| Lappeenranta | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — City — | |||
| Lappeenrannan kaupunki | |||
| Lappeenranta harbour | |||
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| Location of Lappeenranta in Finland | |||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Finland | ||
| Region | South Karelia | ||
| Sub-region | Lappeenranta sub-region | ||
| Charter | 1649 | ||
| Government | |||
| • City manager | Seppo Miettinen | ||
| Area(2011-01-01)[1] | |||
| • Total | 1,723.50 km2 (665.4 sq mi) | ||
| • Land | 1,433.36 km2 (553.4 sq mi) | ||
| • Water | 290.14 km2 (112 sq mi) | ||
| Area rank | 56th largest in Finland | ||
| Population (2011-01-31)[2] | |||
| • Total | 72,038 | ||
| • Rank | 13th largest in Finland | ||
| • Density | 50.26/km2 (130.2/sq mi) | ||
| Population by native language[3] | |||
| • Finnish | 95.9% (official) | ||
| • Swedish | 0.1% | ||
| • Others | 4% | ||
| Population by age[4] | |||
| • 0 to 14 | 15.1% | ||
| • 15 to 64 | 67% | ||
| • 65 or older | 17.9% | ||
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||
| Municipal tax rate[5] | 19.5% | ||
| Urbanisation | 90.4% | ||
| Unemployment rate | 14.7% | ||
| Website | www.lappeenranta.fi | ||
Lappeenranta (Swedish: Villmanstrand) is a city and municipality that resides on the shore of the lake Saimaa in South-Eastern Finland, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Russian border. It belongs to the region of South Karelia. With approximately 72,000 inhabitants (31 January 2011) Lappeenranta is the 13th largest city in Finland.[2] The neighboring municipality of Joutseno was consolidated with Lappeenranta on January 1, 2009, and the neighboring municipality of Ylämaa on January 1, 2010.
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Lappeenranta was originally formed around a headland pointing to lake Saimaa. In the 16th century, the market place moved from Lappee's old centre Kauskila to the current fortress headland. The first mention of Lapwes, as it was called, is in a privilege charter from 1542 that subjugated the market place under Viborg's authority.
The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden, legitimizing the trade in the then popular marketplace of Lapvesi. However, the parliamentary privilege charter and the coat of arms were attested in 1652 after the town layout by Erik Aspegren was affirmed. At the time, Lappeenranta was an important port for tar.
Between 1721 and 1743, Lappeenranta was the capital of Kymmenegård and Savonlinna province.
In 1741, the battle of Villmanstrand was fought between the Swedish and Russian armies in the Russo-Swedish War of 1741–1743. The battle ended in a Russian victory. The town was pillaged, wooden structures including the provincial chancellery were burnt and the ecclesiastical archives damaged.
The municipality of Lappee was annexed to Lappeenranta in 1967. Nuijamaa joined in 1989. During the financial downturn of 2009 and 2010, Joutseno and Ylämaa respectively merged into Lappeenranta.
The name Lappeenranta consists of the genitive of Lappee and the appellative ranta which means "shore". The history of Lappeenranta includes the rural municipality of Lappee and the hundred Lapvesi. The Swedish name Villmanstrand contains the words vildman meaning "wildman" and strand also meaning "shore". The wildman is depicted on Lappeenranta's coat of arms.
Lappeenranta has numerous schools at almost all levels of education, including the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, the Army Academy (branch of the Finnish Defence Forces), South Karelia Vocational College and South Karelia Adult Education Centre.
Lappeenranta is connected to neighbouring cities and municipalities by road, with railways heading north and south from the city.
During the summer, when Lake Saimaa and Saimaa Canal are accessible by water, there is a connection by ship from Lappeenranta to Vyborg, Russia.
There is also an international airport in Lappeenranta. Thanks to scheduled flights between Lappeenranta, Weeze and Riga, the metropolises of Europe are within easy reach. Lappeenranta Airport is Finland's fastest growing international airport with 364% growth in passenger numbers in 2010. Making a business or leisure trip to Brussels or London from Lappeenranta is no problem, especially after a direct route to Brussels-Charleroi opened in November 2010. Traffic Connections: Daily flights between Lappeenranta and Riga. Scheduled flights to Brussels (Charleroi), and Weeze. RyanAir will begin to fly to Milano (Bergamo) on 30 March 2011 and the flights are already being sold.
Express train connections: to Helsinki in about 2 hours, and to St. Petersburg in about 1.5 hours on the new Allegro train.
The city's main employers are the City of Lappeenranta, UPM-Kymmene, South Karelia Central Hospital, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Paroc, Nordkalk, VR Group, Fazer, The Armed Forces and Outotec.[6]
Lappeenranta has multiple sports teams playing in top levels of Finnish sports leagues.
SaiPa is an ice hockey team playing in the highest level in Finland, SM-Liiga.
Lappeenrannan NMKY is a basketball team playing in the highest level in Korisliiga and have won two championships in 2005 and 2006.
NST plays floorball in the Salibandyliiga and Rajaritarit is an American Football team in the Vaahteraliiga.
In women's sports Catz Lappeenranta plays basketball and Pesä Ysit plays Finnish baseball, both in the top leagues of the nation. Lappeenrannan Veiterä, or just Veiterä, plays in the highest bandy division and has been Finnish champion four times. The city hosted the first ever Bandy World Championships for women in 2004.
Lappeenranta is known as a summer city, mostly due to its closeness to the Lake Saimaa. In addition, its inland location means that summers tend to be warmer and winters colder than along the coastal areas.
Lappeenranta, however, does have a healthy winter tourism industry. Various cabins around Lake Saimaa, as well as numerous snowmobile, skiing and sledding tracks draw a fair number of winter visitors.
The proximity of the Russian border is increasingly visible in the number of Russian tourists visiting the city. In fact, Lappeenranta is closer (211 km/131 mi) to Saint Petersburg than Helsinki, the capital of Finland (383 km/238 mi). The presence of Russians is noticeable by the many Russian registered cars on the streets and the use of signs in shops with Cyrillic letters.
Places and events
Lappeenranta is twinned with:
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