Järvenpää (; sv, Träskända) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. It is located on the

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

– Riihimäki railway track in Uusimaa region, some north of

. Neighbouring municipalities are Tuusula,

Sipoo Sipoo (; sv, Sibbo) is a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The administrative center of the munic ...

and

Mäntsälä Mäntsälä () is a municipality in the province of Southern Finland, and is part of the Uusimaa region. It has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnish. M ...

. People also refer to

Kerava Kerava (; sv, Kervo) is a town and municipality within the Uusimaa region of Finland. The municipalities of Vantaa, Sipoo and Tuusula are adjacent to Kerava, which is part of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The town has a population of () an ...

as Järvenpää's neighbour, even though they do not technically share a border, thanks to the one kilometre-wide land area that belongs to Tuusula.

History

The first documented mention of the village of Järvenpää is found in a tax list from 1540, where it is named in Swedish as ; starting from the next decade, its Finnish name was used in parallel, in forms such as ''Jerffuepä'' or ''Järuenpää''. Around this time, the village was documented to consist of eight estates. Prior to being transferred to the newly formed chapel of Tuusula in 1643, Järvenpää was part of the parish of

; Tuusula, in turn, became an independent pastorate () in 1654. While the population in Järvenpää had long been stagnant, it had started expanding again by the late 1700s, thanks to the evolution of agriculture at the time. In the middle of the 1800s, Järvenpää together with Nummenkylä formed the most populous village of Tuusula with around 450 inhabitants. Thanks to its location on the road between

and

, the village had grown into a minor concentration of commerce, with the presence of a - a type of

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

- and several craftsmen. Thanks to these factors, one of the original intermediate stations of the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway was placed in Järvenpää. Järvenpää was separated from its parent community Tuusula in 1951. Järvenpää was granted the status of a market town (kauppala) after the separation. Neighbouring districts Kellokoski and Nummenkylä were not added to the municipality of Järvenpää and the controversy over the issue still raises blood pressure fifty years later. In the event, Kellokoski remained part of the municipality of Tuusula. Järvenpää was granted full legal town (kaupunki) status in 1967.

Geography

Järvenpää is divided into 25

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...

s. The locations of individual neighbourhoods are shown on the map on the left. # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Haarajoki Haarajoki is a district in northern Järvenpää, Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, No ...

# # # # # # # # # #

Demographics

In 2020, 16.8% of the population of Järvenpää was under the age of 15, 64.3% were aged 15 to 64, and 18.9% were over the age of 65. The average age was 41.3, under the national average of 43.4 but above the regional average of 41.0. Speakers of Finnish made up 92.5% of the population and speakers of

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

made up 1.0%, while the share of speakers of foreign languages was 6.4%. Foreign nationals made up 4.2% of the total population. In 2019, out of the total population of 43,711, the entire urban population of Järvenpää was localized in a single urban areas, the Helsinki central locality, with 42,940 inhabitants. 42 people lived in sparsely populated areas, while the coordinates of 729 people were unknown. This made Järvenpää's degree of urbanization 99.9%. The chart below, describing the development of the total population of Järvenpää from 1975 to 2020, encompasses the municipality's area as of 2021.

Culture

In the early 20th century Järvenpää had a large artist community, including

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest com ...

Juhani Aho Juhani Aho, originally Johannes Brofeldt (11 September 1861 – 8 August 1921), was a Finnish author and journalist. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature twelve times. Early life Juhani Aho was born at Lapinlahti in 1861. His pa ...

and

Eero Järnefelt Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park. He was a medal winner at the Paris ''Expositi ...

. This was partly true because of a railway connection to Helsinki. Järvenpää is widely known as the location of Ainola, the home of the composer Jean Sibelius. It is situated about two kilometers south of the city centre. The composer moved with his family to the cottage designed by

Lars Sonck Lars Eliel Sonck (10 August 1870 – 14 March 1956) was a Finnish architect. He graduated from Helsinki Polytechnic Institute in 1894 and immediately won a major design competition for a church in Turku, St Michael's Church, ahead of many esta ...

on September 24, 1904, and he lived there until his death in 1957. Ainola is open for visitors in the summer months as the "museum of Sibelius". Juhani Aho moved with his wife Venny Soldan-Brofeldt to Järvenpää in 1897. They lived there for fourteen years in a villa, called ', next to the shore of

Lake Tuusula Lake Tuusula or Lake Tuusulanjärvi ( fi, Tuusulanjärvi, italics=no; sv, Tusby träsk, italics=no) is a lake on the border of the municipalities of Tuusula and Järvenpää in Southern Finland. The lake has an area of 6.0 square kilometres. Sinc ...

. The villa was later called '. The

K-Citymarket sv, Kesko Abp , logo = Kesko logo.svg , logo_size = 150px , type = Julkinen osakeyhtiö , traded_as = , foundation = , location_city = Helsinki , location_country = Finland , key_people = Mikko Helander (President and CEO), Esa Kii ...

of Järvenpää was awarded the Grocery Store of the Year title in 2019 by the IGD of the United Kingdom.

Events

Dusty hill and billy gibbons finland 2010

Events are held in the ''Järvenpää-talo'' (lit. Järvenpää-house) throughout the year: concerts, theatre and art-shows. The favorite-place of children is Pikku-Aino's home, where children can play, make shows and so on. There is a musical event, which is arranged every year, called ' (lit. Park Blues). "Blues-week" starts from the "Blues street" of the city centre, and concerts and informal sessions are arranged in bars and restaurants. The main concert is at the end of Blues-week, and is arranged in Vanhankylänniemi on the Saturday. Järvenpää celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2021.

Transportation

The railroad goes through the city centre. In addition to the

main railway station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

, there are the stations of Ainola, Saunakallio and

. The trip to

takes about half an hour, whether by rail or road, and to the airport of

Helsinki-Vantaa Helsinki-Vantaa Airport (; fi, Helsinki-Vantaan lentoasema, sv, Helsingfors-Vanda flygplats), or simply Helsinki Airport, is the main international airport of the city of Helsinki, its surrounding metropolitan area, and the Uusimaa region. Th ...

about 20 minutes. Train connections to the capital are good. Uusimaa's trains leave the main station twice an hour, and from other stations once an hour.

Politics

Results of the

2021 Finnish municipal elections Municipal elections were held in Finland on 13 June 2021 after being rescheduled from 18 April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Context The last municipal elections were held in 2017 and were won by the National Coalition Party with a 20.7 percent ...

in Järvenpää: *

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

: 21.1% * National Coalition Party: 20.5% * True Finns: 18.3% *

Green League The Green League (VIHR, fi, Vihreä liitto , sv, Gröna förbundet), shortened to the Greens ( fi, Vihreät, sv, De Gröna), is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the polit ...

: 13.2% * Järvenpää Plus: 9,1% * Centre Party: 7.5% * Left Alliance: 5.2% *

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

: 3,1%

Management

Järvenpää belongs to Uudenmaan vaalipiiri (''electoral district of Uusimaa'') and its town council has 51 councillors. The town council's political groups (2004-2008) were : * Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (The Social Democratic Party of Finland) (14 councils), * Kokoomus (The National Coalition Party) (13), * Järvenpää 2000 Plus (7), * Keskusta (The Centre Party) (7), *

Vihreä liitto The Green League (VIHR, fi, Vihreä liitto , sv, Gröna förbundet), shortened to the Greens ( fi, Vihreät, sv, De Gröna), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Gree ...

(The Green League) (4), * Vasemmistoliitto (The Left Alliance) (3), * Kristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats) (1), * Suomen kommunistinen puolue (Communist Party of Finland) (1), * Liberaalit (Liberals) (1). The president of the council was ''Ari Åberg'' (Kokoomus).

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Järvenpää is twinned with: * Buchholz in der Nordheide, Germany * Jõgeva County, Estonia * Lørenskog, Norway *

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, United States * Rødovre, Denmark *

Täby Täby () was previously a trimunicipal locality, with 66,292 inhabitants in 2013. However, as from 2016, Statistics Sweden has amalgamated this locality with the Stockholm urban area. It is the seat of Täby Municipality in Stockholm County, Swed ...

, Sweden * Vác, Hungary * Volkhov, Russia

References

External links

*
Town of Järvenpää
– Official site
Puistoblues festival
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvenpaa Greater Helsinki Cities and towns in Finland Populated places established in 1951 1951 establishments in Finland