Lappeenranta

 

Lappeenranta (Swedish: Villmanstrand) is a city in Finland and the regional center of South Karelia, located on the southern shore of Lake Saimaa in the province of South Karelia. The city is located in the area between the southern shore of the Saimaa watershed and the Russian border. Lappeenranta is the 13th largest city in Finland in terms of population, with 72,266 inhabitants.

Lappeenranta's neighboring municipalities on the Finnish side are Imatra, Lemi, Luumäki, Miehikkälä, Ruokolahti and Taipalsaari. On the Russian side, the neighbors are Tienhaara (Seleznjovo), Enso (Svetogorsk) and Antrea (Kamennogorsk).

Until 1945, Lappeenranta belonged to Vyborg County. In 1945–1997 it belonged to Kymen county and in 1998–2009 to the province of Southern Finland. On 1 January 2020, the area of ​​Lappeenranta was 1,723.56 km², of which 1,433.78 km² is land and the remaining 289.78 km² is inland water areas.

In 2009, Lappeenranta was rated the fourth best image in the comparison of Finland's large cities. In the 2008 survey, Lappeenranta was ranked fifth. In a survey of business representatives conducted in 2011, Lappeenranta ranked 17th out of a total of 34 Finnish cities.

Lappeenranta gained worldwide visibility when the rights of the crime series Sorjonen, located in the city, were sold to 40 countries. The series was filmed in Lappeenranta in 2015–2019.

 

Tourism

Lappeenranta has a colorful history as a city on the border of two different cultures. Lappeenranta's past is best seen in the oldest part of the city, the Fortress, where the city's museums, alleys, galleries and artisans' workplaces are located. The South Karelia Museum, located at the northern tip of the fortress, has a large collection of the history of Vyborg, including a miniature model of the city. You can also get to know the operation of the Saimaa Canal on dry land in the Canal Museum or by watching the closure from the side.

Lappeenranta harbor is located next to the Lappeenranta fortress. Cruises to Saimaa and the Saimaa Canal to Vyborg depart from the passenger port. There are many different pleasure boats in the harbor in summer, and there are also two restaurant ships in the harbor, S/S Suvi-Saimaa and S/S Prinsessa Armaada, both of which are steamships that operated in Saimaa. The meeting of Saimaa steamboats, the Saimaa steamboat regatta in the summer of 2006 has also been organized in the port.

Passenger traffic across the border is also busy. Lappeenranta has become, among other things, a popular shopping and tourist center for Russians. Lappeenranta's tax-free sales volume is the second largest in Finland, right after Helsinki. The value of tax-free sales in Lappeenranta in 2011 was 76.5 million euros, and the city's share of all sales in Finland was about 30 percent. In November 2011, the opening of the Holiday Club Saimaa spa hotel was celebrated in Rauha, Lappeenranta.

Finland's oldest airport, founded in 1918, is located in Lappeenranta. The airport is located just a few kilometers from the city center, and charter and scheduled flights fly from there. Lappeenranta Airport has been owned by the province since January 1, 2016.

The Lappeenranta Aviation Association (founded in 1935) has organized several large, international air shows over the years, for example in July 2005, when the association celebrated its 70th anniversary, and also in 2013.

Lappeenranta's water tower is a visible landmark.

 

Culture

The most significant of the art galleries and museums are the South Karelia Museum, the Lappeenranta Art Museum and the Cavalry Museum, which are located in the fortress. Kulttuuri- ja taitetila ry maintains its own gallery in Galleria Pihato, owned by the city, in the grounds of the old rectory in Lappe. The fortress also houses smaller galleries and artists' studios.

Author Laila Hirvisaari has written numerous novels about Lappeenranta and the people of Lappeenranta, the first of which, The City of Lehmusten, was published in 1972. Laila Hirvisaari has lived in the Lappeenranta region for more than 30 years.

Many other cultural associations have their headquarters in Lappeenranta. Among these, let's mention, for example, the South Karelia Classical Choir (former South Karelia Regional Choir), the South Karelia Orchestra Association, the Southeastern Finland Art Craftsmen Täky Association, the Karjala Lauluveikot Association, the Jewelry Association, the Lappeenrantan Youth Circus Association, the Lappeenrantan Art Association Association and the KESY Theater Association .

In Lappeenranta, there is an event and cultural center Kulttuuritila Nuijamies, whose program includes theater, film, stand-up and music. It is maintained by Kulttuuritila Nuijamies ry.

Proceedings
Several large Christian summer events have been organized in Lappeenranta. Revival parties have been organized in Lappeenranta three times: 1909, 1936 and 1969.

Popular culture events organized in the summer have included, for example, Fortress Night. Kalenat, the country's largest folk dance event for children and young people, takes place every second summer in Lappeenranta. Kaamospuhallus, a youth event, is organized annually in Lappeenranta.

Theater and cinema
Lappeenranta City Theater is a professional theater whose audience base extends from South Karelia to the capital region. From 2016, the theater operates on two stages in the extension of the shopping center IsoKristiina.[28] The theater produces 5–7 premieres every year. The program covers the different age groups of the audience and the entire spectrum of theater offerings, from premieres to foreign and domestic performances, musical theater and children's theater. The program is also enriched by numerous guest performances.

Lappeenranta's summer theater operates in the fortress. Lappeenranta's student theater ActI, founded in 1998 and intended primarily for university students, also operates in the city. In addition to smaller works, the theater produces one full-length play every year.

In Lappeenranta, Finnkino's four-screen cinema operates on the third floor of the shopping center Isokristiina.

Music
The Lappeenranta City Orchestra is a full-fledged small symphony orchestra made up of 21 full-time professional musicians, whose artistic director is conductor Vytautas Lukočius. The program is based on Viennese classical music, but the orchestra has played widely, from baroque to entertainment and jazz.

The city of Lappeenranta organizes Lappeenranta's national singing competitions every three years, most recently in January 2019. The competition is a significant musical event through which young singers have been able to start their careers. Famous winners of the singing competition over the past 50 years include Jorma Hynninen, Karita Mattila, Soile Isokoski, Camilla Nylund, Johanna Rusanen-Kartano, Marjukka Tepponen, Petteri Salomaa, and Jaakko Kortekangas. In the years between the singing competitions, the Laulava Lappeenranta forum is organized in the city, which brings different styles of singers and singing styles to be heard.

Lappeenranta Big Band is a hobby-based 19-member orchestra (2011) and at the same time one of the two oldest big bands in Finland still working. The orchestra has been operating since 1954, when it was founded under the name Lappeenranta musicians' large dance orchestra. The operation became an association in 1981. The most significant achievements have been the wins of the Finnish Big Band championship in 1989 in the senior series, and in 1991 and 1998 in the junior series. Ismo Varis has been the conductor of the orchestra since 1996. The Lappeenranta Big Band has also influenced the growth of many jazz musicians.

Due to the organizational reform of the Defense Forces, the size of the Rakuuna Band operating in Lappeenranta will increase and the military band will change its name to the Land Forces Band during 2014.

A couple of Finnish stars of heavier rock, Kotiteollisuus and Mokoma, are also from Lappeenranta. There are also several black metal bands from Lappeenranta, such as Satanic Warmaster and Horna.

Many winners of the popular Idols singing competition have also come from the city. The first competition was won in 2004 by Hanna Pakarinen, in 2008 by Koop Arponen and in 2017 by Anniina Timonen.

 

History

Before the founding of the city

The village of Kauskila, or the current Karhunkylä, is located ten kilometers south of the center of Lappeenranta. Pollen research has found that Kauskila has been continuously inhabited in the core areas of Lappeen since at least the beginning of time until the present day.
The Kauskila mortuary is a well-known crusade and medieval relic. Lappe's keeper was founded in the 14th century source?. The old center of Pitäjä was located in Kauskila. The keeper's church, Kauskila's chapel, was also located there. The holder extended to the southern shore of Saimaa.

Before the founding of the city, the Lapvedenranta market place (now a passenger port) that belonged to the keep of Lappe had warehouses and administrative buildings of Vyborg merchants. The location was convenient in terms of traffic. Tar and other market products were brought to the city and before that to the marketplace from a wide area. The Lappeen church was also located on the promontory, which is marked on the map of Lappeen made by the land surveyor in the 1640s. All that remains of the early church today is a monument in the Fortress. A new church was later built outside the Fortress.

 

The founding of Lappeenranta and the period of Swedish rule until 1743

The establishment of the town of Lappeenranta was proposed by Johan Rosenhane, the governor of Viipur and Savonlinna counties at the time, in 1649, and in the same year, Lappeenranta received town rights from Queen Kristiina, who, when signing the founding document, gave the town a seal with a wild forester as its design. This is why the town's Swedish name became Villmanstrand. The actual declaration as a city was carried out by the Governor General Pietari Brahe. Lappeenranta was established as a country town. The town's burghers were allowed to trade with other country towns and small towns, such as Viipur. They did not have permission for direct foreign trade.

The area of the city at the founding stage was 1.1 km², comprising mostly the ridge that protrudes into the Saimaa in the area of the current Fortress. The town had a few hundred inhabitants. The buildings of the early town were all of wood, and have since all been destroyed. In the Battle of Lappeenranta of the War of the Hats, on August 23, 1741, Russian troops captured the city.

 

The period of the Russian Empire 1743–1811

The War of the Hats, which was defeated by Sweden, ended with the peace concluded in Turku in 1743. The fortresses of Lappeenranta, Hamina and Olavinlinna (Savonlinna) remained on the side of the Russian Empire. In 1744, the Viipur governorate was established in the area, which consisted of the counties of Viipur, Käkisalmi and Kyminkartano. At the time of the Finnish War of 1808–1809, the area became known as Old Finland, to distinguish it from New Finland, which the Russians were about to annex to the empire. Lappeenranta became the county center of Kyminkartano, where the order holder responsible for the county administration was stationed.

The Russian empress Catherine II reformed the city administration. Bourgeois rights were liberalized, allowing any city dweller to become a merchant. Lappeenranta was suitable as the center of its area; tax grain could also be transported there from the northern parts of the region along waterways without difficulty. Part of the grain was intended for the needs of the Russian units in the fortress, the rest was transported in winter to Vyborg, where the crown had large grain stores.

When Paul I ascended the throne, his first task was to abolish Catherine's local government system, which proved to be bureaucratic and expensive. The number of city offices and officials was reduced, and only in the years following the annexation of Old Finland at the end of the 1810s, the city got the Swedish administrative model again with bourgeois rights and artisan guilds.

Economically, the 18th century was a difficult time: the war had cut off Vyborg's trade connections with Savo and North Karelia, which also affected the famous Lappei market held twice in September. The export of tar declined, and by the 1740s it had almost stopped. Lappeenranta was part of Hamina's trading district before and after the war. The people of Hamina closely monitored their rights, and prevented the connections of the peasants from Lappeenranta and Savo to Vyborg. It wasn't until 1784 that the trade compulsion was abolished, and trade with Vyborg became lively again. Lumber, grain, butter and tallow were shipped to Vyborg, and mainly salt was imported from there.

During the imperial years, Lappeenranta received a lot of influence from Russia. Especially since the 1790s, the city had a strong military stamp, which was emphasized by the separation of the civilian and military populations into their own areas. However, there was a lot of interaction, when merchants of Swedish and Russian nationality entered into business relations with the conscripts. At the same time, the town's social life became livelier, when Russian officers participated in the evening parties of local civil servant and merchant families. Lappeenranta was in close contact with Vyborg, from where information was obtained about the latest fashion trends in St. Petersburg, which were also followed with a delay on the shores of Saimaa.

 

The period of autonomy 1812–1917

In 1812, Lappeenranta was joined to the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, like the rest of Old Finland. At the same time, the city changed from a border fortress to an inland city. At the beginning of the 19th century, Lappeenranta was a small town both in terms of population and surface area: there were only 210 townspeople in 1812. The settlement had spread outside the Fortress to Pallo and near the Lappeen Church in the area called the Great Suburb.

At the beginning of the 19th century, there were no actual practitioners of industrial trades in Lappeenranta. In the middle of the 19th century, a few small industrial plants, or manufactories, were established in Lappeenranta and Lappee. For example, a pottery factory and an oil refinery, as well as a liquor factory operated in the municipality. The change in society began to be seen in the last decades of the 19th century. Industrial plants rose in the city and its surroundings, such as Kaukaa factory, Lauritsala sawmill and later Chymos food factory on the site of the former cork factory. Transport connections also improved due to the influence of the railway and the canal.

In August 1887, Finland's first general private clergy meeting was held in Lappeenranta.

 

The time of independence

Political antagonisms among the people arose with the reaction to the February Manifesto (1899) and the Great Strike (1905). After the strike, the Workers' Order Guards, or National Guards, were established, and after the Russian Revolution, the Workers' Militia became the Red Guards. To counteract this, protection councils were established. The Red Guard regiment was founded in Lappeenranta on November 11, 1917. Clashes took place between the parties, and the Red Guards took over the Lappeenranta railway stations at the beginning of 1918 to protect the passage of armed trains.

In Lappeenranta, the violence occurred at the beginning of the war and at the end of April. In late April, the Reds carried out massacres. On April 26, the White Karelian 3rd Regiment took control of the city under the command of Captain Unio Sarlin, after which they began mass murders. After the war, the Lappeenranta prisoner of war camp was organized in the city on May 13, whose prisoners were arbitrarily executed. The civil war left the city, like the rest of the country, with long-term trauma and bitterness.

 

Lappeenranta today

The current Lappeenranta has grown as a result of municipal mergers (Lappeen municipality and Lauritsala township 1967, Nuijamaa municipality 1989, Joutseno city 2009, Ylämaa municipality 2010) into a 1,756 square kilometer border town that shares a 70 kilometer border with Russia.

After Vyborg remained on Russia's side, Lappeenranta has become the alternate Vyborg of the Karelian tribe. Karjala-lehti moved from Viipur to Lappeenranta via Lahti after the Continuation War. Lappeenranta maintains Vyborg's cultural heritage. source?

Lappeenranta is the center of South Karelia province's business life and diverse culture. The proximity of the border and the location of the city make Lappeenranta a significant center for goods and passenger traffic, where internationality is part of everyday life. Industry is also important to Lappeenranta, the largest employers include UPM-Kymmene, Outotec, which bought industrial filter manufacturer Larox in 2009, and Metsä Fiber in Joutseno.

Lappeenranta's downtown area is divided into three larger centers: the main center and Lauritsala in the east and Sammonlahti in the west. Smaller centers are Voisalmi in the north and Mäntylä-Myllymäki in the south. About 80 percent of the city's population live in the central area and 20 percent live in a large rural area outside the central area.

 

Lappeenranta Tarounas

The cavalry unit Suomen Rakuunrykmentti was formed in Lappeenranta by decree of the emperor on April 17, 1889. Lappeenranta was chosen for its good climate and transport links. The city council granted the troop department a piece of land on the edge of the city without compensation. Red brick barracks were built for the Lappeenranta garrison. In 1901, with the emperor's conscription law, the tarragon regiment was abolished, and the Finnish Tarragon Regiment was formed in its place. Uusimaa's tarragon regiment was moved to Lappeenranta in 1921, and the tarragon uniforms of the 1922 model became known among the townspeople. The Häme Cavalry Regiment was also stationed in the city before the wars. Uusimaa Rakuunabataljoona operated as an independent troop unit until 1989 and Rakuunaeskadroona under the Maasotakoulu until 2016. The traditions of the cavalry in Lappeenranta are maintained today by the Rakuuna band.

 

Media

In Lappeenranta, Etelä-Saimaa, a provincial newspaper of Etelä-Karelia, belonging to the Länsi-Savo group, is published, with a circulation of 29,424 copies in 2011. Karjala-lehti, founded in Vyborg in 1904 and moved to Lappeenranta after the war, is now published once a week on Thursdays. In 2012, the circulation of Karelia was about 8,100 copies.

Etelä-Suomen Media publishes the city newspaper Lappeenranta Uutiset, which is distributed free of charge to households in the Lappeenranta region on Wednesdays. In 2006, Sanoma acquired the Lappeenrantalainen city newspaper, which later changed its name to Vartti Etelä-Karjala. The current Vartti magazine is distributed to households on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Yle Yle Radio Suomi Lappeenranta delivery is located in the Lappeenranta fortress.

Food culture
In the 1980s, Karelian roast, pot pie, viviparn pretzel and berry milk were named Lappeenranta's signature dishes. Hydrogen and atoms, which are meat pies, are often considered local barbecue food.

 

Religious communities and churches

According to the 2018 regional distribution, Lappeenranta has the following parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland:
Joutseno parish
Lappe parish
Lappeenranta parish
Lauritsala parish
Sammonlahti parish

These parishes make up the Lappeenranta congregation.

In Lappeenranta, Joona's congregation, which is part of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Diocese, operates in Lappeenranta, which started its operations in 2010. The congregation's services are organized in the Lappeenranta Adventist Church.

There is an Orthodox congregation in Lappeenranta, whose Church of the Protection of the Mother of God is located in Linnoittu. The building is Finland's oldest orthodox stone church. In addition to that, the parish includes the church of St. Nicholas in Imatra.

Other parishes in Lappeenranta are Lappeenranta Pentecostal congregation Betania[46], Lappeenranta free congregation and Lappeenranta Methodist congregation. Finland's only Methodist cemetery is also located in Ylämaa of Lappeenranta.

Former parishes
In the following list, parishes that have been dissolved in historical time in the current area of the city of Lappeenranta have been mentioned.

Nuijamaa parish (joined to Lappe parish in 2009)
Ylämaa parish (joined to Lappe parish in 2009)
Ylämaa Methodist congregation (in the years 1926–1933 Säkkijärvi Methodist congregation) (joined to Lappeenranta Methodist congregation in 1988)

 

Sport

Team sports from Lappeenranta have a very solid representation in the country's leagues. Saimaan Pallo (SaiPa) plays in the ice hockey championship league. NMKY of Lappeenranta, which plays in the basketball league, is the 2005 and 2006 Finnish champion, and Catz plays in the women's basketball championship series. The Border Knights play in the second division of American football. Veiterä is a traditional ice ball team playing in the Bandyliiga, and Wiipur's Sudet plays ice ball in the women's SM series. RB-93 plays in the Kaukalopalloliiga, where it won the Finnish championship in the 2010–2011 season. The men of SaiPa Floorball play in Divari and the women play in the Floorball League, and the women's team won the Finnish championship in the 2005-2006 season. Kultsu FC and PEPO play football in the men's second division, and PEPO also has a team in the women's second division. In baseball, Pesä Ysei has a team in Superpesis, where it has achieved lesser medals. The Saimaan Norpats are into diving and the Saimaan Säiläs are into fencing. For triathlon enthusiasts, two clubs operate in the city area, Karjala Triathlon (Kartri) and Willtri. The roller derby team Lpr HCRollers, founded in 2011, also plays in Lappeenranta.

Near the harbor is the Kimpinen sports center, where the Kaleva Games have been held. Other sports venues are Kisapuisto (three ice rinks, artificial sand turf, artificial ice rink), Old field (baseball field, artificial sand field), Vocational school field (soccer, heated field), Lappeenranta sports hall, Lauritsala field (natural and artificial grass, beach volleyball, tennis, ice hockey), Joutsenon sports center and Sammonlahti grass and artificial turf.

 

Education

In Lappeenranta, approximately 13,000 students complete their studies after elementary school or high school. About 5,000 students study at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT), 3,000 at LAB University of Applied Sciences, 2,800 at Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Sampo and 700 at Maasotakoulu. Some of the students of the vocational college complete their studies at Imatra. Lappeenranta also operates a summer university, a civic college and a music college. The Joutseno Opisto folk school is located in the Joutseno district, where you can study full-time or with Taidekesä's dozens of hobby courses. In Lappeenranta, you can also study courses at an open university or an open university of applied sciences.

Lappeenranta has relatively one of the most abundant student housing offers in Finland. source? Apartments are rented by the Lappeenranta region's student housing foundation LOAS. Lappeenranta emerged as the best study city in Finland in the Student University 2006 survey.

Lappeenranta's municipal high schools are Lappeenrantan Lyseo high school and Kimpinen high school, which also has an adult high school. In addition, the high school of the Finnish-Russian school of Eastern Finland and the IB high school of South Karelia, leading to the International Baccalaureate, operate in the city. High school education at Lappeenranta's steiner school has ended. Former municipal high schools are Kesämäki (closed in 1996), Armila (1997), Lauritsala (2014) and Joutseno high schools (2014).

 

Communications

Lappeenranta is served by the Karelia Railway and Lappeenranta Airport. Highway 6 leads south through Kouvola to Helsinki and north through Joensuu to Kajaani. Highway 13 leads to the Nuijamaa border station and on to Russia. In the other direction, Highway 13 leads through Savitaipale and Suomenniemi to Mikkeli and from there further through Jyväskylä all the way to Kokkola. The shortest travel time to Helsinki is 1 hour 55 minutes by train, about 3 hours by car, 35 minutes by plane and 3 hours and 40 minutes by bus. There is a direct connection to Mikkeli and Jyväskylä by bus, which is faster than the train.

From Lappeenranta's Vainikkala station, you can get to St. Petersburg with the Allegro train, which started in December 2010, in 1.5 hours. Night trains are not available in Lappeenranta's passenger traffic, but a night express bus service runs daily between Helsinki, Lappeenranta and Joensuu.

12 city lines (1, 1Z, 2, 2H, 3, 3K, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 47) and 21 regional lines (100, 101, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 120, 121, 130, 131, 200, 201, 300, 301, 500, 601, 602, 603, 610, 620). Lines 1, 2, 4, 5 and 1Z operate every day, with a maximum frequency of 30 minutes (Monday-Saturday). Line 5 runs every 15 minutes during the day and every 60 minutes in the evening from the travel center to the university. Regional line 100 is the most important regional line in the Lappeenranta region, and it runs every hour on weekdays and every two hours on weekends from the center of Lappeenranta via Joutseno to Keskuasema Mansikkala, Imatra.

Lappeenranta's urban transport is operated by Savonlinja, and regional lines are operated not only by Savonlinja, but also by Rantanen, Vento, Soisalon Liikenne, V-S Bussipalvelut and Mikkonen. Public transport is called Jouko, and on city buses this is also strongly reflected in Jouko's pink brand colors.

There is a national Waltti ticket system in use, which works not only in the Lappeenranta urban area, but also on buses and their ticket systems in many other big cities in Finland. Imatra's local transport is not part of Jouko or Waltt, so Jouko's travel card is not valid on Imatra's local buses. Jouko's travel card is only valid on Imatra on Jouko's regional lines 100, 101, 111 and 112.

Jouko's traffic hub is located in the core of Lappeenranta on Koulukatu, next to the pedestrian street Oleks. The stop is known as "Keskusta", and almost all Joukko lines run through it, except for a few regional lines.

The group also has its own route guide (Digitransit service), where you can see, among other things, all city buses on a map, every bus stop, timetables, estimated departure and arrival times and notices about possible exceptions. In the route guide, you can also search for a public transport route between a certain starting and ending point.