Viitasaari is a Finnish city located in the province of Central
Finland. The center of Viitasaari is surrounded by Keitelejärvi, and
highway 4 and the Blue Road also pass through it. Viitasaari High
School, founded in 1905 under the name Viitasaari Finnish Joint
School, is one of the first rural schools in Finland. Viitasaari
became a city on January 1, 1996.
A cape means a dense young
deciduous forest, woodpecker, willow, birch, or the like.
Viitasaari's neighboring municipalities
are Kannonkoski, Keitele, Kinnula, Kivijärvi, Pihtipudas, Vesanto
and Äänekoski. The distance to Jyväskylä is 98 kilometers and to
Oulu 243 kilometers.
Viitasaari is the keeper of lakes and
rapids. There are 230 lakes and its water area is 21.4% of the total
area of the city. There are a total of 340.46 km² of water bodies.
The largest lakes are Keitele, Kolima, Muuruejärvi, Löytänä and
Suotajärvi.
The fishing rapids are Huopanankoski,
Keihärinkoski, Kärnänkoski, Kymönkoski, Kellankoski and Kyrönpuro.
The villages of Viitasaari
According to the definition of
Viitasaari municipality, there are 15 villages outside the
municipality: Huopana, Ilmolahti, Jurvansalo, Keihärinkoski,
Keitelepohja, Kolkku, Kotvala-Valkeisjärvi, Kumpumäki, Kymönkoski,
Löytänä, Mäntylä, Niinilahti, Pasala-Viitakangas,
Solisk-Viitakangas, Solala
The land registry villages of
Viitasaari are: Haapaniemi, Huopana, Ilmolahti, Jurvansalo,
Keihärinkoski, Keitelepohja, Kolima, Kyminkoski, Muikunlahti,
Niinilahti, Suovanlahti, Taimoniemi and Vuoskoski.
Viitasaari
residential areas
Haapaniemi
Työväentalonmäki/ Workers' Hill
Penttilä
Kokkila
Hitumäki
Hepokangas
Savivuori/ Clay
mountain
Savimäki
Savilahti
Kurkela
Rauhaniemi
Korteniemi
Mustaniemi
Haapasaari
Isoaho
Miekkarinne
Sörkkä/ Claw
Hakkarila
Tuhmalanniemi
Agglomerations
At the end of 2017, Viitasaari had 6,411 inhabitants, of which 3,612
lived in agglomerations, 2,730 in sparsely populated areas and the
coordinates of the place of residence of 69 inhabitants were
unknown. The degree of agglomeration is calculated for those
residents whose coordinates of residence are known; The degree of
agglomeration in Viitasaari is 57.0%. The population of the
Viitasaari agglomeration belongs to only one agglomeration, the
central city of Viitasaari, which had 3,612 inhabitants at the end
of 2017.
History
Tienoo got his first inhabitants from
Häme. Settlement became more frequent, especially from the 16th
century under the leadership of the people of Häme, but later the
Savoans became the majority of the inhabitants. The former name of
Viitasaari is Viitasalo, according to the island, now Old Old Church
Island, close to the city center. Viitasaari originally belonged to
the large municipality of Rautalammi, but due to long distances it
became independent in 1635. At that time, the municipality still
included Kivijärvi, Pihtiputa, Konginkangas and Kannonkoski. Henrik
Gabriel Porthan, the father of Finnish history, is from Viitasaari.
In 1882, Viitasaari was the first in Finland to receive the position
of municipal doctor.