Naistenmatka is the

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 at the same time the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

of the municipality of

Pirkkala Pirkkala (; sv, Birkala) is a municipality of Finland. It is located some south-west from Tampere in the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is , which makes ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Its population was 800 people in 1997, or about 15% of Pirkkala's population. The first buildings in the village of Naistenmatka were in the 16th century in Suupanmäki. Pirkkala's services began to focus on Naistenmatka in the early 1950s, and soon the area became the center of the municipality (known as Suuppa). The

municipal hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

was completed in 1964, the school center 1968–1973, the

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

1977 and the

health center A healthcare center, health center, or community health center is one of a network of clinics staffed by a group of general practitioners and nurses providing healthcare services to people in a certain area. Typical services covered are family pr ...

1986. The new church of Pirkkala is also located near Naistenmatka, and the school center includes the Naistenmatka School, Suupanniitty School, and Pirkkala High School. The municipal center is to be developed in the next few years - some of Pirkkala's services, such as the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, have moved to the

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

border in the area of the Partola shopping center. The surface of Lake Vähäjärvi, which separates Naistenmatka and the Vähäjärvi district, was raised and improved in the late 1990s. There is no obvious explanation for the name of Naistenmatka (literally meaning "

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

's journey" or "women's trip"). Many of the explanatory stories refer to women's church trips to Pirkkala Church by residents of the

Lake Näsijärvi A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

's region, but the explanatory models vary.Naistenmatka: tarinoita nimen takaa
(in Finnish)

References

External links

* Jouko Hillukka:
Naistenmatka
' - about Pirkkala's history and locality information (in Finnish) Pirkkala Villages in Finland {{WesternFinland-geo-stub

See also

References

External links