Seinäjoki is a city in Finland and the provincial center of
Southern Ostrobothnia, located on both sides of the river of the
same name. The population of Seinäjoki is 63,913 (June 30, 2020).
Seinäjoki is the provincial center with the longest continuous
population growth in Finland. The city’s population has grown every
year since the early 1950s.
The Seinäjoki area originally
belonged to the parish of Ilmajoki. With Östermyra's Rautaruukki, a
regional industrial and settlement center was created in the Törnävä
region in the 19th century. Seinäjoki gained independent municipal
administration in 1868. With the Ostrobothnian line, a station
village was created in Seinäjoki, which later developed into a
densely populated community. In 1931, Seinäjoki was divided into a
township and a rural municipality. In 1960, the countryside and the
township merged into the city of Seinäjoki, which was one of the
first six so-called from the new city. Peräseinäjoki joined the
Seinäjoki River in 2005 and Nurmo and Ylistaro in 2009.
On
the southern edge of the center of Seinäjoki, the cityscape is
dominated by a building group designed by Alvar Aalto, the
Aaltokeskus, which consists of the Lakeuden Rist Church, the town
hall, the two-part main library and the city theater. The Seinäjoki
has been described as a spiritual crossroads where the effects of
several different awakening movements have been met.
Seinäjoki has a strong SME field and a diverse industry
distribution. The city is considered the number one city for
entrepreneurship. In 2020, Seinäjoki was awarded for the third time
in a row as the best entrepreneurial city in the series of large
cities. Ideapark Seinäjoki, located in Joupi in Seinäjoki, is the
seventh largest shopping center in Finland.
The city is also
known as a city of events and sports. The biggest annual events are
the Seinäjoki Tango Market, the Province, the Speed Tracks and the
Solar Sound Festival. The sports teams playing in the main series
are the floorball teams Seinäjoki Brothers and Nurmon Jymy. Nurmon
Jymy also plays in the women's volleyball championship league.
Seinäjoki Football Club plays in the Football Veikkausliiga, and
Seinäjoki JymyJussi and Seinäjoki Maila-Jussi play in the
Superpesis. The regional newspaper Ilkka-Pohjalainen and the city
newspapers Epari and Seinäjoki Sanomat are published in Seinäjoki.
Seinäjoki is the administrative center of Southern Ostrobothnia.
The city is home to e.g. The Association of Southern Ostrobothnia,
the Southern Ostrobothnia ELY Center, the Southern Ostrobothnia
Employment and Economic Development Office and the provincial
central hospital. Of the government agencies, the Food Agency is
located in Seinäjoki. Research and education in the city are
provided by Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and Seinäjoki
University Center. The University of Applied Sciences and the
University Center operate in the business and technology center
Fram, which is located in the city center and also has about a
hundred companies. Supported by a network of researchers and
developers, Seinäjoki has developed into a business concentration of
agro-economy and food systems.
The national costume of Seinäjoki women was created in 1964 by Professor Toini-Inkeri Kaukonen and artist Annikki Vormala based on a composition made in the 1920s. The national costume of Seinäjoki includes a half-linen shirt, a dark blue kerchief waistcoat, a multi-colored patchwork skirt based on the old Seinäjoki church skirt, a Vöyri apron, white socks, a black bowler hat and black flat-heeled pumps. Men in Seinäjoki wear the national costume of Southern Ostrobothnia. On their bench day, Seinäjoki high school seniors wear the national costume or a jussi shirt, unlike the rest of Finland.
Seinäjoki's status as an event city has been emphasized over the
years. Of the major events that occur annually, Seinäjoki is especially
known for the Provinssi, Tango Market and Vauhtiajoti. The city also
hosts hundreds of different sized events and occasions, both outdoors
and indoors, each year.
Over the years, Seinäjoki has been the
venue for several major touring events. Seinäjoki has hosted, among
others, the Kuninkuusravit eight times, most recently in 2020, the
East–West Baseball Matches seven times, most recently in 2019, the UEFA
U19 Boys' European Championship Final Tournament 2018, the National
Parade of the Finnish Armed Forces Flag Day 2018, the Farmari
Agricultural Exhibition four times, most recently in 2017, the Kaleva
Games four times, most recently in 2017, and the Housing Fair in 2016.
In 1993–2013, the city of Seinäjoki organized a 24-hour free
cultural event called Seinäkuun yö in May. The city hosted the annual
Amateur Theatre Summer Festival from 1973 to 2016.
Seinäjoki has
also hosted several major Christian events. The city has hosted the
Revivalist Revival Festival five times, most recently in 2009 and the
next time in 2023. The Free Church Summer Festival has been held in the
city seven times, most recently in 2015. The People's Mission Days were
held in Seinäjoki in 2011. The Evangelical Evangelical Festival has been
held in the city twice, most recently in 1998. The Seinäjoki Pentecostal
Church organized a global Pentecostal conference in Törnävänsaari in
1956 and another major event in 1968 at the Lyseo field. Events
organized by the church have included visits to the city by Reinhard
Bonnke in 1995 and 2010, and Nicky Cruz in 2017.
The Seinäjoki City Orchestra consists of string and wind quintets, so
the repertoire focuses on chamber music. The orchestra performs concerts
in the Seinäjoki Hall, which was built for music purposes, and
collaborates with the Vaasa City Orchestra.
Continuing education
in music and work on developing rhythmic music are carried out in
Seinäjoki at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts
Helsinki. Basic music education is also provided by the Southern
Ostrobothnia Music Institute, founded in 1936. Rhythmic music education
and events are also organized by the Rhythm Institute, the Seinäjoki
Live Music Association, and the Sibelius Academy.
Seinäjoki City
Theatre offers performances on four stages, which are named according to
the Aalto theme: the main stage Alvari, the Elissa studio, the Aino
stage, and the Verstas stage. The theater's auditoriums can accommodate
a total of almost 700 spectators. In 2015, Seinäjoki City Theatre was
chosen as the Theater of the Year in Finland. The city theatre presents
several premieres each year and, in addition to its own productions,
also hosts guest performances. The theatre also has a theatre
restaurant.
Theatre in Seinäjoki is also organised by the Törnävä
Summer Theatre, which acts as the summer stage of the city theatre,
Theatre Hysteria, Aisamäki Summer Theatre in Kalajärvi and Jyrkä Summer
Theatre in Kainasto. Performing arts and theatre can be enjoyed in
Seinäjoki in the theatre groups of Seinäjoki Community College and
Luovaamo.
Seinäjoki has a wide range of museums, from the history of the region
to private collections. Seinäjoki's historical museums are represented
by the Migration Museum in Kalajärvi, which tells the story of Finnish
immigrants, the buildings of which were built by Finnish immigrants and
brought from different parts of the world. In the heart of Seinäjoki is
the Museum of the Finnish Civil Guard and the Lotta Museum, which is
notable for its architecture and military history, and is the work of
architect Alvar Aalto in his youth.
The Törnävä district houses
the Southern Ostrobothnia Museum, which specialises in the history of
the region. Törnävä also houses the Hospital Museum, which specializes
in the history of regional healthcare, in an old mental hospital
building. The Nurmo Museum, the Knight's Home Museum and the
Peräseinäjoki Horse Museum also specialize in the history of the region.
The South Ostrobothnia Tractor Museum and the Kriikku Museum Mill also
tell about the agricultural history of the region.
The Rhythmic
Music Hall presents the region's musical history with Province-themed
photographs on the walls and in the Sound Waves studio exhibition, which
specializes in sound recording and studio equipment.
Seinäjoki's art and culture centre Kalevana navetta is located in the
Itika district. In addition to the city's cultural services, Kalevana
navetta, which opened in 2020, is also home to the city's children's
cultural centre, the Seinäjoki Art Hall, the Taito associations that
maintain handicraft and applied arts skills, an art lending centre and a
craft and design school. The building also houses the Seinäjoki unit of
the University of the Arts Helsinki and the workshops of the Seinäjoki
Community College.
The old depot in the Seinäjoki railway yard
houses a gallery and workspace run by local artists. The gallery
presents changing exhibitions from paintings to ceramics. The works of
designer and sculptor Päivi Rintaniemi are presented in the Amfora
gallery.
The Aalto Centre in Seinäjoki also houses art and
design. The Aalto Library houses the world's largest Aalto glass
collection, including over 200 glass objects designed by Aino and Alvar
Aalto. The main library in Apila displays art and crafts made by local
artists and groups.
Seinäjoki currently hosts a wide range of cultural events, and the
music scene is particularly extensive all year round. For example,
Rytmikorjaamo is a popular club that hosts Finnish and international
artists almost every weekend. There are also several other bars and
clubs in Seinäjoki with a very active music scene.
In the centre
of Seinäjoki, there is a three-screen Bio Marilyn in the old provincial
building. In the Ylistaro district, there is a traditional cinema,
Matin-Tupa, built in 1941. Matin-Tupa organises the Filmiä ja valoa film
festival every year. The Seinäjoki film club Raina ry organises
screenings in cooperation with the National Audiovisual Institute.
In the 16th century, the village that formed in the Seinäjoki area
was often called the village of Koskenalusta, because it was located
below Korpikoski in Seinäjoki. The name fell out of use by the beginning
of the 17th century, and the village's name became Seinäjoki, which is
probably older than the name of the river than the village.
There
are many theories about the origin of the name Seinäjoki. According to
one interpretation, the Seinäjoki was the border of recreational areas
in ancient times. The possibility that settlers or wilderness visitors
from Kangasa brought the name with them has also been considered. Tuomo
Tuome's research and folklore give the origin of the name Seinäjoki as
the exceptionally steep edges of its banks.
The Swedish name used
for the Seinäjoki area has been Östermyra (Finnish: Itäsuo) after
Abraham Wasastjerna's ironworks. The ironworks were located to the east
of Vaasa and in the middle of the bogs. The name is no longer in use.
In addition to the common Finnish term for residents, the name
Seinäjokien is also used.
Like the rest of the South Ostrobothnia region, the Seinäjoki area is
a former seabed. During the Litorina Sea around 2000 BC, the Seinäjoki
area was located on the coast of the bay. The finds made up to 1970 as
evidence of Stone Age settlement date from this period. Ostrobothnian
axes, chisels and hollow stones have been found, for example, in the
areas of present-day Törnävä, Hallila and Kivistö, as well as in
Katilankylä and Niemistönmaa.
The actual prehistoric period in
South Ostrobothnia ended around 800 AD. Around 1000 AD, the nearest
permanent settlement was in the area of present-day Tyrvää and Karku.
The areas of Southern Ostrobothnia are assumed to have been rich in game
and to have attracted wilderness visitors along the riverbanks to the
Kyrönjoki watershed and its mouth. The Seinäjoki and its headwaters seem
to have been one of the main routes for wilderness travel, as there are
several names along the river that originate from the Sastamala and
Pirkkala areas, as well as boating.
In its early days, Seinäjoki belonged to the Suur-Ilmajoki parish.
The birth of the village of Alaseinäjoki dates back to the same time
that the Reformation began in Finland. At that time, the village of
Alaseinäjoki was a prosperous rural village, with a favorable
microclimate for growing fields and raising livestock. As part of the
Ilmajoki parish, Seinäjoki received extensive education and advice
during its time.
The settlement spread from the coasts to the
upper reaches of the river due to favorable development in the 16th
century. The first houses in the village of Alaseinäjoki bear
inscriptions from 1557. Jouppi, Marttila, Uppa and Jouppila, which was
separated from Jouppi in 1570, are the oldest houses in the village. The
houses located on the banks of the Seinäjoki River were the only ones in
the village until the end of the 17th century.
At the end of the
17th century, Hallila (1670) was built next to the Upa house, and
Huhtala (1692) was cleared on the opposite bank of the Upa. At the same
time as Huhtala, Niemistönmaa was also established between the Seinäjoki
and Kyrönjoki rivers. In 1694, Ala-Marttila and Yli-Marttila were
divided from Marttila. In the same year, Myllymäki was also established
between Jouppila and Huhtala. The Wegelius family of intellectuals
originates from the Upa house. In the 1680s, Henrik and Juhana, who came
from the house, later qualified as priests and the family has had a wide
influence on the Finnish clergy.
After the Russian occupation,
Seinäjoki began to cooperate with the village of Ylinurmo in parish
matters, as connections to the Ilmajoki church were difficult. The
villages' common sermon hall was built in 1725 near the current Nurmo
church. After forty years of numerous petitions, the sermon hall
received royal permission to organize church services in 1765. The
construction of the common church took place in 1777. At this time, the
village of Alaseinäjoki had about 400 inhabitants. The village began to
be called Seinäjoki when the Peräseinäjoki chapel parish was founded in
1798.
The development of Seinäjoki was significantly influenced by the
Östermyra ironworks founded by Abraham Falander in 1798. Falander
began building and trading ships from Vaasa. The work required
timber, which was abundant in the forests of Seinäjoki and the
surrounding area. The area was also rich in bog ore. The first logs
were floated to Kolkki and Svartö in the spring of 1782. With the
ironworks founded on the banks of the Tikkukoski River, the
Seinäjoki region, including the villages, was included in Falander's
sawmilling operations. The ironworks were named Östermyra, meaning
eastern swamp. The ironworks were located to the east of Vaasa and
in the middle of the swamps. With its success, Falander was ennobled
as Wasastjerna.
Abraham Wasastjerna's son, Gustaf Adolf,
founded a gunpowder factory in Östermyra in 1825, and a small
settlement grew up around the ironworks. Other industries and
agriculture also emerged around the ironworks. The industrial
community formed the basis for later development. The ironworks
provided education for adults and schoolchildren. The ironworks also
served the sick, soldiers and firemen. During the 1825 inspection,
Swedish-language church services were organized in the chapel parish
as needed for the Swedish-speaking personnel and workers of
Östermyra. In 1838, the chapel parish came under the care of Niilo
Kustaa Malmberg, a leading figure in the revival movement.
Malmberg's activities also gained a foothold in the lives of the
people of Seinäjoki, and he held societies, especially in the
villages of Katila and Heikkilä.
Gustaf Adolf's son, Gustaf
August, shifted Östermyra's focus to agriculture and the dairy
industry. During the agricultural phase, Östermyra was the only
training area in Ostrobothnia, which also operated a dairy school.
Wasastjerna also had an influence on the formation of Seinäjoki as
its own parish and municipality. During the agricultural phase, both
local and international trade took place in Östermyra. When the
gunpowder factory warehouse ceased operations in the 1850s, a church
was built in Törnävä in 1864 on the warehouse's former premises.
Seinäjoki's efforts to secede from the Nurmo chapel parish began in
the 1850s, and in 1863, the Seinäjoki residents' petition for their
own chapel parish was approved. Seinäjoki received independent
municipal administration in 1868.
The construction of the railway connection in the 1880s created the
conditions for business life and the location of provincial institutions
in Seinäjoki. Even before the actual construction decision was made,
plans had already examined the route from the west of Tampere to
Peräseinäjoki. At the Parliament, Ostrobothnians brought up the
province's transport needs, demanding that the railway connection be
extended to the province. At the Parliament of 1877–1878, a decision was
made to connect Ostrobothnia to the railway network.
The first
railway connection from Tampere to Vaasa through Seinäjoki was
inaugurated in 1883. In 1885, the railway connection to Kokkola was
completed. A locomotive shed was also completed in the railway yard in
connection with the station. The location of Östermyra made Seinäjoki
one of the most important transport hubs in the country. The station was
also initially called Östermyra. The station was busy and there were 2nd
and 3rd class accommodation facilities next to the station. The railway
connection to Kristiinankaupunki completed in 1913 increased Seinäjoki's
importance as a junction station. The station was further emphasised by
the connection from Haapamäki to Pieksämäki completed on the eve of the
Civil War. The war of 1918 has been considered a battle over logistics,
i.e. rail connections. In the late 1920s, over 450 railway personnel
worked in Seinäjoki.
After Finland gained independence, soldiers
from the Russian garrison were still stationed in Seinäjoki. The
soldiers of the Finnish Republican Guard captured the Seinäjoki garrison
on January Sunday, when 550 soldiers surrendered without a fight. During
the Civil War, the Whites' headquarters were located at the Seinäjoki
railway station for eight weeks until the capture of Tampere. The
headquarters also brought with them a staff of hundreds of men, whose
arrival briefly transformed Seinäjoki into a busy garrison town. The
Headquarters Reserve Officers' School also operated in Seinäjoki for a
month. In addition, the town had a military hospital and a gathering
place for the fallen. The Paukaneva executions also took place during
the Civil War. A bomb attack against Mannerheim also took place in
Seinäjoki during the spring.
With the completion of the railway connections, the focus of
settlement shifted from Törnävä to the station area. The station area
was formed into a small self-governing urban community in 1921. The
possibility of transforming the parish and municipality into a township
began to be studied in more detail in the 1920s, when, for example,
Törnävä Hospital was completed in 1915. The division into Seinäjoki
township and rural municipality took place in 1931. In the 1920s, the
station area became a commercial center, where people went for shopping
and work. The first town plan for Seinäjoki was drawn up by Harald
Andersin in 1923.
The completion of Törnävä Hospital and Vaasa
County Hospital (1931) brought vocational training to Seinäjoki even
before the township phase. The city's first vocational school, the
Seinäjoki Nursing School, was established in connection with the
provincial hospital in 1930. Israel The company's operations led to the
establishment of a sawmill, a drying mill and a planing mill in
Seinäjoki in the 1920s. In addition to lumber operations, the company
established a spinning and weaving mill in Seinäjoki. In the 1930s,
other industries were represented by the Itikka Cooperative
Slaughterhouse, founded in 1914, and two soft drink factories. The
company also acted as the managing director of a stone crushing plant
and the founder of a water supply company. A provincial grain depot was
established in Seinäjoki in 1938.
During the Winter War, the
Soviet Union bombed Seinäjoki once with about twenty aircraft. 13
residents were killed and 14 wounded by the impact of 160 bombs. About
ten buildings were destroyed and thirty were damaged. During the
Continuation War, Seinäjoki Hospital served as the 29th military
hospital. After the wars, in the late 1940s and 1950s, the desire to
move to the township increased and, with the improvement of transport
connections, economic life also diversified. After the wars, immigrants
from Jaakkima and Lumivaara were settled in Seinäjoki.
At the
beginning of 1959, the thirty-year separation of the township and the
rural municipality ended when the rural municipality joined the township
of Seinäjoki. Seinäjoki received city rights in 1960. Seinäjoki's
development into a modern city began to take shape in the preparation of
the administrative and cultural center. In the first phase, the Lakeuden
Risti (1960), which was completed as the cathedral of the desired
diocese, the town hall (1962), the city library (1965), the parish
center (1966) and the state office building (1968) were completed. After
the wars, the newspaper Ilkka's move from Vaasa to Seinäjoki became
topical. The decision to move was made in 1960 and the new building was
completed in Seinäjoki in 1962.
The Seinäjoki School of Commerce
was founded in 1952 and in 1955 the school expanded to become a trade
college to train business economists. In 1961, the school received a
high school diploma. Vocational education began to develop more rapidly
only from the 1960s onwards, when the South Ostrobothnia region had
lagged behind in education and Seinäjoki's education also developed more
as a result of the economy. A need for higher education was identified
in Seinäjoki to achieve a higher value added and competitiveness of
products. Seinäjoki received a technical school in 1965. In 1960, the
South Ostrobothnia Association of Higher Education was founded to carry
out summer university activities and to strive for higher education and
the establishment of a university in the region. The aim of the
association of higher education institutions was to establish a social
higher education institution in Seinäjoki. In 1962, the Cooperative Milk
Processing established a production plant in Alakylä and in 1965 butter
production began in what was said to be the largest butter factory in
Europe. Another early product was milk powder. In the 1970s, the Alakylä
factory became the largest milk processing factory in Finland. The
growth of service professions in Seinäjoki began during the 1960s.
With the opening of the Tampere bypass line in the early 1970s,
transport connections to Seinäjoki improved further. The old railway
station was demolished in the late 1960s and passenger traffic on the
Kristiinankaupunki line was discontinued in 1968. In 1969, the new
central transport station designed by Heikki Castrén was completed,
which was the second largest railway station building in Finland after
Helsinki Railway Station. In the 1970s, South Ostrobothnia had become a
significant meat production area and Itikka was the largest industrial
facility in Finnish-speaking South Ostrobothnia. In the mid-1980s, meat
production was moved from Itika to the Nurmo area.
In 1986,
college-level social work education began in Seinäjoki in the premises
of the old county hospital, when the new Seinäjoki Central Hospital was
completed. The administrative and cultural center was supplemented with
a theater in 1987. At the turn of the 1980s, Seinäjoki began to grow as
an event center, when the first Provinssi was organized on Törnävänsaari
in 1979 and the Tango Market in 1985.
During the 21st century, Seinäjoki has become an exception among
medium-sized provincial centers. Seinäjoki has grown and attracted young
immigrants. The population of Seinäjoki is growing by more than one
percent per year. Seinäjoki has stood out from the crowd of larger
cities with lower unemployment and the growth and success of companies.
59.9% of Seinäjoki residents supported Finland's accession to the
European Union in the 1994 referendum.
Seinäjoki's success has
been explained by the large number of SMEs and the diverse distribution
of industries. According to Jorma Rasinmäki, who served as mayor, it was
decided in the early 2010s in Seinäjoki to invest in growth companies
and the creation of new jobs, for example through service vouchers and
building permits, zoning and land supply. In 2020, Seinäjoki was awarded
the best entrepreneurial city in the large cities category for the third
time in a row. In the 2000s, Peräseinäjoki (2005) and Ylistaro and Nurmo
(2009) joined Seinäjoki.
Education and expertise in Seinäjoki
have been developed by Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, which
was founded in 1992 and became permanent in 1995. At the turn of the
millennium, a university center was established in Seinäjoki, through
which research, expertise and product development were provided to the
region. Initially, 12 visiting professorships were established at the
university center. In 2016, the university center had 20 professorships
and six universities are involved in the collaboration. The
professorships are jointly funded by over a hundred companies from South
Ostrobothnia. The universities have increased their own funding since
the early years. The university of applied sciences and the university
center operate in the Fram business and technology center established in
the city center, where about a hundred companies also operate. Supported
by a network of researchers and developers, Seinäjoki has developed into
a business cluster for agrobioeconomy and food systems.
In the
vicinity of Fram, the Seinäjoki-areena event and congress centre was
completed in 2000, and was further expanded in 2017. In 2016, the event
facilities expanded further when the OmaSp stadium was completed in
Jouppila in 2016. When completed, the football stadium was the first
fully covered football stadium in Finland.
The Rural Development
Agency was regionalised to Seinäjoki in 2008–2011. The location of
Seinäjoki as the home of the agency was supported by the strong
agricultural dominance of the area. At the beginning of 2019, Evira and
part of the National Land Survey of Finland's IT Service Centre merged
into the agency, and the new agency began as the Finnish Food Authority.
Seinäjoki became the centre of responsibility for the TE Office and the
ELY Centre at the turn of the 2010s. The Ideapark Seinäjoki shopping
centre was opened in Jouppila, Seinäjoki in November 2019. When it
opened, Ideapark was the seventh largest shopping centre in Finland in
terms of retail space.
In the 2010s, the development of the city
center began in Seinäjoki to make it more urban. The zoning plan added
tall commercial and residential buildings and underground parking to the
city center. Toriparkki and the new central square were opened in spring
2019. In the 2020s, the renewal of the city center will continue in the
Seinäjoki station area. The 18-hectare development area will determine
the cityscape of Seinäjoki far into the future.
Seinäjoki's neighboring municipalities are Kauhava in the north, Lapua in the northeast, Kuortane and Alavus in the east, Virrat and Kihniö in the south, Ilmajoki and Kurikka in the west, and Isokyrö in the northwest.
The Seinäjoki area is part of the largest continuous plain in
Finland. The differences in elevation measured from the ground level are
less than ten metres in the area. The absolute height of the terrain,
measured from sea level, in the central area of Seinäjoki is
approximately 50 metres above sea level, rising steadily towards the
southern part of the city. Despite the difference in elevation, the land
remains very flat. Due to the slow rise in the ground level, the area
appears to be an undulating plain. The actual differences in elevation
in the terrain are caused by the artificial mountain of Jouppilanvuori,
which is raised to 118 metres above sea level, i.e. approximately 70
metres above ground level, and Hallilanvuori, whose relative height from
ground level is 20 metres.
Seinäjoki is typical of Southern
Ostrobothnia in terms of its soil. The solid bedrock is mainly pegmatite
granite, which occasionally appears as exposed rock nodules. The loose
soil type covers the bedrock with a fairly thick layer. The most common
soil types are moraine, clay and peat. Peat has long been a soil cover
layer and has decreased due to slash-and-burn agriculture, especially
north of the city center and in the river valley north of Törnävät. The
extensive clay fields that emerged from under the peat have been the
basis for extensive farming in the region. The elevations between the
clay and peat soils are almost entirely covered by moraine gravel. There
is little sand in the city area.
The share of water bodies in the landscape of Seinäjoki is small. The
Seinäjoki River flows through the city in a southeast-northwest
direction and joins the Kyrönjoki River in Seinänsuu on the northern
border of the city center, which flows into the Gulf of Bothnia north of
Vaasa. The Seinäjoki River has its origins in Lake Seinäjärvi in
Virra. The river initially flows slowly to Lake Kurjenjärvi and then
north through the small Lake Räntäjärvi. After this, the river flows as
the Luomanjoki River for 30 kilometers through the southern parts of the
city, joining the Kihniänjoki River south of the Peräseinäjoki district.
From here, the Seinäjoki River continues to meander northward, joining
the Kyrönjoki River in Seinänsuu, north of the city center.
There
are a total of 27 lakes in the Seinäjoki city area, the largest of which
are the Hirvijärvi Reservoir, Kalajärvi Reservoir, and Kyrkösjärvi
Reservoir.
Seinäjoki's Natura sites include the old spruce-dominated forests of Pelman Forest and Nättypii, as well as the bogs of Peränevanholma, Pirjatanneva, Paukaneva, and Haukilamminneva.
Seinäjoki has a lively sports offering and the earliest information
about sports comes from sports clubs founded in the early 20th century.
The oldest sports clubs in Seinäjoki are Peräseinäjoki Toive, Seinäjoki
Maila-Jussit, Seinäjoki Sisu and Nurmon Jymy. In addition to team
sports, Seinäjoki is known for trotting. The Seinäjoki trotting centre
is the largest in South Ostrobothnia and one of the most active trotting
centres in Finland.
Seinäjoki teams have won Finnish
championships in volleyball, American football, baseball, field hockey,
floorball and football. Other successful sports at the national level
include wrestling, athletics, speed skating, swimming, biathlon, table
tennis and motor sports.
Seinäjoki's ball clubs have played in
several sports in the main league, but baseball in particular is one of
the city's most popular sports of all time. Seinäjoki is also a
traditional football town and is currently represented at the main
league level by the Seinäjoki Football Club, which has become the
flagship of Seinäjoki sports and the city's most followed sports club
due to its success at the national level.l
Men's championships in
ball sports have been won by Seinäjoki Maila-Jussit in baseball (4) and
volleyball (2), Seinäjoki Peliveljet in floorball (3), Seinäjoki United
in field hockey (2) and Crocodiles in American football (1). In women's
baseball, Maila-Jussit has also won the Finnish championship (1). Other
main league clubs from Seinäjoki have been Sepsi-78 and TP-Seinäjoki in
football, Nurmon Jymy in floorball, Peräseinäjoki Toive, PeTo-Jussit and
Nurmon Jymy in baseball, Pallo and the Boys in ice hockey and Seinäjoki
Kuutoset in volleyball. In addition, Seinäjoki Rugby plays rugby at the
second highest league level in Finland.