Harjavalta

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Harjavalta is a municipality of Finland.

It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The municipality has a population of 7,738 and covers an area of 128.43 km² of which 4.02 km² is water. The population density is 60.3 inhabitants per km².

Today people in the town are employed in the copper and nickel smelting industries. Today's most used metal recovery method, the flash smelting method, was developed at Harjavalta and implemented in 1949. Originally part of Outokumpu, a Finnish company, the copper business is now owned by Boliden and the nickel business by Norilsk Nickel.

Earliest signs of habitation have been dated to 1200 BC. Written records mentioning the then village begin in the 1400's AD. Origins of the name Harjavalta go back to Chariovald, a German warrior chief quoted by the Roman historian Tacitus. The germanic word harja-walduz denotes warrior chief and was adopted into Scandinavian languages in various forms. It is believed that either a person named Harjavaldus or a warrior band settled or lived in the area.

Hiittenharju is a valuable area for its archaeology and cultural history. You can visit the banks of the ancient Litorina Sea on the fringes of the ridge Hiittenharju and the graves of the Bronze Age, called barrows. In Hiittenharju there is also a historical route called Huovintie running through Harjavalta.

The river Kokemäenjoki river runs through the town.

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.