Lahti (Swedish: Lahtis) is a city in Finland and the regional
center of Päijät-Häme, located on the southern shore of Lake
Vesijärvi in Päijät-Häme.
Lahti is the eighth largest city in
Finland and the sixth largest urban area. Lahti has 120,078
inhabitants (30 June 2019) and covers an area of 517.64 km², of
which 459.50 km² of land and the remaining 58.14 km² of inland
waters (1 January 2020). Lahti is the youngest of Finland's
so-called old cities.
On 1 January 2016, the City of Lahti
and the Municipality of Nastola merged to form the new City of
Lahti. The neighboring municipalities of Lahti are Asikkala,
Heinola, Hollola, Iitti and Orimattila.
General
Lahti is located on the southern shore of Lake
Vesijärvi, which belongs to the Kymijoki watershed. The first Latch
Back passes through the city. The headwaters of the Porvoonjoki
River are on the southern slopes of Salpausselä, and the upper
reaches of the river run through the southern parts of the city. The
town is characterized by the hillyness of Salpausselä and numerous
lakes. Vesijärvi forms a gateway to central Finland via Päijänne.
Häme dialects are spoken in Lahti.
Lahti's strengths
include environmental expertise and industrial design in particular.
Center
The center of Lahti consists of the triangle bounded by
Lahdenkatu, Saimaankatu and Mannerheiminkatu. The core of the city can
be considered the area bordered by Vuorikatu, Rauhankatu, Kirkkokatu and
Kauppakatu. Vesijärvenkatu cuts through the center in a north-south
direction. In the core center are located, among others, the Lahti
market square, the main street of Lahti city i.e. Aleksanterinkatu,
Kauppakeskus Trio, Lanunaukio, Mariankatu and the Hakkapeliitto
homecoming statue located on its pedestrian street section.
In
recent decades, the commercial focus of the center of Lahti has shifted
from the area around Kauppatori towards the east. At the end of
Aleksanterinkatu, a large shopping center complex was formed in the
1990s, when three Aleksi business buildings were combined into shopping
center Trio. Hansa, a commercial building located along Kauppakatu, was
also connected to the trio. At the turn of the millennium, shopping
center Syke was built in Raute's former factory block.
A few
small walking areas have been built in the center of Lahti. The section
of Rautaitenkatu between Vapaudenkatu and Hämeenkatu has been turned
into a pedestrian street. The pedestrian section of Rautatienkatu
between Aleksanterinkatu and Vapaudenkatu is called Lanunaukio.
The shops in the center compete for customers with, for example, the
hypermarkets in Launee, built in the early 1990s. Efforts have been made
to enliven the center by, among other things, hiring a center host whose
task has been to organize events in the center and develop the center's
marketing. In order to maintain the operation, the Lahti
kenstasetaeheytys ry, the current Lahti City ry, was founded in 1999
Under the Lahti market square, there is a parking garage for almost
600 cars, Lahti toriparkki, which started operating in May 2015.
Lahti is located on the south shore of Lake Vesijärvi, which is part
of the Kymijoki watershed. The first Salpauselkä runs through the city.
The headwaters of Porvoonjoki are on the southern slopes of
Salpausselkä, and the river's upper reaches pass through the southern
parts of the city. The town is characterized by the hilliness of
Salpausselkä and numerous lakes. There is a connection from Vesijärvi
via the Vääksy canal to Päijänte, from where waterways and canals lead
to Keitele and Kymijoki.
Hämälä dialects are spoken in Lahti.
Lahti's strengths include especially environmental expertise and
industrial design. source?
Based on the excavations made in Renkomäki Ristola, the Lahti area
was inhabited as early as 9,000 years ago, which makes the Lahti area
one of the oldest known settlements in Finland. The first document
mention of the village of Lahti, which belonged to the keep of Hollola,
is from the year 1445. In the land register of Häme from 1558, it is
mentioned that there were 24 houses in the village of Lahti.
Although the village of Lahti was the hinterland of the big Hollola
keeper and was small in size, its location was significant in terms of
traffic. Already in the 15th century, the Ylinen Viipurintie, which led
from Hämeenlinna to Viipur, passed through it, from which the Suur-Savo
Valtatie, which led to Olavinlinna, branched off near Lahti. When the
keeper of Hollola received market rights in 1672, the village of Lahti
was designated as the market place, "which is located along a major
public road and at a suitable distance from all four cities, Turku,
Viipur, Helsinki and Porvoo". For half a century, Lahti thus became a
prominent market place where the burghers of all four cities traded. In
1727, however, the market was moved at the initiative of the Helsinki
burghers to Asikkala's Anianpelto, where there were better connections
from the Päijänte waterway. The Vääksy canal connecting Vesijärvi and
Päijänte in Asikkala was completed in 1871. After the loss of the
market, Lahti declined into a rather insignificant rural village until
the end of the 19th century.
In 1863, the construction of the
Riihimäki–Pietari railway was started, which ran along the Salpausselkä
ridge and through the village of Lahti. The first locomotive drove to
Lahti in August 1869, and at the beginning of the following year, the
entire Riihimäki–Pietari railway section was inaugurated.[16] When the
railway was completed, there were only eighteen houses in the village of
Lahti, but thanks to the railway, the village began to grow and develop
quickly. A sawmill and wood processing industry began to emerge in
Lahti, the operation of which was helped by the opening of the Vääksy
canal in 1871 and the floating connection to the Päijänne waterway
achieved through it.
Merchant (1878–1905)
On May 24, 1878,
Lahti received township rights by order of Emperor Alexander II. The
township of Lahti still belonged to the municipality of Hollola. In the
same year, the town of Lahti received its first site plan, which is
still the basis of the city's current core. The shop was built on the
north side of the railway station. The fact that practically the entire
village of Lahti had been destroyed in a big fire in 1877 made it easier
to prepare the site plan. Lahti's coat of arms became a picture of a
flaming train wheel because of the importance of the port and the
railway station.
The people of Lahti tried to get the status of a
town in the market area as early as the end of the 1890s. The
municipality of Hollola strongly opposed the idea. The governor of Häme
County came out in support of the plan in 1900 "taking into account the
great progress made in recent years and the invigoration of the
movement". However, it took another five years to get city status.
City (1905–)
Lahti became an independent city in 1905. The city
rights were confirmed by Emperor Nicholas II on November 1st, but due to
strikes and unrest in Russia, the matter was not made known in Finland
until November 16th, 1905, which is therefore the founding date of the
city of Lahti. After becoming a city, areas from Hollola have been added
to Lahti in 1916, 1923, 1933 and 1956 (a large part of Okerois). In the
1956 municipal union, areas from Nastola and Orimattila were also joined
to Lahti. The Lahti region also expanded on January 1, 2016, when the
city of Lahti and the municipality of Nastola merged.
In the
Finnish civil war, decisive battles were fought in Lahti. The Lahti Red
Guard took power in the city in January 1918 and held it for three
months, until the German troops who landed in Loviisa captured the city
in April. The Reds, who fled from the western side of the bay towards
Russia, surrendered after fierce battles. A temporary prison camp was
set up on Fellmann's field near the center of Lahti where about 20,000
surrendered Reds were gathered. More than half of these were later
transferred to the Hennala prison camp, which became one of the largest
prison camps of the civil war. Fellmann's park has been established on
the site of the former Fellmann's field, where a large monument to red
prisoners was unveiled in 1978.
In the first half of the 20th
century, Lahti became known as a city of carpenters and furniture
factories. The pioneer was Asko Avonius, who in 1918 founded the Asko
furniture factory in Lahti. Along with Asko, the family company Isku and
the cooperative Sotka also became famous furniture factories. The metal
industry in Lahti was represented by Upo, which manufactures stoves, and
Raute, which manufactures mechanical wood processing machines.
Malsjuoma's brewery became nationally famous with its advertising
campaigns "Ei oo Lahten wontinutta", "Moi Lahtelais!" and with its
brands, such as the beer brands Lahten Erikoinen and Lahten Sininen.
The city grew strongly again after the Second World War, when many
immigrants from Karelia moved to Lahti. During the Winter War, people
from Kivenna came to the city, during the Continuation War, evacuees
from Äyräpää. The city continued to grow rapidly during the great
emigration of the 1960s and 1970s. The new residents of Lahti were
mainly from the countryside of Karelia and Savo. Growth stopped in the
first recession caused by the oil crisis in 1975–1976. Large employers
began to make their operations more efficient, and population growth
could no longer continue depending on employment.
Lahti built its
image, among other things, as a winter sports town. The skiing world
championships were held there in 1978, when the competition village was
built in Riihela, and in 1989, when the new competition village was
built in Lahti. In 2001 and 2017, the World Ski Championships were
organized again. The apartments used as the 2001 competition village
were built in the Ankkur district, near the shore of Lake Vesijärvi.
A new theater building was built in the city (1983), a provincial
library (1990) and an adult education center offering labor college and
university education (1987). source? The Sibelius Hall, built for large
concerts and other events, was completed in 2000 on the shores of Lake
Vesijärvi.
Lahti University of Applied Sciences was founded in
1996, and in the same year, the Päijät-Häme Education Group brought
together almost all of Päijät-Häme's vocational schools. Lahti
University Campus was founded in 2001 (originally Lahti University
Center). Aalto University and the University of Helsinki operate on the
university campus.
From the beginning of 2016, the city of Lahti
and the municipality of Nastola were abolished and a new municipality
was established, which was named the city of Lahti.
Lahti became
Finland's newest university city since Rovaniemi (1979), when the
parliament in December 2018 approved an amendment to the University Act
to change Lappeenranta University of Technology to Lappeenranta–Lahti
University of Technology.
In the summer of 2019, Lahti was chosen
as the first Finnish city to be the European Environmental Capital for
2021.
Lahti's population grew dynamically for a long time, until the
labor-intensive industry began to decline during the recession of the
1990s. Population growth has continued in the 21st century again
moderately. The development has also been influenced by the internal
migration win in Päijät-Häme.
During the recession years, Lahti's
industry reduced a lot of the workforce, causing severe unemployment on
a national scale.
Lahti practically belongs to the Helsinki
metropolitan area, because the growth of the capital region radiates to
Lahti. The Helsinki–Lahti motorway and the Lahti expressway are
connected to the same entity. The improvement of connections to the
capital region has significantly increased commuting between the capital
region and Lahti.
The Lahti region offers manufacturing and
logistics a relatively central location in southern Finland. Key
logistics sectors include, for example, the consumer goods and food
industries. Lahti's location is advantageous, as transport distances to
the rest of Finland are on average shorter from Lahti than from the
capital region. The know-how, traditions and the high-quality water
available in Lahti with its logistically good location, which Hartwall
bought in Lahti, contributed to the establishment of Hartwall's large
brewery and Viking Malt's large investment in Lahti.
Compared to
many other cities in Finland, there are few government jobs in Lahti.
Lahti and Päijät-Häme are significant net contributors to the state. The
situation was balanced by the fact that the state invested ARA (former
State Housing Fund) in Lahti.
After the recession of the 1990s,
the state made important investments for Lahti. They include the highway
from Helsinki to Lusi in Heinola via Lahti and the straight line built
from Kerava to Lahti. The state has also supported the construction of
the Sibelius Hall and the renovation of the Sports Center.
It is
important for Lahti's development how well the city and its surrounding
areas are able to benefit from the state's large straight line
investment and to be attached to the Helsinki metropolitan area.
Lahti is the European Environmental Capital in 2021.
Lahti has
long invested in environmental protection and innovations that promote
it. Lahti is nationally known for its progress in water, environment and
climate protection. The waste is sorted for reuse in the area of
Salpakierro, jointly owned by Lahti and the environmental
municipalities, the highest proportion nationwide.
The
Lahti-based Salpausselkä Luononystävät ry has repeatedly intervened over
the years in projects that are problematic in terms of environmental
protection. However, over the years, the association has been publicly
criticized for the weak justification of several complaints it has made,
even to the extent that this association, which is completely closed to
new members, has suffered clear reputational damage. In the
justifications of one complaint, the disadvantages of new construction
that endangered the flying squirrel were referred to, despite the fact
that an industrial building has been located on the site of the former
Nelo bakery, which was the subject of the complaint, since 1943.
Lahti had a mayor from 1907 to 1930, after which, with the amendment
of the Municipal Act, the mayor system was introduced. During Otto
Lyytikäinen's term as mayor from the end of January to the end of April
1918, the city of Lahti was under the executive authority of the Finnish
People's Delegation from January 28, 1918. At that time, the city's
civil administration was led by Hugo Ilmari Kautto after seizing power
in Lahti until April 19, 1918.
Pekka Timonen has been the mayor
of Lahti since 2018. The executive management of the city of Lahti
consists of the mayor and the managers of the technical and
environmental sector, cultural affairs and social affairs. Tiina
Granqvist is the branch manager of cultural activities and Mikko
Komulainen is the branch manager of social and health activities.
Lahti's social and health care services are provided by the Päijät-Häme
welfare municipality association under the leadership of Marina Erhola.
Olli Alho, director of urban development, is the director of the
technical and environmental company.