Kokkola

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Image:Location of Kokkola in Finland.png

Kokkola (Karleby in Swedish) is a town and municipality of Finland. The town is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. It is situated within the coordinates 63° 49' 60 N and 23° 4' 60 E. The municipality has a population of 35,756 (2003) and covers an area of 332.44 km² of which 4.92 km² is water. The population density is 107.6 inhabitants per km². The municipality is bilingual with 81.0% being Finnish and 17.9% Swedish speakers.

1 History
2 The Name of the Town
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The town of Kokkola was chartered in 1620 by king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden (Finland at that time being a part of Sweden). Kokkola was founded as a shipping port for the tar trade. It also became an important shipbuilding centre in Finland. As a result of tar trade and shipbuilding industry Kokkola was for a time the richest town in Finland.

An interesting historical affair occurred at the town of Kokkola in May 1854 during the Crimean War. British marines tried to come ashore to ransack the town, but they were met by proud defenders, of which many were civilians armed with hunting rifles. One of the British landing boats (a gun boat) fell into the hands of the defenders. As such, this boat was the only Royal Navy vessel still in foreign possession in 1914. The boat is still today a museum-object and can be seen in Kokkola.

[edit] The Name of the Town

The Finnish name Kokkola means 'The place of bonfire' or 'The place of eagle' since the finnish word kokko has two meanings: bonfire and white-tailed eagle (the suffix '-la' denotes a location). The town was known in Swedish by the name Gamlakarleby until January 1 1977 when the surrounding land municipality of Kaarlela (swe. Karleby) was united with Kokkola, and the town took over the Swedish name of Karleby. Gamla means 'old', Karl means 'man' or 'peasant' and by means 'village'. So it literally means Old village of peasants. The latin name was Carolina Vetus.