Lieksa is a Finnish city located on the shores of Lake Pielinen
in the province of North Karelia. The city has a population of
10,845 people and an area of 4,067.71 km2, of which 649.82 km2 are
water bodies. The population density is 3.17 inhabitants / km2. The
city is an archipelago association according to the Archipelago Act.
Lieksa is the city furthest from the sea in the Fennoscandian
region.
The name Lieksa is of Sámi origin; the corresponding
word in modern northern Sámi is leakša ‘swampy valley’.
The early stages of the region
The Iron Age objects
in the Lieksa region are represented by a pin-decorated bronze
buckle found in Kelva (from about 800, original in the National
Museum). The Peace of Pähkinäsaari in 1323 divided Karelia between
Sweden and Novgorod, after which the Pielinen region fell peacefully
into the Novgorod administrative district. During the Novgorod rule,
a permanent Karelian settlement was established in the area. The
settlers moved south to Karelia to their familiar wilderness. The
first villages of Lake Pielisjärvi (eg Lieksa and Viensuu) existed
at the end of the 15th century. In full peace, Lake Pielisjärvi
remained under Moscow's rule, but the peace of Stolbova in 1617
connected Lake Pielisjärvi to Sweden, when it became part of
Käkisalmi County. In Lieksa, in the 16th century, the Karelian
leader Luka Räsäinen, who took part in the battles between the
Russians and the Swedes. Savolais became birch burners in the 17th
century in the Pielisjärvi area.
Brahea, St. Petersburg The
city of Brahe
The Lieksa region was already an important trading
place in the Middle Ages. In the middle of the 17th century, Lake
Pielisjärvi became part of the large Free Duchy of Kajaani. Count
Peter Brahe, of which the province was a county, founded the town of
Brahea at the mouth of the Lieksanjoki River in 1653 to support the
trade of Viena.
During the Rupult War, a fortress, or
Skanssi, was built from logs to defend the city. It measured 71 × 53
meters. The fort was built of logs, and had a round tower at every
corner and two gates. There was a tavern inside the fortress.
The town area housed, among other things, the town hall, the
Orthodox tsasouna, the bourgeois dwelling houses and the Lutheran
church completed in 1667 on the site of the present church. The town
of Brahea has had a school since 1663.
Brahe was abolished as
early as 1681, just a year after Count Brahe's death. The
Pielisjärvi area was annexed to the Free Duchy of Kajaani, whose
order by Governor Hindrich Piper destroyed the city of Brahea. The
town was finally destroyed by Salomon Ehnberg, who leased the
Pielisjärvi parish from the crown in 1685: the town houses were
demolished and the area plowed into a field.
At most, the
city of Brahea had about 350 inhabitants. After the abolition, the
church village of Pielisjärvi parish remained on the site.
The theme of the present coat of arms of the city of Lieksa dates
from the seal of the city of Brahea in 1669.
Pielisjärvi
church village after the abolition of Brahea
Lake Pielisjärvi was
given in 1685 for a tax lease to Salomon Ehnberg, who quite soon
entrusted tax collection to Simon Affleck. Affleck survived in folk
tales as Simo Hurtta. The time of tax tenants always lasted until
years of great hatred, during which power was changed for some years
to the Russians. In the post-Great War period, tax tenants no longer
received a firm grip on the people of Pielisjärvi.
At the end
of the 17th century, Pielisjärvi also suffered from catastrophic
years and the hunger caused by them. They aroused unrest against the
authorities, and the people of Pielisjärvi rose up several times
against Simon Affleck, who they hated in particular.
From the
time after the Great War, the years of the Finnish War in
Pielisjärvi were influenced by two pastors, Jakob Stenius Sr.
(Korpi-Jaakko) (1704–1766) and Jakob Stenius Jr. (Koski-Jaakko)
(1732–1809).
The birth of the current Lieksa
Gradually,
the center of the Pielisjärvi area, Lieksa, became the center of the
whole parish, and Lieksa was formed into a densely populated
community in 1900. The area got its bread from wood and was known as
the center of the logs. Lieksan Sähkö Oy was founded in September
1918 and since the company did not yet have its own electricity
production, it was decided to build its own power plant, for which a
plot of land was leased from Hovila's owner along the Lieksanjoki
river in the area between the church park railway. Electrical energy
was obtained from a generator of less than 40 kW installed behind a
wood-fired steam turbine. The boiler and generator were used but in
“good condition”. In the spring and winter of 1919, the Lieksa homes
that joined the network began to receive electric light as the oil
lamps moved into the corners of the closets. In November 1919, the
company was entered in the Trade Register. The Pankakoski power
plant was completed and commissioned in April 1912.
A bad
fire in 1934 destroyed almost all the old buildings in the city
center. Only a few survived. The construction after the Great Fire
gave rise to the establishment of the Lieksa market in 1936.
The current Lieksa was born when the township of Lieksa and the
municipality of Pielisjärvi merged in 1973. At the same time, Lieksa
was transformed into a city. It was for a long time the largest city
in Finland.