density is 27.4
inhabitants / km². Heinola's neighboring municipalities are
Asikkala, Hartola, Iitti, Kouvola, Lahti, Mäntyharju, Pertunmaa and
Sysmä.
Heinola has several wood processing plants, such as
Stora Enso's board mill and Versowood, and was previously home to
Reuma Hospital. It currently operates as the wellness and competence
center Valolinna.
Heinola has the Heinola Bird Parks, the Harjupaviljonki, the Railway
Bridge, Finland's oldest poplar tree, a marina and a well built at the
end of the 19th century, which was renovated with the help of workers in
the summer of 2017. Heinolanharju is also an attraction. In the former
City area of Heinola, there is also Heinola's manor park.
The
Finnish Sports Institute is located in the village of Vierumäki.
Heinola's museums comprise two buildings with changing exhibitions and
permanent collections. The Heinola City Museum has become known for its
large exhibitions presenting different style periods. The Heinola Art
Museum is located in the courtyard of the WPK building with the Heinola
Summer Theatre. Läänkinkivalteri Aschani's house with its gardens is a
unique 18th-century town house milieu in the hinterland. Because of the
many bridges, Heinola is called the city of bridges.
Summer
theater
Built in 2000, the Heinola summer theater is located in
Rantapuisto on the banks of the Kymijoki river, creating together with
the Heinola art museum and the WPK building its own entity with its
courtyard. The completely covered theater area has become famous
especially for its musicals, which have been starred by well-known
domestic actors.
The first musical performed was Billy Wilder's
film Piukat paikak in 2001. Others include Hello, Dolly (2002), Fiddler
on the Roof (2003), My Fair Lady (2004), Sound of Music (2005), Kiss me
Kate (2006), Lainahöyhenissä (2007), Housut pois (2008), Piukat paikak
(2009) and Guys and Dolls - angels on Broadway (2010).
In 2011,
The French Pajamas written by the French Marc Camoletti was seen at the
Heinola summer theater. The comedy was directed by Pentti Kotkaniemi,
with Jaakko Saariluoma, Puntti Valtonen, Jussi Lampi, Mari Turunen,
Saara Kotkaniemi and Anna-Maija Tuokko in the lead roles.
The
summer theater also organizes many other events outside the performance
season, for example concerts.
Events
KesäHeinola 2011 is a new
urban cultural event in Heinola spanning two weekends. Since 2013, the
international ice sculpture event Heinola ice festival has been
organized. In the summer, free Jyrää concerts are organized in the beach
park in Heinola. In the summer, the Heinola Lights concert is also
organized in the city.
In the past, the World Karaoke
Championships and the World Sauna Championships have also been organized
in the city. A housing fair was organized in Heinola in 2004.
During the ice hockey season, the Mestis team Peliitat plays its home
games at Versowood Arena.
Confessions
Three Heinola villages
have received the honor of Päijät-Häme village of the year: Vierumäki in
2011, Lusi in 2009 and Heinola church village in 2005, of which the
latter was also awarded as national village of the year in the same
context.
Heinola was founded in 1776 as the residence of the lord of
Kymenkartano County. Heinola was the center of Kymenkartano county. It
received city rights in 1839 after the landlord moved to Mikkeli.
Heinola belonged to Mikkeli county until the 1997 county redistribution
reform, and between 1997 and 2009 it belonged to Southern Finland
county.
In August 1946, a large revivalist Christian student
meeting was organized in Heinola.
The rural municipality of
Heinola and the city of Heinola merged at the beginning of 1997. The
church village of the former Heinola rural municipality is still called
Heinola church village.
Heinola's waterways include many lakes, the largest of which are
Ruotsalainen and Konnivesi. They belong to the Kymijoki watershed.
Heinola's downtown area is located along the Kymijoki Jyrängönvirta
between Ruotsalainen and Konnivesi. The Swede has a connection to
Päijänte. Along with the lakes, the natural landscape of Heinola is
dominated by coniferous and mixed forests.
Training
There are
several elementary schools in Heinola (Jyrängö school, Kailaa school,
Kirkonkylä school, Lusi school, Sinilähte school and Vierumäki school),
Lyseonmäki middle school, Heinola high school and the location of the
Education Center Salpaus, which has several vocational training lines
such as automotive, trade and administration, machine and production
technology, media industry, construction industry, restaurant and
catering industry, electricity industry and security industry.
Vocational and vocational higher education in the sports field is
offered by the Finnish Sports Institute in Vierumäki.
Heinola is located along highway 4 leading from Helsinki to
Lapland via Lahti and Jyväskylä. The section of the road from
Helsinki to Heinola has been built as a highway, and it runs west
past the city center along Finland's second longest bridge, the
Tähtniemi bridge. The motorway section from Lahti to Heinola was
completed at the end of 2005. Highways 4 and 5 diverge north of the
center of Heinola at the Lusi junction.
Heinola and
Pohjois-Kymenlaakso are connected by national road 46, which runs
from the church village of Heinola to the center of Kouvola, passing
Jaala, Kuusankoski and Valkeala. The road from Heinola to the
Kouvola border is in really bad condition, and its basic improvement
project has been discussed in the city council several times.
Heinola's local transport has been operated since July 2014 by
Lehtimäki transport, which won the competition of the Lahti region
transport municipal association. LSL's 8x series lines operate in
Heinola, which run mainly to Lahti, but also to the largest districts
and settlements within Heinola, such as Sinilähte, Jyränkö, Tommolaa,
Vierumäki and kirkonkylä.
Several dozen express trains pass
through Heinola per day. All express services between Helsinki and
Mikkeli, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Oulu and Rovaniemi. In addition to the bus
station, the Vierumäki exit, Tähtniemi junction, Kaivokatu, Veljeskylä,
Lusi junction and Paaso, and the newest Pääsinniemi (Vahteristo) rapid
transit stops are located in the city area. Heinola and Jyväskylä, but
not the express trains between Heinola and Mikkeli, stop at the Lusi
crossroad. The express stop located next to the gas station in
Kirkonkylä was discontinued in 2012.
At best, you can get to
Lahti and back five times an hour on a weekday by public transport. The
fastest bus journey from Heinola's Kaivokatu to Lahti railway station
takes half an hour on LSL line 87. You can get to Helsinki Kamppi in one
hour and 45 minutes with a special express train.
The railway from Lahti to Heinola was completed in 1932. There is a
large railway bridge crossing the Jyrängönvirta in the center of the
city. Nowadays, there is only freight traffic on the track, as passenger
traffic was discontinued in 1968. The nearest railway station serving
passenger traffic is located in Lahti.
Already during the
construction phase of the Heinola line, it was planned to extend it
later to the Savo line (the so-called HELEMI line), which it would have
joined at Mäntyharju or, according to later plans, at Mikkeli. The
railway plan has been launched several times later, as it would
significantly shorten travel times from Savo to Helsinki. HELEMI's
alignment has long been marked in the regional plan of Etelä-Savo.
The extension of the current Lahti straight line to Jyväskylä has
made headlines in recent years due to the speed restrictions caused by
the meandering and dilapidation of the current Tampere-Jyväskylä
section. One of the options presented in the joint report of the
regional associations would run from the east side of Päijänne via
Heinola and Hartola to Muurame, where it would connect to the current
line. The Päijät-Häme county association has also carried out a study on
the conditions for local train traffic between Lahti and Heinola.
Water transport
In summer, there is also a water transport
connection between Lahti and Heinola, which runs through Ruotsalainen,
Päijänte and Vesijärvi and the Kalkkisten and Vääksy canals that connect
them to each other. There is also water transport between Heinola and
Jyväskylä in the summer. In 2020, the pleasure boat and water bus canal
built in Jaala Kimola opened, which opened the waterway between Heinola
and Kuusankoski.
General plan and traffic
The public is
visibly discussing the settlement of small houses in Heinola in
settlements that are located closer to the highway than to the bus
station. In addition, significant units of the retail trade have come up
at the motorway junctions of Heinola to serve, among other things, the
population of the nearby area.