Pello (until 1949 Turtola) is a Finnish municipality located in
the western part of the province of Lapland in the Tornio Valley.
Pello is also a village on the Finnish-Swedish border, on both sides
of the Tornio River. The Finnish part is the center of the
municipality of Pello, the Swedish part belongs to the municipality
of Övertorneå. The municipality is home to 3,330 people and covers
an area of 1,864.66 km2, of which 126.02 km2 are water bodies. The
population density is 1.92 inhabitants / km2. The neighboring
municipalities are Kolari, Ylitornio and Rovaniemi on the Finnish
side and Övertorneå and Pajala on the Swedish side.
The
northern Arctic Circle runs through the southern part of the
municipality, near the village of Juokseng.
Two Finnish Prime
Ministers have been born in the area of the current municipality of
Pello: Kaarlo Castrén and Paavo Lipponen; though the birthplace of
both was called Turtola, when Pello was known until 1949.
Tornio Valley culture has been given
its own color by its flourishing in the territory of the two states.
In the peace of Hamina in 1809, the frontier that divided the
villages failed to separate families, languages, and coexistence. It
is very common for even a Spouse to be sought from a neighbor, i.e.
Sweden. This is called cross-marriage (cross = over; cross-border
marriage). Every summer, a cross-border wedding party is held in
Pello, where the weddings of one Finnish-Swedish couple are
celebrated. This celebratory tradition dates back to 1982. Since
2007, this cross-border wedding village party has not been organized
as such, but has been organized as a smaller cross-border village
party. The reason has been the loss of public interest in the event
in question, as well as the finding of an intermarriage wedding
couple.
After the wars, during the regulation of construction
and food, the river valley flourished. Dropping means smuggling, in
this case specifically from Sweden to Finland. Thanks in part to
joping and in part to legal imports, building materials were better
available on the western border than in other parts of Lapland, and
the Tornio Valley was rebuilt faster than in the rest of the
province. There are many stories of clashes between junkers and
customs officers (customs greyhounds). Inspired by these, in 2004
the Joppa Opera, composed by Kaj Chydenius and written by Bengt
Pohjanen, was performed for the first time. The roles included Kai
Hyttinen.