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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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).
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.