Harjavalta () 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 in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Western Finland and is part of the

Satakunta Satakunta (in both Finnish and Swedish, ) is a region ( / ) of Finland, part of the former Western Finland Province. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Pirkanmaa, South Ostrobothnia and Ostrobothnia. The capital city of the region ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

, southeast of Pori. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

is . Today people in the town are employed in the

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ...

industries. Today's most used metal recovery method, the flash smelting method, was developed at Harjavalta and implemented in 1949. Originally part of Outokumpu, a Finnish company, the copper business is now owned by

Boliden Boliden is a locality situated in Skellefteå Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden with 1,566 inhabitants in 2010. It lies 28,5 kilometers from Skellefteå City. This is where Boliden AB Boliden AB is a Swedish multinational metals, m ...

and the nickel business by Norilsk Nickel. Hiittenharju is a ridge in Harjavalta, known for its archaeology and cultural history. The banks of the ancient Litorina Sea lies on the fringes of the Hiittenharju ridge. In the Hiittenharju area

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

graves, called barrows, have been discovered, and there is also a historical route called Huovintie running through Hiittenharju. 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 tributa ...

river runs through the town. The neighboring municipalities are Eura,

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 ...

Nakkila Nakkila () is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region, southeast of Pori. The Kokemäki River flows along the center of Nakkila. The municipality has a population of () and ...

and

Ulvila Ulvila (; sv, Ulvsby) is a town and municipality of Finland. It is one of the six medieval cities of Finland, as well as the third oldest city in the country. Ulvila was granted charter as a town by King Albert of Sweden on 7 February 1365. How ...

. The municipality is unilingually

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

History

Earliest signs of habitation on the area have been dated to 1200 BC. Various different writings of the name in documents of the 15th century at the

Turku Cathedral Turku Cathedral ( fi, Turun tuomiokirkko, sv, Åbo domkyrka) is the only medieval basilica in Finland and the Mother Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. It is the central church of the Lutheran Archdiocese of Turku and the seat ...

are ''Harianwalta'', ''Hariawalta'', ''Hariaualdastha'', ''Harianwaltha'' and ''Harianwaltaby''. The name is supposed to originate from the speculative Proto Germanic name ', composed of the speculative words ''*harjaz'' ("army") and ''*waldaz'' ("authority"). It is believed that either a person named Harjawaldaz or a warrior band settled or lived in the area. The earliest known written occurrence of the name is from Tacitus on the first century, ''

Chariovalda Chariovalda (Proto-Germanic *''Hariwald'') was a Batavian chieftain who participated in the Roman retaliation campaign (from 14-16 AD) against a Germanic alliance in the aftermath of the disaster at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Chariovalda ...

''. Different adoptions of the same name are

Harald Harald or Haraldr is the Old Norse form of the given name Harold. It may refer to: Medieval Kings of Denmark * Harald Bluetooth (935–985/986) Kings of Norway * Harald Fairhair (c. 850–c. 933) * Harald Greycloak (died 970) * Harald Hardra ...

, Hérault and Harold, but Harjavalta is closest to the reconstructed original. In 1670, the villages of Harjavalta formed their own chapel parish, but the official status of an independent congregation began to be sought about 200 years later. Harjavalta's application for its own

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

was granted in 1868, and the decision was implemented in 1878. The new independent

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

had about 1,600 members. The great famine years in the 1860s doubled mortality in Finland, but on the scale of Finland as a whole, Harjavalta did little to avoid this ordeal. The act of 1865 on the municipal government led to the formation of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

and the municipal government also in Harjavalta in 1869. This is considered to be the year of birth of the municipality of Harjavalta. The first store in Harjavalta was founded in a church village in 1874. A second store soon opened in the village of Merstola. The most important sales products were

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

and sugar, but the selections also included fabrics, wheat flour,

licorice Liquorice (British English) or licorice (American English) ( ; also ) is the common name of ''Glycyrrhiza glabra'', a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring can be extracted. The liq ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. The first school building was acquired in 1885, when the municipality bought the Kreetala farm, the main building of which became Harjavalta's first

folk school Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule;' ...

Politics

Results of the

2019 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 14 April 2019. For the first time, no party received more than 20% of the vote. The Centre Party, which had been the largest party following the 2015 elections, dropped to fourth place, losing 18 sea ...

in Harjavalta: * Social Democratic Party 29.3% *

Finns Party The Finns Party, formerly known as the True Finns ( fi, Perussuomalaiset, PS, sv, Sannfinländarna, Sannf.), is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The ...

19.6% * Left Alliance 17.1% *

National Coalition Party sv, Samlingspartiet , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Petteri Orpo , leader2_title = Deputy chairs , leader2_name = Antti HäkkänenElina ValtonenAnna-Kaisa Ikonen , merger = Finnish Party, Young Finn ...

12.3% * Centre Party 12.2% * Christian Democrats 4.4% * Green League 4.3%

Transport

Harjavalta is served by OnniBus.com route Helsinki—Pori.

Town twinning

Harjavalta is twinned with: *

Boksitogorsk Boksitogorsk (russian: Бокситого́рск) is a town and the administrative center of Boksitogorsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the banks of the Pyardomlya River in the basin of the Syas River, east of St. Pe ...

, Leningrad Oblast,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

References

External links

Town of Harjavalta
– Official website {{authority control Cities and towns in Finland Municipalities of Satakunta Populated places established in 1869 1869 establishments in the Russian Empire