Ikaalinen
Encyclopedia
Ikaalinen is a town and municipality of Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

.

It is located in the province
Provinces of Finland
The state of Finland consisted of six provinces between the years 1997 and 2009. The provincial authority was part of the central government's executive branch, not directly elected. The system was created in 1634, and its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces...

 of Western Finland
Western Finland
Western Finland was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2010. It bordered the provinces of Oulu, Eastern Finland and Southern Finland. It also bordered the Gulf of Bothnia towards Åland.- History :...

 and is part of the Pirkanmaa
Pirkanmaa
Pirkanmaa , or the Tampere Region , is a region of Finland. It borders on the regions of Satakunta, Tavastia Proper, Päijänne Tavastia, Southern Ostrobothnia and Central Finland....

 region
Regions of Finland
Finland consists of 19 regions called in Finnish and in Swedish. The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition,...

. The town has a population of
and covers an area of km2 of
which km2
is water. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 is
PD/km2.

The municipality is unilingually Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

.

The Seitseminen
Seitseminen National Park
Seitseminen National Park is located in the municipalities of Ikaalinen and Ylöjärvi in Finland. The national park was established in 1982 and later expanded in 1989. It now covers . The park is a typical mix of upland and lowland coniferous boreal forests of the Suomenselkä watershed region...

 national park is partly located in the municipality.

Ikaalinen is an old tourist attraction in Finland. Its spa tradition dates back to the last century and folk music, especially accordion music is one of its traditions. Its beautiful landscape has always fascinated visitors.

During the last decades Ikaalinen developed into a versatile service centre with good business, educational and recreational facilities. Today about 55% of the population earns its living from the service sector and 15% from agriculture, which has always provided an important source of income.

S. Albert Kivinen
S. Albert Kivinen
S. Albert Kivinen is a Finnish author and doctor of philosophy and docent emeritus of University of Helsinki, known for his occult interests and study of monsters. He is a onetime winner of the Atorox Award for best Finnish short story, for his Lovecraftian pastiche Keskiyön Mato Ikaalisissa....

, the associate professor of philosophy of the University of Helsinki
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...

, is the most famous living native of Ikaalinen, due to his tongue-in-the-cheek horror stories written in Lovecraftian style. His most famous fictional work, Keskiyön Mato Ikaalisissa ("The Midnight Worm in Ikaalinen"), is a Lovecraftian story set in his childhood surroundings in Ikaalinen.

Ikaalinen became an independent municipality in 1641. The associated market town was founded in 1858. The market town and the municipality were united in 1972 and Ikaalinen became a town in 1977.

The centre of Ikaalinen is on the beautiful lake Kyrösjärvi nearby the highway 3
Finnish national road 3
Finnish national road 3 is a highway in Finland between Helsinki and Vaasa via Tampere. The road is long and it is part of the European route E12...

 (E12
European route E12
European route E 12 is a road that is part of the International E-road network. It begins in Mo i Rana, Norway, tranverses Sweden and ends in Helsinki, Finland, with a ferry line between Sweden and Finland. The part within Finland is Finnish national highway 3...

).

The biggest industrial plants are Finlayson, Upofloor, Georgia Pacific Paper, Amerplast, Honkarakenne, Keskus-Sähkö, H&H Siporex and Katsa.

The Bike Station is located in Ikaalinen. They import Rohloff (manufacturer of the Speedhub), Schmidt (manufacturer of the legendary SON dynamo hub) and Weber (manufacturer of the high quality bicycle trailers).

External links

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