Lappeenranta

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**Lappeenrannan kaupunki**
Image:Lappeenranta coat of arms.png
city in Finland
Image:Location of Lappeenranta in Finland.png
Province	Southern Finland
Region	South Karelia
Sub-region	Lappeenranta
City manager	Seppo Miettinen
Official languages	Finnish
Area - total - land	ranked 85th 847.86 km² 760.03 km²
Population - total (December 31st, 2004) - change - density	ranked 11th 58,982 +0,1 % 77.6/km²
Urbanisation	90.4 %
Unemployment rate	14.7 %
http://www.lappeenranta.fi/

Lappeenranta (or Villmanstrand in Swedish) is a city and municipality that resides on the shore of the lake Saimaa in South-Eastern Finland, about 30 km from the Russian border. It belongs to the province of Southern Finland and the region of South Karelia. With 59,000 inhabitants (December 31 2004) Lappeenranta is the eleventh-largest city of Finland.

1 History
2 Services
- 2.1 Education
- 2.2 Traffic
3 Economy
4 Culture and people
5 Tourism
6 External links
7 Picture Gallery

[edit] History

The town was chartered in 1649 by Queen Christina of Sweden, legitimizing the trade at the then popular marketplace of Lapvesi.

[edit] Services

[edit] Education

Lappeenranta has numerous schools at almost all levels of education, including a University of Technology.

[edit] Traffic

Lappeenranta is connected to its neighbor cities and municipalities by road, with railways heading to south and north.

During the summer season, when Lake Saimaa and Saimaa Canal are accessible by ships, there is a ship connection from Lappeenranta to Vyborg, Russia.

There is also a mid-size airport at Lappeenranta, which on a busy day serves circa 30 aircraft per day, and in minimum, only a few.

[edit] Economy

The city's main employers are the City of Lappeenranta, UPM-Kymmene, South Karelia Central Hospital, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Paroc, Nordkalk, VR-Group, Cloetta Fazer, The Armed Forces, Larox and Pola.

A large portion of Lappeenranta workers live in the neighboring municipalities, mainly Joutseno, Taipalsaari, Lemi and Savitaipale. Lappeenranta is connected to these municipalities by roads.

[edit] Culture and people

Laila Hirvisaari (formely Laila Hietamies) has written a novel series about Lappeenranta and its people.

Kotiteollisuus is very popular finnish hard rock band coming from Lappeenranta.

Mokoma is finnish thrash metal band from Lappeenranta. It's also very popular in finnish metal scene.

Hanna Pakarinen the first Idols winner in Finland came from Lappeenranta.

Vesa Vierikko Finnish actor born in the town.

Movies There are two private movie theater in Lappeenranta Kino-Aula & Nuijamies they have the biggest movies that are shown worldwide (of course the subtitles are both in Finnish & Swedish).

[edit] Tourism

Lappeenranta is known as a summer city, mostly due to its closeness to the lake Saimaa. In addition, its inland location means that summers tend to be warmer and winters colder than in the shore parts of the country.

The proximity of the Russian border is increasingly visible in the number of Russian tourists visiting the city. In fact, Saint Petersburg of Russia is closer (211 km) to Lappeenranta than Helsinki, the capital of Finland (221 km). Unusually for Finland, the second language spoken by many local residents is Russian. The presence of Russians is obvious with many Russian registered cars on the streets and cyrillic signs in shops.

Good places and events to visit are

The old fortress, with a number of museums, cafés and the oldest Orthodox church in Finland.
The harbour area, with beautiful lake scenery and cruises to Vyborg and the nearby Saimaa Canal.
The water tower, which gives a good view all over the city.
The central market place, where you can enjoy the local specialities - meat pies known as "Atomi" (atom) or "Vety" (hydrogen).
The Night of The Fort, a two-day cultural festival in early August.
The annual Lappeenranta National Singing Contest.
The "Huvisatama" -only in summers of course, offers a wide variety of amusement to everybody.