- Paltamo
Paltamo (Paldamo in Swedish) is a municipality of
Finland .It is located in the province of Oulu and is part of the
Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of 4,219 (2004 ) and covers an area of 1,138.98 km² of which 215.57 km² is water. Thepopulation density is 4.6 inhabitants per km². There are two built-up areas in the municipality: Kontiomäki and Paltamo. Kontiomäki has about 600 inhabitants.The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
History
Paltamo was first inhabited 8,500 years ago. The most sophisticated finding yet has been a weapon shaped like a bear's head. In
1552 kingGustav Vasa gave an order in which the areas of theLake Oulu were to be inhabitated. 140 families left there. In1555 it was counted that there were 133 families living in Paltamo. The picture church of Paltamo was built in1726 by Johan Simonpoika Knubb. It was the fourth church on the site. One of the most important persons in the Finnish history of literature —Eino Leino — was born in Hövelö in1878 . Today Paltamo is one of the slowly declining municipalities of Finland.Heraldry
As a word in the
Finnish language , the word "paltamo" means a tar boat, which is the reason thecoat of arms of Paltamo has three black tar boats on a golden background.External links
* [http://www.paltamo.fi/ Paltamo municipality's official website]
* [http://www.karttatiimi.fi/paltamo/map.php Clickable map of Paltamo municipality]
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