Muurame is a

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 ...

, located south-west of

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

. Muurame itself is located between two lakes, Lake Päijänne and Lake Muuratjärvi. These two lakes are connected to each other via River Muurame. All together there are 37 lakes in Muurame. Biggest lakes beside Päijänne are Muuratjärvi and Lake Kuusjärvi. River Muurame streams through the population center of Muurame. Muurame was founded in 1921. The Muurame church is of

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...

's design, being his first church design to be completed in 1929. It was comprehensively restored in 2016 to its original design.

Name

''Muurame'' is a dialectal word referring to the

cloudberry ''Rubus chamaemorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to cool temperate regions, alpine and arctic tundra and boreal forest. This herbaceous perennial produces amber-colored edible fruit similar to the blackbe ...

, which also can be seen in the municipal coat of arms. Similar toponyms nearby include

Muuratsalo Muuratsalo is an island in lake Päijänne, Finland. The northern part of the island belongs to Jyväskylä and the southern part to Muurame. It is located south from the Jyväskylä city centre and east from Muurame. There are 800 inhabitant ...

, Muuratjärvi, Muuramenlampi and Muuratharju.

History

Muurame was first mentioned as ''Murame ärmarch'' in 1554 when it was a part of the

Jämsä Jämsä () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Central Finland region, about southwest of Jyväskylä. The municipality has a population of (), which make it the second largest town of the Central Finland after Jyväskyl ...

parish. In the 18th century, the village was variously known as ''Muranjärvi'', ''Murame'' and ''Muratjärvi''.

Korpilahti Korpilahti is a former municipality of Finland. Together with Jyväskylän maalaiskunta, Korpilahti was consolidated with Jyväskylä on January 1, 2009. It is located in the former province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland ...

, including Muurame, was separated from Jämsä in 1861. Muurame was in turn separated from Korpilahti in 1921. Plans to separate

Säynätsalo Säynätsalo is a former municipality in Finland and a part of Jyväskylä. As of November 2010 its population was 3,340. Säynätsalo municipality consisted of islands of Säynätsalo and Lehtisaari and also a part of Muuratsalo island. All of t ...

from Muurame appeared in 1922, but the separation happened two years later in 1924.

Lehtisaari Lehtisaari may refer to several places in Finland: * Lehtisaari, Helsinki, neighbourhood in Helsinki * Lehtisaari, Jyväskylä, district and neighborhood in Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of t ...

and northern

(incl. Haikka) remained parts of Muurame until 1935.

Notable people

Athletes

* Emilia Nyström, Finnish beach volleyball * Erika Nyström, Finnish beach volleyball *

Jussi Pesonen Jussi Pesonen (born November 24, 1960, in Helsinki) is the president and chief executive officer of the Finnish pulp, paper and timber company UPM since 2004.ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player *

Harri Pesonen Harri Pesonen (born August 6, 1988) is a Finnish professional ice hockey left winger for the SCL Tigers of the National League (NL). He previously played in the NL with Lausanne HC and in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) with Metallurg Magnit ...

, ice hockey player *

Mikko Ronkainen Mikko Ronkainen (born November 25, 1978 in Muurame) is a freestyle skier from Finland. He is a two-time World Champion (2001 and 2003) and won the moguls World Cup during the 2000–2001 season. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Turin ( ...

Freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

Twinnings

Alatskivi Parish Alatskivi Parish was a rural municipality in Tartu County, Estonia. Settlements International relations Twin towns — Sister cities Alatskivi Parish was twinned with: * Kävlinge Municipality, Sweden * Muurame Municipality, Finland See ...

, Estonia *

Vinje Vinje is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Åmot. General inform ...

, Norway

References

External links

Municipality of Muurame
– Official website Populated places established in 1921 {{WesternFinland-geo-stub