Kurikka is a Finnish city located in the province of Southern
Ostrobothnia. Kurika has a population of 20,550 (30 June 2020) and
an area of 1,743.95 km² (1 January 2020), of which 1,724.67 km² of
land and 19.28 km² of inland waters.
The municipality of
Jurva joined Kurikka at the beginning of 2009, Jalasjärvi at the
beginning of 2016. Due to municipal associations, Kurikka is today
the largest city in the province of Southern Ostrobothnia in terms
of area and the second largest in terms of population. Kurikka is
also Finland's largest agricultural operator in terms of
agricultural income.
There is written evidence of the settlement of Kurika
since the 1540s. As conditions improved in Finland,
industrialization began in Kurika at the beginning of the 20th
century in the metal and wood industries. Kurika Chapel was founded
in 1672. The municipality became independent from Ilmajoki in 1868
and received commercial rights in 1966. Kurika became a town in
1977.
Kurikka initially belonged to the Isonkyrö parish.
Kurika then became a preaching room belonging to the Ilmajoki
Chapel, founded in 1516, and Kurikka, which became a chapel in 1672,
and got its name from the Kurika houses settled on the east bank of
the Kyrönjoki River near the center of Kurika. Kurika's first
inhabitant came to these wilderness forests from Lempäälä or
Pirkkala, where Kurika's house has been before. The municipality of
Kurika in Pirkkala is still a memory of that. Facing Kurikan Church,
on the other side of the river, there is still the oldest remaining
Kurikan position of these stores, Wähä-Kurikka (current
breast-Kurikka). It still stands in the same place, on a high
tributary above Kurikanlahti (Meijerinlampi). The oldest basement
parts of the house date back to the 15th and 15th centuries.
According to his travel diary, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden spent
his night in the house with his entourage in the winter of 1626 on
his way around the Gulf of Bothnia to Stockholm. (Uppsala University
Library. King's Diary. Elars Collections)