Lapua

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This article is about a municipality in Finland. There is also an ammunition brand named after the town, producer of the famous .338 Lapua.

Lapua (Lappo in Swedish) is a municipality of Finland.

It is located next to the Lapua River in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of 14,002 (2003) and covers an area of 750.92 km² of which 13.61 km² is water. The population density is 18.6 inhabitants per km².

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

Lapua is famous for the anti-communist Lapua Movement. Also, the Battle of Lapua was fought between Swedish and Russian forces near the outskirts of the town on July 14, 1808 as part of the Russo-Swedish War.

[edit] Lapua State Cartridge Factory

Lapua is also home to a large ammunition factory, which commenced operations in 1927 as the State Cartridge Factory. This factory was the primary supplier of ammunition to the Finnish Army during the Winter War and World War II.

An explosion occurred in a warehouse of this factory on April 13, 1976, resulting in the deaths of 40 mainly female employees. Sixty children lost a parent in the disaster. This is the worst accidental disaster in Finland's modern history. After the explosion, the factory was relocated 5 kilometres away from the town centre and continues production today as part of the Nordic Ammunition Group (Nammo) as Nammo Lapua. The original site of the factory and the surviving buildings are now an arts centre, library and theatre..