Kerava (Swedish: Kervo) is a city in Central Uusimaa, Finland. It
is the 30th largest municipality in Finland in terms of population
and the fifth smallest in area; Kerava's population density is the
third highest in the country after Helsinki and Kauniainen.
Kerava is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Kerava is
located in the province of Uusimaa, north of the Helsinki
Metropolitan Area, 27 kilometers north of Helsinki. Kerava belongs
to the frame municipalities of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The
main line and the Helsinki – Lahti railway, Lahdentie and the
Keravanjoki, a tributary of the Vantaanjoki River, pass through the
city. The border neighbors are Vantaa in the south, Tuusula in the
west and Sipoo in the east. Kerava forms an almost cohesive urban
area that can be roughly divided into the city center and Savio in
the south and Ahjo in the east. The center of Kerava is surrounded
by several radial streets. A pedestrian street, called the longest
in Finland (850 m), runs through the center under the track. [9]
(The oldest and longest pedestrian street in Finland is also
mentioned in Pori.)
Kerava is known, among other things, for its circus market, garlic
festival and Kerava products, especially its hairpin. Other significant
events include
Pearl music in February
Kerava's day in June
Kerava Jazz in June
Author out! - folk music event in June
Circus
market in September
Kerava joulu Christmas market in December
Housing fair in 2024.
Kerava Church (Ahti Korhonen 1963, stained glass Lauri Ahlgren 1980)
Kerava art and museum center Sinkka
other notable buildings: Kerava
railway station (K. Nylander 1878), old town hall (Hytönen & Luukkonen
1950), water tower (E. Lehtonen 1953), market hall (1985), Finland's
smallest church building Valkea Karitsa chapel
A walking center with
its characteristic street lights and several sculptures
Sampola's
underpass (1993), in which Alpo Jaakola's artwork tells the history of
Huovintie from the years 900–1990
Sun Hill
Statue of J. K.
Paasikivi (V. Leppänen 1970)
Statue of Volmari Iso-Hollo (E. Kannosto
1994)
Antti Maasalo's sculptures, such as Yllättä vöhtamien (1994),
Moments of Joy (1994), Kirjokansi (1995)
Kari Huhtamo's sculptures,
such as Rohtovehka (1978)
Statue of Heikki W. Virolainen in Savio's
Klondyke yard
Tuulipurje (Department of Architecture, Helsinki
University of Technology 1982)
The water artwork Oodi Vedelle, next
to the Kerava library.
The statue next to the guild school.
In the 1980s, many garlic dishes were named Kerava's signature dishes: lamb Yrjö's style (à la Jorgos), garlic potatoes and crushed garlic in oil, and gooseberry pie with vanilla sauce for dessert.
Prehistory
It is known that there were people in the Kerava area
already around 7000 BC, when it was still the coast of the ancient
Ancylusjärvi. These inhabitants of the area made a living by hunting,
and they moved a lot throughout the year. Eight Stone Age settlements
are known in Kerava, the most significant of which is Lapila Pisinmäki.
Stone objects, hearths, bone pieces and ceramics have been found in the
area, dating to two settlement phases. The earliest of these is from the
period of the Suomusjärvi culture around 6500–4200 BC. and a later one
from the period of the Neoceramic culture around 2500–2000 BC.
The birth of villages in the 16th–17th centuries
Until the Middle
Ages, Kerava is supposed to have been a wilderness, until two villages,
Alikerava and Ylikerava, were born along the Keravanjoki. There are
written sources shortly before the first land register of the area in
1543, but individual written sources show that there were houses in
Kerava even before 1342. In the middle of the 16th century, the
population of the area was around 160. At that time, Kerava belonged to
Sipoo administrative district. Kerava was joined to Tuusula when the
Tuusula parish was founded in 1643.
Industry and railway
transport
In 1862, the railway between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna was
opened, which quickly brought industry to the agriculturally-dominated
Kerava. Among other things, brick factories and a cement, tile and
rocket factory were established there. An agglomeration developed around
the railway station as the center of the future city. In 1908, the
Kerava carpentry factory was founded, and the wood industry became an
important factor in the town's development. In the coat of arms designed
by Ahti Hammar, there is a join made by a carpenter.
20th century
In 1924, Kerava was separated from Tuusula as its own township. At that
time, its population was around 3,000. In the beginning, it also
included part of the Korso area, and the Korso railway station was also
located in the area of the township. In 1954, however, the whole of
Korso was incorporated into the then Helsinki rural municipality.
The reason for establishing the township was that the railway
connection and the station established in 1862 had caused the population
of Tuusula municipality to grow and it was demanded that the
municipality build municipal engineering in the station village.
However, the decision-makers of Tuusula municipality were not ready for
these investments, which is why they began to demand their own
independent municipality. On June 15, 1923, the first government of
Kyösti Kallio issued a government decree, according to which Kerava
township was ordered to be established at the beginning of the following
year. Kerava Day is celebrated annually on June 15 or the Sunday closest
to it. Territorially, the Kerava township was created from the villages
of Ali-Kerava and Yli-Kerava. The settlement was originally concentrated
on Lapilanmäki, Helleborginmäki or Auringomäki. The construction of the
underpass tunnel from the east side of the railway to the west
stabilized the development of the center of Kerava. From 1924 to 1953,
the area of the store was a total of 39.2 km², but from 1954 it was only
30.79 km², when Korso and Nikinmäki were incorporated into the Helsinki
rural municipality, the current city of Vantaa. In the first municipal
elections of Kerava township in December 1924, 24 town councilors were
elected.
In the 1940s and 1960s, small houses and low-rise
apartment buildings were built in the Sompio district and small houses
in Kaleva to meet the needs of the growing population. In the peak times
of the late 1960s and 1970s, the population almost doubled due to
emigration and good transport connections, and new suburbs were born in
Kurkela, Kiltaa and Untolaa. Kerava received city rights in 1970. In the
1980s, the small housing areas of Ilmarinen and Pihkaniity were built,
and more apartment buildings were built in the center. Kerava is still a
growing city in the wake of the capital region. Its population growth
during 2003 was 1.5 percent. At the moment, new construction is being
planned or carried out, for example, in Kurkela, Kytömaa and Virrenkulma
small house areas, Ahjo, Sompio and Myllylaakso. Large-scale new
construction is also planned for the city center.
Kerava's 100th
anniversary will be celebrated in 2024.
Kerava has 12 primary schools, one upper secondary school and two
Keuda vocational schools. The associations also run a visual arts
school, a music school and a dance school. The city has a swimming pool,
a ground pool and an ice rink, as well as a prison. Central Uusimaa
rescue service and Savion VPK operate in Kerava. There is a health
center in the city; the nearest hospital is Peijas hospital in Vantaa.
In Kerava, the Kerava emergency center responsible for all emergency
calls in Uusimaa operates. The renewed city library of Kerava was opened
on September 1, 2003.
Kerava is an important industrial city. The
most important industrial areas are located near the track on its
eastern side. Food, textiles, metal products and furniture are
manufactured in the city. In addition, there is a versatile small
industry. The biggest employers in Kerava after the city are
Sinebrychoff, Tuko Logistics, Metos, Uusimaa Sairaalapesula,
Kokkikartano, Andritz, Ifolor and Kerava prison (founded 1927). There is
one shopping center in Kerava, Kauppakeskus Karuselli.
The local
newspaper of Kerava is Keski-Uusimaa. Its free magazine is called
Viikkouutiset Kerava. In addition, Kerava-lehti is published once a
month in the village.
Kerava belongs to the Uusimaa electoral district and its city council
has 51 city councillors.
Kirsi Rontu has been the mayor of Kerava
since 2016.
Transport connections are versatile in Kerava. The city likes to
profile itself as a model city for light traffic, for which it has
received accolades. The city has extensive bike paths that are plowed in
the winter just like highways. There are plenty of bike racks and
residents are encouraged to come to the train by bike. The densely built
pedestrian street in the center is off-limits to cars, and most of the
city's services are located along it. The center also has a strictly
regulated parking policy to reduce car use.
In 2020, the City of
Keravan built one-way bike lanes in the center on Aleksis Kivi road and
partly on Paasikivenkatu.
The pedestrian street complex received
the Environmental Structure of the Year award in 1996. Its planning
began as early as 1962 in an architectural competition, where the idea
of encircling the core center with a ring road was born. Construction
began in the early 1980s, when the eastern part of Tuusulantie, which
led from the center of Kerava to the church village of Tuusula, was made
car-free after parking and maintenance changes, and traffic was moved to
bypass roads. At the same time, the pedestrian street section was named
Kauppakaari. The pedestrian street was later extended under the railway
to its east side. This extension was completed in 1995, but the
pedestrian street is still under development.
You can reach
Kerava by road either from the east side from the Lahdenväylä or from
the west side from the Tuusulanväylä. The Lahti motorway and Vanha
Lahdentie pass through Kerava from the east side of the city center.
Public transport
The city of Kerava relies heavily on local train
traffic. There are two railway stations, Kerava and Savio, which are
served by commuter trains from the capital region. The Kerava city
railway, which was completed in the fall of 2004, and the fourth track
put into use with it, offer even more frequent train services to
Helsinki. A railway also leads from Kerava to Porvoo, but the railway
has not been used by regular passenger traffic since 1981; only on
summer Saturdays, old-style passenger trains (Dm7) of the Porvoo Museum
Railway operate between Kerava and Porvoo. However, a railway leading to
the Kilpilahti Neste oil refinery departs from the Porvoo track, which
has daily freight traffic; instead, the section of track leading from
the branching point to Porvoo has been converted into a museum track. In
addition, passenger traffic from Sipo to Nikkilä is currently being
planned over a 20-year time span, in which case the train would stop at
least in Ahjo.
It is about 15 kilometers from Kerava to
Helsinki-Vantaa airport. There is a bus line from Helsinki to Kerava, as
well as other bus lines that go to Korso, Peijas, Ylikerava,
Keinukallio, Kilta and Virrenkulma, among others. There are also buses
to Hyrylä and Sipo to Nikkilä. The service from Porvoo to Kilpilahti was
discontinued on October 1, 2020. The city of Kerava has contributed
significantly to the construction of the urban railway and is committed
to ensuring that the majority of public transport is handled by train.
This has meant that the position of the bus is weak and direct
connections in the direction of Helsinki have been reduced with the HSL
route reform that came in 2019. There are plenty of HSL lines running in
the city.
In March 2006, Kerava joined the HSL area, which means
that Kerava has a common travel card for the capital region. With the
same ticket, you can travel on trains and buses both in Kerava and
elsewhere in the capital region.
After Tuusula joined HSL in
2018, HSL started preparing a new bus plan that concerned Kerava and
Tuusula's internal and regional traffic. The plan came into use with the
start of autumn traffic on August 12, 2019. With the new line, direct
connections to Helsinki were eliminated, with the exception of regional
line 738, which runs on weekdays along regional road 140 from Kerava to
Kalasatama.
Kerava belongs to the traffic zone D of the Helsinki
region.
Many athletes who have made it to the top of the world are from
Kerava, such as diver Joona Puhakka, soccer player Jukka Raitala and
swimmer Hanna-Maria Seppälä. The most successful athlete in Kerava is
Volmari Iso-Hollo, who gained fame at the Olympics in the 1930s, whose
statue is placed in the core of Kerava, on Iso-Hollo square near the
library.
Keinukallio is close to nature, beautiful and quite
versatile in terms of terrain. At Keinukalli, you can enjoy skiing and
sledging in the winter. There is a frisbee golf course and wooden
escalators in the area, which are freely available to city residents in
the summer. At the top of Keinukallio there are exercise equipment
designed for the outdoors. The Kerava city council decided at the 2013
party council that Keinukallio will be developed into an important
exercise and leisure center for the whole of Finland.
Kerava has,
among other things, two ice rinks, a swimming hall, an inland swimming
pool, an athletics field and three artificial turf fields (Savio, Kaleva
and Ahjo). The swimming pool underwent a complete renovation between
2016 and 2019.
The Talma Ski slope and adventure park is located
near the eastern border of Kerava on the Sipoo side.
Sports and
hobby clubs in Kerava
Football: Kerava Pallo -75, PK Keski-Uusimaa
Team gymnastics: Kerava gymnasts KNV
Ice hockey: HC Keski-Uusimaa
Ice hockey: KJT (Keski-Uudenmaa Junior Ice Hockey Support Association)
Competition aerobics: Kerava gymnasts KNV
Basketball: Kerava Kori-80
Patrol flag unit Eräkamut
Scout flag unit Hiiden Hittavaite
Scout
flag unit Kalevan Kipunat
Scout flag group Kerava Korvenpojat
Sammon Takojat patrol flag unit
Cycling: Cycling Academy association
Ringette: Shakers Ringette
Rhythmic gymnastics: Kerava Gymnasts KNV
Floorball: Team HP, Blackbirds United
Badminton: Whip
Dance:
Kerava Tanssiopisto
Dance gymnastics: Kerava Gymnasts KNV
Athletics, orienteering, wrestling, skiing and rowing: Kerava Athletes
Orientation: SK Uusi