Kirkkonummi

Kirkkonummi ( Kyrkslätt in Swedish, literally the Moor of the church in French) is a common south of the Finland, in the area of Uusimaa ( Nyland in Swedish), in the province of southernmost Finland ( Etelä-Suomen lääni in Finnish - Södra Finlands län in Swedish). Located in western suburbs of the capital Helsinki, it counts nearly 34.000 inhabitants and knows a strong growth.

Geography

The commune is bordered in the south by the Golfe of Finland, important maritime frontage (145 km of coast) punctuated of hundreds of islands and two important peninsulas, Porkkala and Upinniemi. The center of the commune is largely flat, one finds the village there centers and the railway Helsinki - Turku. North is wild, forests, Esker S and lakes, resembling its neighbor Espoo. The municipality includes/understands part of the National park of Nuuksio.

In addition to Espoo (in the west), it is bordered by the municipalities of Vihti and Siuntio. Kirkkonummi is sometimes attached to the Région of Helsinki. The village center is located at 30 km of the center of Helsinki, 30 minutes in the car and hardly more in the bus or the train.

The inhabitants are divided between several major villages and others less important, playing more and more the part of suburbs dormitory of the capital. It is this lack of unit which prevented Kirkkonummi from being proclaimed city, case similar to the municipality of Nurmijärvi.

History

The area is populated since the age of the stones as attest it rupestral engravings, first discovered in Finland. At the beginning of the 20th century, the commune is one of the places of favorite rest of the artists fleeing the agitation of Helsinki. It is at this time there that the residence of Hvitträsk is built (1902), work of the most known architects of the time: Eliel Saarinen, Hermann Gesellius and Armed Lindgren. It is today one of principal tourist curiosities of the commune.

Following the war, the history of the municipality becomes more dramatic. The the USSR requires as of the armistice of 1944 to be able to rent for 50 years the peninsula of Porkkala, and with about half of the commune, to make a military base of it. This base had a double function, being able at the same time to block the gulf of Finland against an enemy offensive, and also to control the Finnish Helsinki, distant capital of just 30 kilometers. The treated of Paris ratifies this situation. However, in front of the good behavior of the Finnish leaders, Soviet evacuates finally Porkkala in 1956. Today, the peninsula of Upinniemi (close to Porkkala, and forming part in the beginning of the conceded zone) shelters the principal naval base of the country and the school of the navy.

Demography

The curve of population is rather interesting. Before the war, the municipality counts an important farming population, divided on a hundred villages. The southern half is evacuated in 1944 to leave clear room to the Soviet army. The inhabitants réinvestissents their village or what it remains about it as of the end of the Années 1950 but the commune then starts to play the part of suburbs of Helsinki and experiences since then an exponential development, lately posting growth rates of the population of about 3% per annum.

External bonds

Municipality of Kirkkonummi

Simple: Kirkkonummi

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