Viitasaari

 

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.

 

Geography and nature

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.