Pudasjärvi is a Finnish city located in the northern part of the
province of Northern Ostrobothnia, in the middle reaches of the
Iijoki River. Pudasjärvi belongs to the Oulunkaari region. Its
neighboring municipalities are Ii, Oulu, Posio, Puolanka, Ranua,
Suomussalmi, Taivalkoski and Utajärvi. The center of Pudasjärvi is
called Kurenalus.
Pudasjärvi has a total area of 5,867.27
km², of which 228.99 km² is inland water area. Of the municipalities
outside Lapland, Pudasjärvi has the largest area. When the
municipalities of Lapland are included in the comparison, Pudasjärvi
is the eighth largest municipality in Finland.
Pudasjärvi
became a city on January 1, 2004. Of the municipalities using the
name City, Pudasjärvi is the second largest in terms of area after
Rovaniemi, and with a population density of only 1.39 inhabitants
per square kilometer, Pudasjärvi is the least populated municipality
in Finland. Despite the designation, Pudasjärvi is a rural
municipality according to a statistical grouping of municipalities,
as its degree of agglomeration is only 50.8 per cent (in 2016).
The local history museum Pudasjärvi shows the life of the local
population in past centuries. It is one of Northern Finland's largest
open-air museums. Over 8,000 objects are exhibited in almost 20
historical buildings on an area of three hectares.
In the village
of Kipinä, a memorial commemorates the Lapland War of 1944-1945. It is
located at the intersection of national road 20 and the road to
Hetekylä, at the spot where the first hostilities between Finnish and
German troops took place on September 28, 1944. Another memorial in
Aittojärvi commemorates a second battle of the Lapland War fought in
Pudasjärvi.
Church
Pudasjärvi's wooden cruciform church
dates from 1781. It is located away from the center on the shore of Lake
Pudasjärvi. The building offers space for around 700 believers. Inside
there are paintings from the 18th century. The three-storey, tapering
bell tower is separate from the church building and was built in 1761.
cultural events
Pudasjärvi's main music event is the annual
Pudasjärvi Open Air Festival, which features local bands as well as
well-known Finnish music groups. In 2005 Uniklubi played at the
festival, in 2006 Kwan. The city of Pudasjärvi regularly organizes
exhibitions of works by local and foreign artists in the Pudasjärvi
Library.
Sports
The town of Pudasjärvi maintains the Sports
Center, which was completed in 1983 and houses a sports hall, two
fitness centres, a running track and a swimming pool. In Suojalinna
there is a sports field and three tennis courts. Five schools in
Pudasjärvi are equipped with ice hockey rinks, and the schools' sports
halls can also be used by the citizens. In winter, public cross-country
skiing trails are set up. In addition, there are two smaller ski jumps
in Pudasjärvi with K-points of 19 and 35 meters.
Sports
operations in Pudasjärvi are actively promoted by the Pudasjärven
Urheilijat ry association. In addition to the Pohjantähti Games
athletics tournament, the club organizes two more exotic sporting events
in cooperation with the city administration: the world championships in
deep-snow cross-country skiing and summer ice-fishing.
In
deep-snow cross-country skiing, an eight-kilometre-long marked route is
run in unprepared terrain in the individual discipline. There is also a
team ski orienteering competition. Teams of 3-5 participants run through
predetermined checkpoints in the impassable wilderness and cover a total
distance of 25-50 km. There is a special rating for snowshoe runners.
The world championship in deep snow cross-country skiing has been held
in the Syöte area every February since 1998. The record number of
participants was 448 participants in 2001.
In summer ice fishing,
the ice hole is replaced with a permanently anchored raft made of
expanded polystyrene and wood with a hole in the middle. The World
Summer Ice Fishing Championships have been held on Lake Pudasjärvi every
summer since 2004.
prehistory
The Pudasjärvi area was originally inhabited by
semi-nomadic Sami people. Many place names such as Puhos, Kollaja,
Jaurakka and Iijoki come from their language. About 1000 years ago Finns
from Häme started to hunt in the Iijoki river valley. The Sami
population slowly retreated northwards. In the 13th century the coast of
the Gulf of Bothnia was permanently settled. Both the coastal population
and the inhabitants of Karelia use the Iijoki as a waterway on their
trade voyages and military expeditions.
Swedish rule
The
permanent settlement of Pudasjärvi dates back to the late 16th century.
Around 1570, tens of families from Savo settled on the rivers Iijoki and
Livojoki. They practiced shifting cultivation and started clearing the
forests by fire. In 1639 Pudasjärvi became an independent parish. In the
period after the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Pudasjärvi continued to
grow. Settlement spread along the waters and today's villages were
founded.
Russian rule
In 1809 Pudasjärvi, like all of Finland,
came under Russian rule. In the 19th century, famines ravaged the region
several times. Nevertheless, the population increased sevenfold within
120 years because the low population density protected against epidemics
and the birth rate was high. In the second half of the 19th century,
Laestadianism, a conservative Lutheran revivalist movement, began to
gain a foothold in Pudasjärvi. He still exerts great influence in the
city, as in much of northern Finland. In 1865 the administrative
divisions were separated from the parishes and Pudasjärvi parish was
founded. The first elementary school was founded in 1872. Because of the
low population density, however, it was long dependent on the teachers
moving from village to village. The last itinerant school was closed in
1952, probably the last one in Finland.
Until the 20th century,
the people of Pudasjärvi made their living primarily from hunting,
fishing, reindeer herding, agriculture and forestry. The place was an
important producer of butter and tar. The only industries were sawmills
and mills. Only after the Second World War did small-scale industry
develop in Pudasjärvi. In the summer of 1903 the telephone line to
Pudasjärvi was completed.
Since independence
A total of 417
soldiers died in Pudasjärvi during World War II. The first combat
operations between Finnish and German troops in the Lapland War took
place on September 28, 1944 in the Pudasjärvi area at the crossroads of
the roads to Oulu and Hetekylä. Another battle of the Lapland War took
place in Aittojärvi. After the war, electrification of Pudasjärvi began
in the late 1940s. Up until the 1960s, road and bridge construction
occupied many of the town's residents. In the same decade, however, the
strong migration that continues to this day began because local
agriculture and forestry could not offer enough jobs for the baby
boomers. In 1980, Iso-Syöte Mountain was developed into a ski resort,
and Pudasjärvi began to play a bigger role in tourism. Pudasjärvi has
had city status since 2004.
Pudasjärvi is located in the region of Northern Ostrobothnia on the
middle reaches of the river Iijoki. Lapland begins to the north of
Pudasjärvi, and Kainuu to the south-east. The nearest major city is
Oulu, around 80 km southwest. The center of Pudasjärvi is about 130 km
south of the Arctic Circle. Pudasjärvi's neighboring municipalities are
Ranua and Posio to the north, Taivalkoski to the east, Suomussalmi,
Puolanka and Utajärvi to the south, and Oulu and Ii to the west.
Together with five other municipalities in the Oulu area, Pudasjärvi
belongs to the Municipality of Oulunkaari. Traditionally, however, the
city is counted with Posio, Taivalkoski and Kuusamo to the Koillismaa
region.
Pudasjärvi covers an area of 5687.3 km², of which 229.1
km² is water. This makes Pudasjärvi the second largest city in Finland
after Rovaniemi and more than twice the size of Luxembourg. The
municipal area is very sparsely populated and consists largely of
forests and swamps. Therefore, the population density is only 1.6
inhabitants per km². The population is spread over 15 villages (see
below), of which the Kurenala community center is the largest with 4554
inhabitants (2004).
city outline
The urban area of Pudasjärvi
is divided into 15 villages. The town is named after the church village
of Pudasjärvi on the shore of the lake of the same name, which used to
be the center of the town thanks to the vicarage and courtroom there.
However, with the construction of the road from Oulu to Kuusamo, the
city center shifted to Kurenala on the Iijoki River. Today Kurenala is
home to about half of Pudasjärvi's population. Most of the villages are
located on the banks of rivers and lakes in the urban area. Schools,
post offices, shops, etc. had to be closed in many villages due to the
shrinking population.
The villages of Pudasjärvi (population as
of December 31, 2004):
Aittojärvi (154 inhabitants)
Hetekylä (316
inhabitants)
Hirvaskoski (493 inhabitants)
Iinattijärvi (266
inhabitants)
Jaurakkajärvi (150 inhabitants)
Kipinä (359
inhabitants)
Kokkokylä (175 inhabitants)
Kurenala (4554
inhabitants)
Pärjänsuo (480 inhabitants)
Pintamo (127 inhabitants)
Pudasjärvi (1132 inhabitants)
Puhos (264 inhabitants)
Sarakylä
(500 inhabitants)
Siurua (279 residents)
Syötekylä (272
inhabitants)
Three types of landscape meet in the Pudasjärvi area: the Bothnian
coastal plain, the eastern Finnish hill country and the fell landscape
of Lapland. The south-west of Pudasjärvi belongs to the flat swampy
areas of North Ostrobothnia. More than half of the urban area consists
of swamps, making Pudasjärvi one of the swampiest areas in Finland. For
the most part, these are open, swampy swampy moors with many small
ponds. Swamp forests grow in the vicinity of streams. The largest swamp
area is in the south of the urban area on the border with Utajärvi with
the swamps Olvassuo, Oravisuo, Näätäsuo and Sammakkosuo.
The
eastern part of Pudasjärvi is dominated by hills (Finn. vaara) and fells
(tunturi). The glacial undulating hill country of Eastern Finland
(Vaara-Suomi) stretches from North Karelia via Kainuu to the eastern
parts of North Ostrobothnia. Heights that exceed the tree line are
called fjells. This type of landscape is typical for the Finnish part of
Lapland. Pudasjärvi's highest peak is Iso-Syöte at 432 m above sea
level. NN. The Iso-Syöte ("Big Syöte") is the highest peak of the Syöte
ridge. Its highest point is just above the tree line, making it the
southernmost fell in Finland.
Pudasjärvi's forests consist mainly
of pine trees. In the hilly east, spruce forests are predominant.
Numerous wild animals live in the nature of Pudasjärvi. Moose are common
throughout Finland, and semi-domestic, free-roaming reindeer can also be
found. The forests are home to several species of predators, including
bears, wolverines, wolves and lynxes. A population of the rare flying
squirrel also lives in Pudasjärvi.
229.1 km² of the municipal
area consists of water areas. The Iijoki, the third longest river in
Finland, flows east-west through Pudasjärvi. It rises near Kuusamo and
flows into the Gulf of Bothnia at Ii. In Pudasjärvi it first flows
through the sparsely populated hill country. Further downstream in the
flat west of the city, it is lined with floodplains and riverside
villages. In the central and eastern part of Pudasjärvi there are
several larger lakes: Puhosjärvi, Jongunjärvi, Jaurakkajärvi and the
eponymous Pudasjärvi.