Pajala Municipality

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This page deals with both Pajala Municipality and the urban area (tätort) Pajala

**Pajala Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Municipality and seat in Sweden Map outlining municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Pajala
	67° 11′ N 23° 22′ E
	County	Norrbotten County
	Province	Norrbotten
	Area Rank	7,916 km² 8th of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	6,925 257th of 290
	Density	0.8/km²

Pajala municipality is a Municipality in Norrbotten County, in north eastern Sweden on the border to Finland. Its seat is located in the town Pajala (pop. 2,000), but the municipality itself has app. 80 so-called "byar" ["BY" = small village or hamlet], with the smallest having no more than a couple of inhabitants.

It is one of Sweden's largest municipalities with almost 8,000 km² or roughly the size of the historical Landskap Södermanland, which - compared to Pajala's population of app. 7000 - has more than 1 million inhabitants.

Its geographical location has meant that Pajala since old was a natural place of merchancy, where people from Sweden, Finland and the native Sami people gathered. The annual Pajala market traces its history from the 18th century.

The home of Lars Levi Læstadius is located in the town. It is the red house to the right, now designated as a museum. The yellow house in the middle was used as the vicars mansion from 1850 up to recent times.

In Pajala is the worlds' largest sundial.

In Pajala, there is also the Jupukkamasten, a 335 metre tall guyed mast for FM- and TV-transmission, which is together with three other guyed masts of same height the tallest structure of Sweden.