Keikyä is a former municipality of

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 ...

in the former

Turku and Pori Province Turku and Pori Province (, , ) was a province of independent Finland from 1917 to 1997. The province was however founded as a county in 1634 when today's Finland was an integrated part of Sweden. It is named after the cities of Turku () and Por ...

, now in

Pirkanmaa Pirkanmaa (; sv, Birkaland; la, Birkaria, link=no), also known as ''Tampere Region'' in government documents, is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, South Ostrobothnia, Central Finland, Päijät-Häme, Kanta-Häme and Sou ...

. Together with

Kiikka Kiikka is a locality and former municipality in Pirkanmaa region, Finland. It was consolidated in 1981 with Keikyä into a municipality of Äetsä, which in turn, was consolidated with Vammala and Mouhijärvi into a town of Sastamala in 2009. Kii ...

, it formed the

Äetsä Äetsä is a former municipality of southwestern Finland. The municipality was founded on 1981 when municipalities of Keikyä and Kiikka were consolidated to a single municipality. On 1 January 2009, it was consolidated with the municipalities ...

municipality in 1981, which formed the

Sastamala Sastamala () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Pirkanmaa region. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water, making it the largest municipality in the Pirkanmaa region in terms of area. The ...

municipality with

Vammala Vammala is a former town and municipality of southwestern Finland, chartered in 1907. On 1 January 2009, Vammala was consolidated with the municipalities of Mouhijärvi and Äetsä, to form a new city named Sastamala. Geography Vammala was locate ...

and

Mouhijärvi Mouhijärvi is a former municipality of Finland, located in the southwestern part of the country. It was an agricultural village since the 18th century. On 1 January in 2009 Mouhijärvi was consolidated with the municipalities of Vammala and Ä ...

in 2009. Its seat was in Pehula, while the church was located in the village of Keikyä.

Geography

Keikyä bordered Kiikka, Vammala,

Huittinen Huittinen ( sv, Vittis) is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in the Satakunta region, southeast of Pori and southwest of Tampere. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density ...

and

Kokemäki Kokemäki (; sv, Kumo) is a town and municipality in the Satakunta Region of Finland. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Finland is constitutionally bi-lingual with a Swedis ...

. Until 1969 it bordered

Kauvatsa Kauvatsa is a former municipality in the Satakunta province, Finland. It was annexed with the municipality of Kokemäki Kokemäki (; sv, Kumo) is a town and municipality in the Satakunta Region of Finland. The town has a population of () a ...

instead of Kokemäki and until 1973,

Tyrvää Tyrvää (; sv, Tyrvis) was a municipality in the Satakunta region, Turku and Pori Province, Finland. It was established in 1439 when the Tyrvää parish was separated from the parish of Karkku. In 1915, the market town of Vammala was separated fr ...

instead of Vammala. The municipality was divided into two sides by the river

Kokemäenjoki The Kokemäenjoki ("Kokemäki River", sv, Kumo älv) is a river in southwestern Finland. Geography The river originates at Lake Liekovesi in the Pirkanmaa region, and flows to the Gulf of Bothnia at Pori in the Satakunta region. Primary tribu ...

History

Keikyä was originally a part of the

parish. It was first mentioned as one of Huittinen's villages in 1487. It was also the center of the Keikyä fourth of Huittinen. The people of Keikyä have held hunting grounds near modern Ahlainen, as evidenced by the toponym ''Keikvesi''. Keikyä became a chapel community in 1684. The first proper church was built in 1830 as the initial chapel had become too small. The current church was built in 1912. The Finnish senate ordered Keikyä's separation from Huittinen in 1908, which came into effect in 1920. Industrialization began in the late 19th century with the establishment of a wool spinnery, followed by a machine workshop, a tricot factory and dyeworks, collectively called ''Äetsän tehtaat'' (factories of Äetsä) located by the Äetsänkoski rapids. A chemical factory was established in the area in the 1930s, nowadays owned by

Kemira Kemira Oyj () is a global chemicals company serving customers in water intensive industries. Kemira has two main segments, Pulp & Paper and Industry & Water. Kemira is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. In 2019, Kemira had annual revenue of aro ...

. The municipal center eventually moved from the village of Keikyä to the village of Pehula (also called Äetsä) as it was closer to the factories and a train station. Keikyä united with neighboring

in 1981 to form

, with its center in Pehula. In 2009, Äetsä united with

and

to form the town of

Church

The current church of Keikyä was built in 1912, designed by

Josef Stenbäck Josef Daniel Stenbäck (May 2, 1854, Alavus — April 27, 1929, Helsinki) was a Finnish church architect and engineer. He designed 35 churches for Finland, which until 1917 was part of the Russian Empire. Four of the churches were located in the ...

. Parts of the original church were used as materials. The altarpiece, made in 1753, depicts

Simeon Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, son ...

holding Baby Jesus.

Services

Most of Keikyä's services are located in Pehula.

School

Pehula has a school for grades 1-6 (''ala-aste''). It had 131 students in 2022.

References

{{Pirkanmaa Sastamala Former municipalities of Finland