- Iisalmi
Iisalmi ("Idensalmi" in Swedish) is a town and municipality of
Finland .It is located in the province of
Eastern Finland and is part of theNorthern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of 22,497 (2005) and covers an area of 872.65 km² of which 109.27 km² is water. Thepopulation density is 26.0 inhabitants per km². The municipality is unilingually Finnish.History
Iisalmi traces its roots back to the 17th century when the area of Iisalmi was formed with the local church in 1627. In the mid 18th century
Finland was under Swedish control. Sweden was at war withImperial Russia . The area ofKoljonvirta in Iisalmi is remembered as one of the battlefields in this war, especially because one of the greatest Swedish victories occurred there. However,Sweden lost the actual war and had to surrender Finland to the Russian empire. Iisalmi gained its status as town in 1891.Economy
"
Olvi ", the last big independent beerbrewery in Finland (other big Finnish breweries have been bought by multinational companies), has its factory and headquarters in Iisalmi."
Genelec ", a firm making high-quality active speakers used in recording studios worldwide, has its factory and headquarters in Iisalmi."
Normet ", engineers and manufactures mechanized equipment for underground works in its factory and headquarters in Iisalmi."Profile Vehicles Oy", makes ambulances and police cars.
Iisalmi has its own railway station on the VR network. The line between Iisalmi and Oulu was electrified in December 2006, replacing diesel haulage of trains.
Culture
Music
Currently the most famous Iisalmi-based band is a humorous country-rock orchestra
Halavatun Papat . A rough translation of the name is "Goddamn Grandfathers".Jaakko Teppo , Finnish singer-songwriter, is originally from Iisalmi.Events
Iisalmi, even though being a relatively small town, has many cultural events on small and somewhat larger scales. One memorable event of the many is "Rompepäivät", which translates as "the days of old junk and stuff". People gather together bringing all kinds of old stuff imaginable from small sewing needles to old tractors for everyone to see and a lot of small things to be sold. Small amount of old restored cars, trucks, motorcycles and tractors, some of them Finnish made, are displayed for others to see. Here people talk about "good old times" or wonder over "ancient artifacts". Sometimes some of the finely restored machines are for sale to anyone interested to buy—of course if they can afford it.
ports
Iisalmi is best known for its football club,
PK-37 .External links
* [http://www.iisalmi.fi/?deptid=11176 Official website of Iisalmi]
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