Vaasa (Swedish: Vasa, officially Nikolainkaupunki in 1855–1917)
is a city in Finland and the provincial center of Ostrobothnia,
located on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the province of
Ostrobothnia. Vaasa is a university city and a major center of
Finnish-Swedish culture. Vaasa was one of Finland's most significant
and most populous cities in Finland in the early 20th century. In
Vaasa, the Finnish Senate served during the Civil War from January
29 to May 3, 1918, and the city served as Finland's temporary
capital instead of Helsinki during that period.
The city has
a population of 67,012, of which 69.1% are Finnish-speaking, 22.8%
Swedish-speaking and 8.1% others. Vaasa is home to 3,604 foreign
citizens and they make up 6.0% of the population. The city has
12,000 college students and 4,000 vocational school students. Vaasa
is an exception in terms of language in its surroundings: in the
neighboring municipalities of the integrated area containing the
city center, Swedish-speakers are in the majority and more than half
of the inhabitants of the entire province of Ostrobothnia are also
Swedish-speaking. Instead, Isokyrö and Laihia, which border the
Vähänkyrö exclave, are in Finnish. Vähäkyrö joined Vaasa in 2013.
The neighboring municipalities of Vaasa are Isokyrö, Laihia,
Maalahti, Mustasaari and Vöyri.
Mustasaari Church, St. Nikolaos Church and Vaasa Church
Finland's
Statue of Liberty and Jääkärstatas
The ramparts of Korsholma Castle
and the ruins of Old Vaasa
The former barracks area of Vaasa
Vaasa
market hall
Vaasa water tower
House of Wasaborg
Öjberget Ski
Center and Tropiclandia Water Park
Museums
There are five city
museums in Vaasa:
Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art
The Ostrobothnia
museum, which houses, among other things, the Hemani art collection.
Tikanoja Art Home
Vaasa Art Hall on the first floor of Vaasa City
Hall
Old Vaasa museum in the Wasastjerna house
Vaasa is also
home to, among other things:
Brage outdoor museum
Stundars museum
and cultural center (on Mustasaari) and
Wasa Graffitilandia in the
area of the former Wasalandia amusement park
Well-known people
from Vaasa
Well-known bands from Vaasa include Klamydia, Rotten Sound
and Sturm und Drang. Singer Lauri Tähkä is also from Vaasa.
The city of Vaasa annually organizes, among other things, the Night
of the Arts, the Vaasa Choir Festival, the nature film festival Vaasa
Wildlife and the literary event Vaasa LittFest Vasan.
The
Korsholma music festival focused on chamber music was organized for the
first time in 1983.
Light music events in Vaasa have been
Rantarock in 1995–2001 and Rockperry festival in 2001–2010. Other music
festivals in Vaasa are Pienet festari on the prairie and Hippiknik
organized for the second time in 2013.
Today, in the summer of
2016, Vaasa Festival is organized for the first time in Vaasa. The event
will take place in the inner harbor of Vaasa.
Several large
Christian summer events have been organized in Vaasa. The Revival party
has been organized in Vaasa in 1964 and the next time in 2024. The
summer clubs of the old stadium players have been organized in Vaasa in
1920 and 2015.
Music and performing arts
The Vaasa City
Orchestra is a professional orchestra that was founded in 1930, and its
place of work and concerts is the Vaasa City Hall. Since January 2016,
the chief conductor of the orchestra has been James Lowe. The Vaasa City
Orchestra has been the organizer of the international Jorma Panula
Conductor Competition in cooperation with the Viljo and Maire Vuorion
Foundation. The Vaasa City Orchestra participates in the international
Jorma Panula conducting course every spring. In addition to this, the
Vaasa Garrison Band has also operated in Vaasa.
Well-known choirs
from Vaasa are e.g. Men's choir Pohjanmiët and mixed choir Fragments.
There is also a music school named after the composer Toivo Kuula,
Kuula-opisto, which provides basic education in music and dance.
Professional theaters operating in Vaasa are Vaasa City Theater and Wasa
Teater. Vaasa Opera, one of Finland's oldest provincial operas, also
operates in Vaasa.
Ilkka-Pohjalainen has delivery in Vaasa and Seinäjoki. The free
distribution newspaper Vaasa is published in the city.
Radio
Vaasa operates in both Finnish and Swedish.
The lifestyle program
Strömsö is filmed in Vaasa.
According to the 2018 regional distribution, Vaasa has the following
parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland:
The Finnish
congregation of Vaasa
Vähänkyrö parish
The Swedish congregation of
Vaasa
These parishes make up the Vaasa parish union (Swedish:
Vasa kyrkliga samfällighet).
Among the member congregations of
the Finnish Pentecostal Church in Vaasa, Vaasa Pentecostal Congregation
and Vasa Sionförsamling operate.
Among the congregations of the
Orthodox Church of Finland, the Vaasa Orthodox congregation operates in
the Vaasa region.
Vaasan Sport plays hockey in the SM league. The team has won the
Mestis championship in 2009, 2011 and 2012. Sport played in the SM
league in the 1975–1976 season.
In football, Vaasa Palloseura
(VPS) won two and Vasa IFK three Finnish championships in the 1940s and
1950s. Nowadays, VPS plays at the Finnish main league level in
Veikkausliiga and VIFK Kakkose. At one time, Sport's football team was
also very successful, making it to the finals of the Finnish Cup. Even
today, FC Sport, who left the club, plays in the women's First Division.
FC Kiisto plays at the country's third highest league level in Kakkones.
Vaasan Maila has played several seasons at the Finnish major league
level in baseball.
In tennis, there are two active tennis clubs
in the city: The traditional power club Tennis-61 has the most members
and the most extensive coaching activities. Another club, Watc., has
mainly competitive players.
In volleyball, Vaasan Vasama won the
women's Finnish championship nine times in the 1980s and 1990s, and won
medals 11 times out of 12 consecutive seasons. Nowadays, Kiisto plays at
the second highest level for men, i.e. in the 1st series. In addition,
Ruutupaidat plays at the second highest league level in futsal and has
won SM silver and SM bronze once.
In floorball, Vaasa has been
seen at the main league level a couple of times, when the Roller Team
played in the floorball league in the 1990s. Today, SB Vaasa plays in
the 1st division of floorball.
In 2007, a lacrosse team called
Vaasa Wishpooshs was also founded in Vaasa. In the summer of 2007, the
club played its first championship season, finishing 7th. In the seasons
2008, 2009 and 2010, Vaasa Wishpooshs finished 3rd in the championship
series, thus bringing Vaasa lacrosse championship bronze medals. The
women's team played its first championship season in the 2009 season.
Vaasa Rugby Club (Vaasa Wolves), founded in 2002, plays in the
Finnish Rugby League Championship.
At the end of the 2000s, Vaasa
Ultimate has risen to the top of the country, right up to the medal
teams. The juniors in particular have excelled by winning several SC
gold medals and occupying the ranks of the U20 national team. The 2009
European Championship gold team had five Vaasa Saints players, which is
the most of any club team. A total of 14 Saints players were selected
for the 2012 World Cup, as well as two of the club's alumni from other
clubs.
West Coast Vikings' representative team, Wasa Royals, has
been an American football club in Vaasa since 1996. Vikings has played
both in the Maple League, men's Division I and Division II, where it
also played in 2012. For the 2013 season, the look and name of the
representative team was renewed, and Royals won the II division with a
clean game in its first season under the leadership of head coach Seppo
Evwaraye. In the 2014 season, the Royals won the Spaghetti Bowl, but
refused to accept a place in the major league Maple League. During the
season, Royals broke attendance records in domestic American football
after being able to play all their matches at Kaarle Field in Vaasa.
After the 2015 season, the Royals moved up to the Maple League.
Exercise places
The athletics championships, or the Kaleva games,
have been held in Vaasa in 1948, 1986, 2004 and 2013. The next time the
games will be held in Vaasa in 2024.
Vaasa's largest sports area
is Hietalahti. Vaasa Arena ice rink, Hietalahti football stadium,
swimming hall, Hietalahti baseball stadium, Kaarle field, Vaasa race
track and Tennis Center are located there.
Food culture
In the
1980s, salted whitefish, herring box, Sundom's smoked herring and
Jaakoon's lingonberry drink were named the main dishes of Vaasa.
In the 21st century, dill macaroni seasoned with dill and aromatic salt
has become a new local specialty in Vaasa.
The Mustasaari area was already one of the busiest trading places in
the Gulf of Bothnia in the Middle Ages. The parish was born in the area
in the 14th century at the latest, and by the end of the century, the
administrative center of Pohjanlahti was Korsholma castle. Charles IX
founded the town of Mustasaari on October 2, 1606, at the old trade and
harbor site in the church village of Mustasaari, or Mussari, today's Old
Vaasa. When it was founded in 1606, the city of Vaasa got its land
areas, in addition to the current Old Vaasa site plan area, and the
hinterlands located to the north of it. The founding of Vaasa resulted
from the mercantile economic policy aimed at centralizing the era. In
the privilege letter of 1611, the city got its current name Vaasa.
Together with Mustasaari, the city formed a joint parish and used its
medieval church, which was expanded in the 1650s and 1750s, until the
1850s.
The Korsholma manor was replaced by the king's manor, the
lands of which the city received for its use in the 1630s and 1640s. The
economic area of the city was formed by the coast of Merenkurku and
Kyrönmaa, which were traditionally the most prosperous, longest and most
densely populated areas of Ostrobothnia. At this time, Vaasa already had
busy sea connections to Sweden and roads to Satakunta and Häme. Tar and
agricultural products were traded in Vaasa in particular.
The
mercantilist economic policy also slowed down the city's development.
The Pohjanlahti trade compulsion implemented in the years 1614–1617 gave
only townships the right to unlimited foreign trade. Vaasa had to be
satisfied with taking his product to Turku or Stockholm, who had the
license rights. In the years 1648–1714, the tar company was also given
the privilege to buy town tar. Due to the restrictions, Vaasa's
population grew slowly, and in the 1740s the city had more than 700
inhabitants. Along with Oulu, Vaasa was another important tar trade
center in Ostrobothnia.
However, Vaasa developed into the center
of its region. In 1624, the first school, the pedagogy, was founded in
the city. In 1684, the school was replaced by a trivial school moved
from Uusestakaarlepyi. In 1634, Vaasa became the administrative center
of Ostrobothnia county and thus continued the traditions of Korsholma
castle and the royal mansion. The Russian occupations of the 18th
century, big and small, affected the city: after the Battle of Napue in
1714, Russian troops marched into the city and destroyed large parts of
the city. Most of the population fled to Sweden.
After the trade embargo was lifted, Vaasa's development began to
flourish. The city developed into a prosperous city and a center of
administration and culture. The city grew with the trade of tar, timber,
agricultural products and rebar. Foreign freight traffic was a
particularly productive activity. The ports of Vaasa's ships were
Amsterdam, London, and Mediterranean and Black Sea cities. In the 1850s,
the city's population grew to almost 4,000 inhabitants. The period
created the conditions for the even faster growth of Vaasa in the second
half of the 19th century.
The city's most famous businessmen were
Abraham Falander (ennobled Wasastjerna) and Carl Gustaf Wolff. Falander
founded e.g. Östermyran Ruukki, which influenced the creation of
Seinäjoki, and owned a few Ostrobothnia ironworks. Wolff, on the other
hand, had his own shipyard, where he built more than 40 ships. At that
time, Wolff was possibly the biggest ship owner in Pohjola.
The
growth of Vaasa's importance is also shown by the establishment of
Finland's second Court of Appeal by King Gustavus III in Vaasa in 1776.
The Court of Appeal building, later known as the Mustasaari Church, is
one of the most notable achievements of Finnish architecture at the end
of the 18th century. The needs of the city and business life were also
reflected in the school. In the early decades of the 19th century, e.g.
a maritime college, a technical real school and a business school. In
1841, the trivial school was converted into an upper elementary school,
and in 1844 it was joined by a gymnasium. In the years 1794–1845,
Finland's first public library operated in Vaasa, the so-called reading
library, which was replaced in 1851 by the actual city library. Vaasa's
first newspaper, Wasa Tidningen, appeared in 1839–1847.
Due to
land uplift, Vaasa had constant difficulties in keeping its harbor
seaworthy. In 1789, the port was moved outside the city to Palosaari,
and in the 1840s and 1850s a canal was dug into the old port.
On
August 3, 1852, Vaasa burned down: only the Wasastjerna house, built in
1780–1781, and the Court of Appeal building from 1786 remained in the
city center. The ruins of the church, town hall, bell tower, and trivial
school can still be seen in Old Vaasa. Wasastjerna's (formerly Falander)
house houses a museum, the main building of the court of appeals at the
time is now the Mustasaari parish church. Opposite the former court is
Korsholma hill, on which Chryssenborg Castle was founded in the 14th
century. At the time of the fire, a new county government building and
the lord's residence were under construction there.
After the fire, the city was moved to a more favorable location in
terms of traffic. In 1855, the city was moved seven kilometers west to
its current location on the island of Klemetsö. County architect Carl
Axel Setterberg, who moved to Vaasa from Sweden, drew up the city's site
plan. The new city was named Nikolainkaupunki, by which it was
officially known until 1917. However, the name did not take root in
common usage.
Uusi Vaasa grew into an industrial city in a
characteristic way. In the 1850s, the establishments founded by August
Alexander Levón gave birth to the city's food and textile industries,
the Vaasa mill and the Finlayson factories.
The first newspapers
in Vaasa were in Swedish, and Vasabladet was founded in 1856 to continue
the tradition.
The area of the city grew in connection with the
transfer of 1862, when the area of the new site plan area was annexed
from the holder of Mustasaari to the city.
Along with
industrialization and population growth, cultural life and hobby
activities also became lively. The town's public school was established
in 1869. The upper elementary school and gymnasium were combined in 1870
to form a Swedish high school.
In the 1870s, Vaasa became the
center of the free church, when the house of the Alliance Church was
also built in the city. The leading figures of the alliance included the
Hellman siblings from Vaasa, who were also the initiators of the
abstinence movement. Among others, Mathilda Wrede, Orisberg patron
Edvard Björkenheim and Vaasa vicar Abel Nyholm joined the alliance.
In the 1880s, there was a strong language battle between Finnish and
Swedish speakers in Vaasa. In 1880, a Finnish high school was founded.
The special schools founded at the beginning of the 19th century
gradually developed into secondary educational institutions, for
example, the technical real school changed into an industrial school in
1885. Vaasa was the terminus of the Ostrobothnia railway, which was
completed in 1883.
In the 1890s, Vaasa became a center of
patriotic revival, especially thanks to Ossian Ansa and Gustaf Ignatius.
Around 1890, Vaasa's own National Club and the Suomalainen Klubi were
born in Vaasa due to the issue of Finnishness. The library got a museum
alongside it, which later grew into the current Ostrobothnia museum. The
foundation of the museum's collections was created by Karl Hedman's
hobby of collecting. A well-known patron was Frithiof Tikanoja.
In 1893, port difficulties were solved by establishing Vaskiluoto's
outer port.
Throughout the 19th century, Vaasa was a garrison
town, the most significant of which was the Finnish sniper regiment
stationed in the city from the 1880s to the beginning of the 20th
century. During the 19th century, already in the previous century, the
hobby of music and theater, which had already been stimulated by the
civil servants of the court of appeals and schools, took on more
organized forms. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the
20th century, industrialization was at its peak, and both the metal and
electrical industries got their start. Vaasa became known for, among
other things, boat engines and Kymi-Strömberg electrical equipment.
At the turn of the century, the population of Vaasa was over 15,000.
In the 20th century, Vaasa's road connections were decisively improved,
and Vaasa Airport also became a busy air traffic center. As the
population grew, the city grew out of Klemtetsö, initially to the north
and later to the east and southeast. The city, which was previously
dominated by Swedish speakers, developed into a predominantly
Finnish-speaking one.
The Finnish-speaking Pohjalainen was
founded in 1903. The technological development of the area began in
1906, when John Wickström, who manufactured cars and boat engines in
America, returned to Finland and founded a boat engine factory with his
brother. The first joint school for different language groups was
founded in 1907.
At the beginning of the Finnish civil war, the
city came under the control of the whites with the capture of Vaasa.
Some of the members of the senate moved to Vaasa and formed the Vaasa
senate, which functioned from January 29 to May 3, 1918. Vaasa was the
capital of White Finland at that time, and Finnish jaegers from Germany
landed in Vaasa on February 25, 1918. The Senate session hall was
Vaasa's town hall, and in gratitude for this, the Senate granted the
city an Augment in early May 1918, i.e. the right to add the Grand Cross
of the Liberty Cross with swords to the coat of arms of Vaasa as an
honorary addition.
The Swedish-language theater was founded in
1919.
In 1945, Ostrobothnia's Jääkäräbataljoon (PohmJP) started operating
in the city.
The Finnish stage started its theater activities
after the wars.
In 1950, Vaasa had more than 36,000 inhabitants.
Vaasa Coastal Battery (VaaRPsto) started operating in Vaasa in 1952.
Vaasa had become the center of the Finnish motor industry. The leading
company in the area, Wickströmin-Veljesten Moottoritehdas Oy, employed
around 200 people.
A new phase in Vaasa's development was
initiated by the start of higher education in the 1960s. The
Ostrobothnian Infantry Battalion (PohmJP) operated in Vaasa until 1964.
Vaasa University of Economics developed in the 1980s into Vaasa
University and since 1992 the University of Vaasa. Vaasa's Coastal
Battery operated in Vaasa until 1998.
In 1966, a 3-kilometer
stretch of highway between Hietalahti and Pitkämäki was opened to
traffic in Vaasa. In 1994, the extension of the highway to Mustasaari's
Helsingbyhy was completed.
At the end of the 1990s, a cluster
focused on energy technology, EnergyVaasa, was established in the city.
It was born around companies focused on engine technology, power
electronics, and components for the electrical industry and network that
were born in the area. Companies from other regions were also included
in the cluster, to help with marketing or deliveries, for example. The
cluster's core companies were Wärtsilä and ABB, which started building a
network of subcontractors from the 1990s.
In the 2000s, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences and Yrkeshögskolan
Novia started offering university of applied sciences education. Vaasa
also housed the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki and the
offices of Åbo Akademi and Hanken.
RG Line, which operated
between Vaasa and Umeå in the 2000s, filed for bankruptcy in 2011.
In 2012, the largest companies in Vaasa were Wärtsilä and ABB, which
together with Nokia were among Finland's top three in terms of product
development investments.
In 2014, a new Sepänkylä bypass was
completed on highway 8 to Vaasa. The road starts in Kotiranta and ends
in Mustasaari Stormossen, being four-lane all the way and equipped with
different level junctions. The new bypass moved heavy traffic away from
the old Kokkolantie (now Mustasaarentie) and made road traffic passing
by Vaasa smoother.
By 2018, the 140 companies of the EnergyVaasa
cluster employed 11,000 people. The companies' turnover was 4.4 billion,
and exports accounted for more than 80 percent. The figure accounted for
about a third of all energy technology exports in Finland. Among the
companies are Arcteq, Danfoss, The Switch, Vacon, VAMP and VEO.
Wasalinen's new car ferry Aurora Botnia started operating between Vaasa
and Umeå in 2021.
Vaasa is located on the east coast of Merenkurku. Merenkukku is
Finland's only natural heritage site on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
What makes the area unique is the constantly and rapidly rising rocky
archipelago shaped by the ice age. Due to its speed, the area's uplift
phenomenon is best seen in the whole world. The archipelago was added to
the UNESCO list in 2006.
Vaasa's neighboring municipalities are
Isokyrö, Laihia, Maalahti, Mustasaari and Vöyri. The city is located in
the northern part of Western Finland.
On January 1, 2022, the
area of Vaasa was 575.13 km², of which 364.73 km² is land, 4.81 km²
inland water areas and the remaining 205.59 km² sea water areas,
according to the measurements of the Land Surveying Institute. It has
409 kilometers of coastline, 313 of which are located on islands.
Geographically, Vaasa is divided into two parts, the northeastern and
southwestern sides of Eteläinen Kaupunginselä. The city center is
located in the northeast, in Sundom, located in the southwest, there
are, among other things, villages, areas dominated by agriculture and
forestry, and the Söderfjärden impact crater. At the mouth of Eteläinen
Kaupunginselä lies Vaskiluoto island, in front of which is Pohjoinen
Kaupunginselkä or Varisselkä.
Vaasa's climate is very similar to the rest of the southern and
central parts of Finland, although due to its proximity to the sea, it
is milder than many other localities of the same latitude. In winter,
the Baltic Sea and southwest winds warm Vaasa's climate more than the
interior of the country. The average temperatures in the winter months
are several degrees higher than, for example, in Jyväskylä or Kuopio.
Due to the milder winter, the average temperature throughout the year is
also high compared to the latitude, in the same range as in the interior
of southern Finland. Unlike inland, the coldest month of the year in
Vaasa is February and not January, which is often explained by the
warming effect of the still-melt sea in early and midwinter. Vaasa's
climate is also affected by the föhn wind generated in the Skandian
mountains, which can raise temperatures unexpectedly in winter. In
addition, the föhn wind reduces cloudiness. In Ostrobothnia, the föhn
wind occurs about five times in winter, but in some winters it has not
occurred at all.
In summer, Vaasa's climate is comparable in
average temperatures to other places in the middle of the country.
However, the proximity of the sea evens out the daily temperature
fluctuations. Temperatures as high as inland are rarely measured on the
coast. On the other hand, night temperatures are often higher than
inland. As the sea warms, frost typically no longer occurs in July and
August. Vaasa is often called the sunniest city in Finland. There is no
proof of this, because measurements are no longer available from Vaasa.
In any case, coastal areas get more hours of sunshine than inland. Often
in late spring and early summer, the cold sea prevents the formation of
clouds, but on the other hand it cools the afternoon temperatures on the
coast due to the sea breeze created by the temperature difference
between land and sea. The sea breeze extends up to 50 kilometers inland
along the coast of the Gulf of Pohjan. On the other hand, Vaasa also
receives the heaviest rains in the summer. The rainiest months of the
year are July, August and October.
Thermal spring in Vaasa starts on average at the end of March and
thermal summer at the end of May. The thermal summer lasts on average
until mid-September, when the thermal autumn begins. The thermal winter
starts on average in the middle of November.] The thermal growing season
lasts on average from the end of April to the end of October. The first
snow in Vaasa is on average at the beginning of November, and the
permanent snow cover in mid-December. The uniform snow cover disappears
by mid-April.
The average annual temperature in Vaasa measured at
the airport in the period 1981–2010 was 4.2 °C. The average maximum
temperature for that period was 7.9 °C and the average minimum
temperature was 0.2 °C. Vaasa's heat record is 33.7 °C measured at
Klemettilä weather observation station of the Finnish Meteorological
Institute on July 18, 2018. Vaasa's coldest record, −38.6 °C, was
measured on February 3, 1966. Vaasa Airport's highest annual rainfall of
708 mm is from 1981. The average annual rainfall is 556 mm. On March 14,
1981, the record snow depth of 93 cm was measured in Vaasa. In the mild
winter of 1974–1975, the snow cover period lasted only 18 days on the
coast in Vaasa (February 9–27). In winters with heavy snow, such as
1965–1966 and 1980–1981, the length of the snow cover period has been
165–170 days in Vaasa, lasting from around November 10 to April 25–30.
until the day.
Vaasa is an industrial city with several industrial areas. Vaasa
specializes in the energy industry. In 2015, there were 11,000 employees
in energy sector companies in the Vaasa region, or about a quarter of
the entire energy sector workforce in Finland. 80 percent of the
production of energy technology companies in the region is exported.
EnergyVaasa energy technology cluster, the Vaasan region's Kehitys
business and development company and about 30 other organizations
organize the international energy industry event EnergyWeek in Vaasa
every year. In 2022, Vaasa's energy cluster received a Gold label
certificate from the council that audits clusters under the EU.
In 2020, the annual turnover of companies in the Vaasa region was around
8.4 billion euros.
Industrial areas:
Established in the 1940s,
Strömberg Park is one of Finland's most significant industrial and
technology parks. The name of the industrial area comes from the
Strömberg company, which was later bought by ABB. In terms of premises,
Strömberg Park is the largest business park in Vaasa, with a total of
approximately 250,000 square meters of production and office space. In
2018, there were more than 3,000 employees in the region, two thirds
were employed by ABB.
In the 2010s, Vaasa Airport Park, located next
to Vaasa Airport and the southbound highway, had a business space of
almost 200,000 square meters and more than 4,000 jobs. Of these, 3,800
worked in Runsori, where approximately 80 companies operated. Among
others, Wärtsilä Finland Oy, Vacon Oyj, Vaasa Engineering, The Switch,
Mervento Oy, Teknologiakeskus Merinova, Maviko Oy and numerous energy
cluster subcontractors operate in the business park.
Wärtsilä Oyj has
a significant industrial area in Vöyrikaupunki, almost in the city
center. Wärtsilä's Finnish company is headquartered in Vaasa, and in
2015 80–90 percent of its personnel worked in Vaasa. Vaasa is home to
Wärtsilä's largest product development unit, and engine product
development is centralized in Vaasa.
A quarter of the jobs are in
industry. Many employees come to work from surrounding communities, such
as Mustasaari or Laihia. In addition to industry, Vaasa's numerous
educational institutions, such as elementary schools, vocational
schools, high schools, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences, University
of Vaasa, as well as the Swedish-speaking Novia, Hanken and Åbo Akademi,
are important employers. Vaasa Central Hospital is the main hospital of
the entire province of Ostrobothnia.
The center has a large grid area and the streets are straight. Five
of them are 35.6 meter wide park streets: Hovioikouden, Vaasan and
Korsholmanpuistikko run towards the west bank, and Kirkko and
Kauppapuistikko run towards the beach. Other downtown streets are
17.8–11.9 m wide. The width is 16–14 m on Vaskiluota and 15 m on
Palosaari.
The Finnish highway network connects Vaasa to other
Finnish cities. Highways 3 (E12), 8 (E8) and 18 lead to or pass through
Vaasa. From Hietalahti to Helsingby in Mustasaari, there is an
11-kilometer-long highway shared by these highways. The four-lane
Sepänkylä bypass, which is part of highway 8, also runs in the north
direction. Highway 8 is signposted to go from the highway to the bypass
via the Vaasa connecting road, so that the traffic passing by Vaasa does
not seriously intersect with local traffic. Highway 3 connects Vaasa
with Tampere, Hämeenlinna and Helsinki. Highway 8 connects the city to
Pori, Turku and the rest of Southwest Finland when traveling south.
Driving north, highway 8 connects the city to Pietarsaari, Kokkola and
Oulu, as well as the rest of Northern Finland. Highway 18 takes you to
Seinäjoki and Jyväskylä and elsewhere inland. The traffic volumes on
Vaasa's highway sections are mainly around 10,000-16,000 vehicles per
day, and with the exception of only the connecting road sections of
highway 8, all Vaasa highway sections are two-lane. It is 419 kilometers
from Helsinki to Vaasa, 330 from Turku, 244 from Tampere, 321 from
Hämeenlinna, 319 from Oulu, 121 from Kokkola, 99 from Pietarsaari, 193
from Pori, 83 from Lapua, 267 from Jyväskylä and 78 from Seinäjoki. It
is also a fairly short journey from Sweden to Vaasa. The Blue Road runs
from the port of Vaasa and through the city. Between 1962 and 1964,
other Finnish cities introduced regional 50 km/h speed limits, but in
Vaasa the limit was 60 km/h for a long time.
Vaasa Airport is
located approximately nine kilometers southeast of the city center.
Finnair and Scandinavian Airlines operate from Vaasa Airport. Norwegian
Air Shuttle stopped the Vaasa-Helsinki route on January 10, 2020. There
are scheduled flights from Vaasa Airport to Helsinki (flight time 50
min) and Stockholm (flight time approximately one hour).
The
Vaasa railway is a railway electrified in 2011, which connects Vaasa to
Seinäjoki and through Seinäjoki to the main railway of Finland. You can
travel from Vaasa with Pendolino and Intercity trains. The Vaasa train
station is next to the city center and there are connecting parking
spaces in its immediate vicinity. The track was renovated in the 1990s,
so it is technically suitable for high speeds, but due to numerous level
crossings and locomotive fleet limitations, the speed limit on the track
section is 120 km/h. A track plan has been drawn up for the improvement
of the track section, the purpose of which is to improve the track
section by, for example, removing level crossings. If the improvement
works are completed, the speed limit on the track section could be 140
km/h in the future. Vaasa can be reached by train in, for example, one
hour from Seinäjoki, 2.5 hours from Tampere, 4 hours from Helsinki and
Jyväskylä, and 5 hours from Oulu.
Merenkurkku is at its narrowest
near Vaasa, and Umeå is only about 80 kilometers away, which is the
shortest ship connection across the Gulf of Bothnia. Vaasa and Umeå have
a joint Port Company Merenkurkun Satamat Oy (Kvarken Hamnar Ab), which
started operations in January 2015. A port company that crosses national
borders is a rare solution - the only similar ones were previously found
in Copenhagen and Malmö. Umeå can be reached from the harbor in up to
3.5 hours.
The port of Vaasa is a small port mainly receiving oil
and coal in Vaskiluoto.
Vaasan Vesi is responsible for Vaasa's water supply and Ab Stormossen
Oy for waste management. Vaasan Sähkö and its subsidiary Vaasan
Sähköverkko operate in electricity trading, electricity transmission and
district heating.
There are several power plants in the Vaasa
harbor area. Vaskiluoto 1 is a decommissioned coal-fired power plant
owned by Etelä-Pohjanmaan Voima Oy. Vaskiluoto 2 is a coal-fired power
plant owned by Vaskiluoto Voima Oy, which, in addition to electricity,
also produces most of the district heat of the city of Vaasa. Vaskiluoto
3 is an oil power plant owned by PVO-Huippuvoima Oy. In addition, the
grid company Fingrid's gas turbine plant and Vaasan Sähkö's thermal
center operate in the area.
The Vaskiluoto 2 coal-fired power
plant is located in Vaskiluoto, with a net electricity output of 230 MW
and a district heating output of 175 MW. In 2011, the Vaasa power plant
produced 1,099 GWh of electricity and 613 GWh of district heating.
During 2012, a biomass gasification plant with a fuel capacity of 140 MW
will be built in Vaskiluoto, which will enable the use of wood and field
energy and energy peat as fuel for the existing coal-fired power plant.
Gasification technology has never before been used on this scale for
this purpose anywhere in the world. It is about the world's largest
power plant burning gas from forest chips. Thanks to the new
gasification plant, 25–40 percent of coal can be replaced with domestic
biofuels. At the same time, carbon dioxide emissions will decrease by
approximately 230,000 tons per year. In 1993, the power plant's sulfur
dioxide emissions were limited by building a desulfurization plant, and
nitrogen oxide emissions have been reduced by renewing the coal boiler's
combustion technology in 1994 and 2007.
In Vaasa, district
heating is also produced by Westenergy's waste incineration plant on the
Mustasaari side, next to the Stormossen landfill, and the thermal power
plant in the central area near the Palosaari bridge, which is used in
winter frosts to produce additional district heating. Westenergy's waste
incineration plant utilizes approximately 150,000 tons of sorted
household, business and industrial waste as well as construction waste
per year. With the annual amount of waste in question, the electricity
sold is about 87 GWh and the heat 280 GWh. The share of district heating
in the energy produced by the combustion plant would be approximately
73%. The plant will function as an essential part of Vaasa Sähkö's
district heating production. Thanks to the waste incineration plant, the
oil boiler currently in use during the summer will be retired. About a
third of the district heat produced with coal can be replaced by waste
incineration. Also, the oil in use at the time of winter district
heating consumption peaks can be replaced by waste incineration. The
waste incineration plant will be completed during 2012.
In
addition, there are several small top power plants in Vaasa as well as
test power plants related to the product development of companies. Their
energy output is low.