Kirkkonummi (Swedish: Kyrkslätt) is a Finnish municipality
located in the Helsinki region, Uusimaa on the coast of the Gulf of
Finland. To the east, Kirkkonummi is bordered by Espoo. The other
neighboring municipalities are Vihti, Siuntio and Inkoo. There is
some common land border with Inkoo in the archipelago, otherwise the
common border consists of the sea. The municipality is home to
39,983 people and covers an area of 1,017.01 square kilometers, of
which 27.35 square kilometers are water bodies. The population
density is 109.2 inhabitants per square kilometer. The municipality
is bilingual. The majority of 76.0 per cent of the population speak
Finnish and 16.9 per cent Swedish.
The name of the
municipality probably comes from the 700-year-old Kirkkonummi
church, which is located on a hill in the municipal center.
Kirkkonummi is part of the Helsinki region, ie the Helsinki
metropolitan area. The distance from the municipal center to the
center of Helsinki is more than 30 kilometers, only 20 kilometers
from the eastern border of the municipality. The driving time from
the municipal center to the center of Helsinki is about 30 minutes.
The improvement of main road 51 into a motorway between the
Kivenlahti and Munkinmäki junctions has been completed. Train and
bus connections to the Helsinki metropolitan area are also good. The
journey to the center of Helsinki takes 30–45 minutes by both train
and bus. Kirkkonummi belongs to the Helsinki Region Transport
Consortium. The majority of residents work in the metropolitan area.
The largest population centers in the municipality are
Kirkkonummi church village (municipal center), Gesterby, Masala,
Veikkola (northernmost center), Kantvik (near the sea) and the
Upinniemi garrison by the sea. In addition to these, Kirkkonummi has
dozens of small villages.
Kirkkonummi is the second largest
municipality in Finland after Lake Nurmijärvi, which does not use
the name city. However, according to the statistical grouping of
municipalities, Kirkkonummi is an urban municipality, as its largest
agglomeration, ie the center of Kirkkonummi, has about 20,000
inhabitants (31 December 2018).
Prehistoric times
Kirkkonummi has been inhabited since the Stone
Age until today. The region was a particularly popular residential area
in the Mesolithic Stone Age. In 1911, Jean Sibelius identified Finland's
first rock painting on the shore of Lake Vitträsk. Rock paintings have
also been found in Juusjärvi. Stone Age tools and places of residence
have been found in e.g. Evitskog, Lapinkylä, Oitmäki and Kauhala. The
Kirkkonummi ossuary is one of the three oldest pieces of evidence of
human culture in Finland. Its age is estimated to be around 8,500 years.
Bronze Age stone cairn graves, or coal stoves, are concentrated near
the sea, such as around Pikkalanlahti and near Sundet. There are e.g.
burial mounds. In Sarvvik, Sundsberg, Tolsa, Korkkulla and Strömsby, as
well as Räfsö and the Porkkala cape. Kirkkonummi has also been found for
the period 1300–1100 BC. a dated Bronze Age sword of a type common in
Western Europe.
The Iron Age finds in Kirkkonummi and Central
Uusimaa are so few that it is estimated that the region lost its
population due to war, disappearance or travel sickness. However, there
has been farming in the area since the 7th century. The old traditional
settlement of the area, preserved for historical time, was founded in
the beginning of the 11th century. These old villages include e.g.
Haapajärvi, Jorvas, Kaljärvi, Kauhala and Veikkola.
Historical
time
After the Second Crusade, from the end of the 13th century, the
Swedish colonization of the Finnish coast also extended to Western
Uusimaa and at the same time to Kirkkonummi. In the first phase, the
settlers took over the grasslands exposed as a result of the uplift and
the fishing grounds for sardines on the shores of present-day
Tavastfjärden.
One of the most important roads in the kingdom,
the Suuri maantie between Turku and Vyborg, was laid through Kirkkonummi
in the 14th century, following roughly the same alignment as
Kuninkaantie has today. Espoo separated from Kirkkonummi parish in 1458.
After the Continuation War in 1944, the Soviet Union compulsorily
leased the Porkkala rental area, which included Kirkkonummi and nearby
municipalities, for 50 years in accordance with the Moscow Peace
Agreement. A naval base was placed there. However, the Soviet Union
returned the Porkkala area already in 1956. At the time of the Red Army
base, it is estimated that there were approximately 20,000–30,000
military personnel in Porkkala. The observation post for the Soviet
soldiers was located on the shore of the Espoo bay in the Majvik tower,
near the border of Espoo.
Traces from these times still exist if
you know where and what to look for. These include concrete bunkers,
other structures and even the remains of an air base. Other places worth
visiting in Kirkkonummi are the medieval stone church in the municipal
center, the beautiful wooden church in Haapajärvi village, the national
romantic manor of Hvitträski in Luoma and the parish center. The mansion
was built as a residence by three famous Finnish architects: Eliel
Saarinen, Herman Gesellius and Armas Lindgren. Built in 1984, the parish
center was designed by one of Finland's most famous or even the most
famous modern architects, Juha Leiviskä, but it will be demolished in
2024, even though the Museum Agency supported its preservation and
estimated it to be repairable.
Geographically, Kirkkonummi has two large capes, Porkkalanniemi and
Upinniemi, the latter of which houses the naval base and garrison
established in 1959. Porkkala is an important stopover point for
migratory birds on the scale of the Baltic Sea. Porkkalanniemi is also
the quietest place in Uusimaa. Part of the Nuuksio National Park is on
the Kirkkonummi side. Phytogeographically, Kirkkonummi belongs to the
hemiboreal zone.
Kirkkonummi has 67 nature conservation areas
(2009).
Metsähovi's research institutes are also located in
Kirkkonummi. There is a Geodetic Institute in Masala. There are 86 lakes
in the municipality, the largest of which are Vitträsk, Humaljärvi and
Storträsk – Bakträsk. Most of the lakes are located north of the railway
crossing Kirkkonummi.
Kirkkonummi has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb). There are long and cold winters and warm summers, spring and autumn are rainy and cool. Kirkkonumni has a similar climate to Hokkaido and Nova Scotia. It rains all year round, but mostly in early and late autumn. The warmest temperature measured in Kirkkonummi is 34.8 °C and the coldest is -31.4 °C.
Kirkkonummi has several swimming beaches on the shores of the sea and
lakes, a long coastline with a wide archipelago for boating, kayaking,
fishing and diving, extensive natural areas for fitness and
orienteering, running and cross-country skiing trails maintained by the
municipality, light traffic routes for running, cycling and roller
skating, swimming hall, ice rink, municipal indoor swimming center ,
five golf courses with a total of eight full-length fairways and a
skiing center (Peuramaa). Kirkkonummi also has several riding stables.
Several TV series, films and documentaries have been shot on
Kirkkonummi. Either several episodes or a few scenes have been filmed in
Kirkkonummi. TV series include Team Wolverine, Wolf Dog Roi – an
adventure in the archipelago, Salatut elämät, Tallitähtet, Kansan man, A
man who looks like a killer, and films such as Cyclomania.
According to the 2018 regional distribution, Kirkkonummi has the
following parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland:
The
Finnish congregation of Kirkkonummi
Kyrkslätts svenska församling
These parishes form the Kirkkonumme parish group (Swedish: Kyrkslätts
kyrkliga samfällighet).
Kyrkslätt Elimförsamling operates from
the member congregations of the Finnish Pentecostal Church in
Kirkkonummi. The Kirkkonummi Pentecostal congregation operates as an
independent Pentecostal congregation in Kirkkonummi.
Among the
congregations of the Finnish Orthodox Church, the Helsinki Orthodox
congregation operates in the Kirkkonummi area.
Former parishes
In the following list, parishes in the current area of Kirkkonummi
municipality that were dissolved in historical time are mentioned.
Kirkkonumme congregation (Swedish: Kyrkslätts församling, divided
into Kirkkonumme Finnish and Swedish congregation in 1963)
The northern part of Kirkkonummi is crossed by highway 1, along which
Veikkola is located. The center of Kirkkonummi, on the other hand, is
along the main road 51. The westernmost section of the national road 50,
or Ring III, is also located in the Kirkkonummi area. The main streets
in the center are Kirkkonummentie and Ervastintie.
Kirkkonummi's
bus connections mainly serve school and work commuting, but for example,
you can get to the center of Helsinki by bus from the center in half an
hour. A fragmented community structure does not allow for the
economically profitable organization of public transport, except in
denser urban areas. Buses from Pohjola Liikente and from August 2014
also Nurmijärvi Linja Oy serve Etelä and Keski-Kirkkonumme and Veikkola.
The coastal line between Helsinki and Turku passes through
Kirkkonummi, and the following railway stations are located in the
municipality:
Created by (discontinued on 27.3.2016)
Masala
Jorvas
Tolsa
Kirkkonummi.
Kirkkonummi is part of the
Helsinki region transport-municipal association. The U-trains of the
metropolitan area run between Helsinki and Kirkkonummi twice an hour and
stop at Masala, Jorvaksi, Tolsa and Kirkkonummi stations. The X-trains
operating during rush hour and the Y-trains going to Siuntio also stop
at the central station of Masala and Kirkkonummi. Until March 26, 2016,
all long-distance trains operating between Helsinki and Turku stopped at
Kirkkonummi's central station, currently only trains 5:48 and 6:58 to
Turku and 18:55 and 21:55 to Helsinki. From Kirkkonummi railway station,
three bus routes depart every weekday to Karjaa, from where there is a
train connection to Turku.