Pargas ( fi, Parainen) 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 o ...

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 ...

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 Bot ...

, in the

Archipelago Sea The Archipelago Sea ( fi, Saaristomeri, sv, Skärgårdshavet) is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland, within Finnish territorial waters. By some definitions it contains the largest ...

, the biggest archipelago in the world by the number of islands, 50,000. The big

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

mine in Pargas is the base of the main industry and except for the central parts, the municipality is still mostly rural. Pargas is located in Åboland 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 out ...

Western Finland Western Finland ( fi, Länsi-Suomen lääni, sv, Västra Finlands län) was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2009. It bordered the provinces of Oulu, Eastern Finland and Southern Finland. It also bordered the Gulf of Bothnia towards Åland. ...

and is part of the Southwest Finland

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 ...

. It was created as Väståboland on 1 January 2009 in Southwest Finland, when the municipalities of Pargas, Nagu, Korpo,

Houtskär Houtskär (; fi, Houtskari ) is an island group and former municipality of Finland. On 1 January 2009, it was consolidated with Iniö, Korpo, Nagu and Pargas to form the municipality of Pargas (briefly named Väståboland). It is located in ...

and Iniö were merged into a single municipality. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

is . The town is

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...

with a majority () speaking Swedish as their native language.

Economy

Pargas has a large limestone industry, with the industry and Nordkalk as an important local employer, agriculture employs many in the rural regions of the municipality. Furthermore, the shipping industry is a relevant industry in the region. The municipality is suffering from high debt.

History

Archaeological excavations revealed that the

vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

used to travel to the archipelago in the 9th century.

Karin Thomasdotter Karin Thomasdotter (Swedish; fi, Karin Thomaksentytär; 1610–1697) was an official Vogt (court advocate) and länsman, in the province of Finland that was then part of Sweden. Her position as an official was near to unique for a woman of her ti ...

(1610–1697), who served as

vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

in Pargas for over forty years, was one of the longest serving vogts, and also one of only two females to have the position in contemporary Finland.

Recent history

On 1 January 2009, Pargas, Nagu, Korpo,

and Iniö merged to form the new municipality of ''Väståboland'' ( fi, Länsi-Turunmaa).

Name dispute

Shortly after the merge, people started debating if the ''Väståboland'' name was the right name for the merged municipality; those arguing against the ''Väståboland'' name proposed ''Pargas'' as a 'new' name. The former municipalities could not agree on a new name, and Pargas insisted on a change, so the state had to step in and decided that the name would be ''Väståboland''. The debates became heated and a referendum was arranged to decide what name the municipality should have in May 2011. The result of the referendum showed that 57,7% of the voters supported ''Pargas'' and 40.1% of voters supported ''Väståboland''. Though the overall majority supported changing the name, there was an overwhelming support for the name ''Väståboland'' in 4 out of 5 of the former municipalities. In Iniö, only 1 voter out of 173 total voted for ''Pargas'', in all four, 62 out of 2060, while in Pargas proper, 74,5% voted for ''Pargas''. The municipality council ( sv, "Fullmäktige") decided on 14 June 2011 in favour of the majority population and decided to rename the municipality ''Pargas'' on 1 January 2012. The Council considered taking this issue up again for debate and vote. The council made a re-vote on 6 September 2011 with 25 votes for ''Pargas'', 17 for ''Väståboland'' and 1 blank vote.

Merge with Kimitoön

The possibility of merging with Kimitoön to form a single municipality that would include the entire Åboland archipelago has been discussed since 2007, with interest being reignited by the healthcare reforms during the Sipilä Cabinet.

Climate

Pargas has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Dfb'') closely bordering on a

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(''Cfb'').

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Pargas is twinned with: * Haninge Municipality, Sweden

References

External links

Town of Pargas
– Official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Pargas Cities and towns in Finland Populated coastal places in Finland Populated places established in 2009