Lappeenranta

Kuntainfo
fullname=Lappeenrannan kaupunki


status=city


province=Southern Finland
region=South Karelia
district=Lappeenranta
citymanager=Seppo Miettinen
languages=Finnish
arearank=85th
area=847.86
arealand=760.03
poprank=11th
popdate=April 2007
pop=59092
popchange=+0,1
popdensity=77.6
urbanisation=90.4
unemployment=14.7
website=http://www.lappeenranta.fi/

Lappeenranta ("Villmanstrand" in Swedish) is a city and municipality that resides on the shore of the lake Saimaa in South-Eastern Finland, about 30 km from the Russian border. It belongs to the province of Southern Finland and the region of South Karelia. With 59,000 inhabitants (December 31 2004) Lappeenranta is the eleventh-largest city in Finland.

History

The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden, legitimizing the trade at the then popular marketplace of Lapvesi.

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.

Services

Education

Lappeenranta has numerous schools at almost all levels of education, including the Lappeenranta University of Technology, South Karelia University of Applied Sciences, the Army Academy (branch of the Finnish Defence Forces), South Karelia Vocational College and South Karelia Adult Education Centre.

Traffic

Lappeenranta is connected to its neighbor cities and municipalities by road, with railways heading to south and north.

During the summer season, when Lake Saimaa and Saimaa Canal are accessible by ships, there is a ship connection from Lappeenranta to Vyborg, Russia.

There is also a mid-size airport at Lappeenranta, which on a busy day serves circa 30 aircraft per day, and in minimum, only a few.

Economy

The city's main employers are the City of Lappeenranta, UPM-Kymmene, South Karelia Central Hospital, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Paroc, Nordkalk, VR-Group, Cloetta Fazer, The Armed Forces and Larox.

A large portion of Lappeenranta workers live in the neighboring municipalities, mainly Joutseno, Taipalsaari, Lemi and Savitaipale. Lappeenranta is connected to these municipalities by roads.

Culture and people

Laila Hirvisaari (formerly Laila Hietamies) has written a novel series about Lappeenranta and its people.

Kotiteollisuus is very popular Finnish hard rock band coming from Lappeenranta.

Mokoma is Finnish thrash metal band from Lappeenranta. It's also very popular in Finnish metal scene.

Hanna Pakarinen the first Idols winner in Finland came from Lappeenranta.

Vesa Vierikko Finnish actor born in the town.

Christian Ruuttu Ice hockey player in the NHL in the mid-90s born in Lappeenranta.

Arvi Lind Legendary Finnish news anchor.

Movies There are two private movie theaters in Lappeenranta: Kino-Aula & Nuijamies which show movies with subtitles in both Finnish & Swedish).

Tourism

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 in the shore parts of the country.

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, Saint Petersburg of Russia is closer (211 km) to Lappeenranta than Helsinki, the capital of Finland (221 km). The presence of Russians is obvious with many Russian registered cars on the streets and Cyrillic signs in shops.

Good places and events to visit are
* The old fortress, with a number of museums, cafés and the oldest Orthodox church in Finland.
* The harbour area, with cruises to Vyborg and the nearby Saimaa Canal.
* The central market place, where you can enjoy the local specialities - meat pies known as "Atomi" (atom) or "Vety" (hydrogen).
* The Night of The Fort, a two-day cultural festival in early August.
* The annual Lappeenranta National Singing Contest.
* The "Huvisatama" -only in summers of course, offers a wide variety of amusement to everybody.

Sister city

* Kolding, Denmark

External links

* [http://www.lappeenranta.fi/?deptid=10973&languageid=4 Official site]
* [http://wikitravel.org/en/Lappeenranta Wikitravel.org]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=lappeenranta,+finland&ll=61.045656,28.233833&spn=0.113187,0.43396&t=k&om=1 Satellite Image of Lappeenranta] at Google Maps
* [http://020202.fi/kartta/Lappeenranta Detailed aerial photography of Lappeenranta] (press "ilmakuva"). Much more detail than in Google's service.
* [http://www.gosaimaa.fi goSaimaa.fi - travel information about Lappeenranta]

Picture Gallery