Pirkkala (; sv, Birkala) is a

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 some south-west from

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

in the

Pirkanmaa Pirkanmaa (; sv, Birkaland; la, Birkaria, link=no), also known as ''Tampere Region'' in government documents, is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Satakunta, South Ostrobothnia, Central Finland, Päijät-Häme, Kanta-Häme an ...

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 ...

. The municipality 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 , which makes it the most densely populated municipality in Finland that does not use the title of town or city. Pirkkala is also currently the fastest-growing municipality in the Pirkanmaa region. 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 ...

. Tampere-Pirkkala Airport is located in southwest Pirkkala. The most significant main road in Pirkkala is

Tampere Ring Road The Tampere Ring Road (Finnish language, Finnish: ''Tampereen kehätie'') or former Finnish National Road 60 (Finnish: ''Kantatie 60'') is a ring road in Tampere sub-region, Finland. It leads (from west to east) from Ylöjärvi to Tampere, passing ...

History

Great Pirkkala

The former parish of Suur-Pirkkala (Great Pirkkala) is mentioned in historical writings from the 14th century. It occupied over half of Pirkanmaa, a region nowadays populated by about 526,000 inhabitants. Suur-Pirkkala began to split when new parishes and municipalities were founded and wanted independence.

South and North Pirkkala

In 1922 the Pirkkala was split into Pohjois- (Northern) and Etelä-Pirkkala (Southern Pirkkala) due to a movement in Southern Pirkkala led by agronomist Hannes Palmroth of the Partola Estate to gain independence from the more industrial North.

Pirkkala

In 1938 the name of Northern Pirkkala was changed to

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

and after an appeal to the President of Finland

Kyösti Kallio Kyösti Kallio (; 10 April 1873 – 19 December 1940) was a Finnish politician of the Agrarian League who served as the fourth president of Finland from 1937–1940; his presidency included leading the country through the Winter War. He was t ...

in 1939, Southern Pirkkala reverted to its original name Pirkkala. The present-day province of

that was founded in the 1950s is named after Pirkkala as it was in the center of the region that was more or less the same area as the historic Great Pirkkala

Sights

Pirkkala has been inhabited by the Stone Age and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

, and many ancient finds have been made in the area. The red-brick old church was designed by

Ilmari Launis Adolf Ilmari Launis (before 1900 Lindberg; 3 December 1881, Hämeenlinna – 10 April 1955, Helsinki) was a Finnish architect. Ilmari Launis graduated as an architect in 1905 and worked for a government agency overseeing the construction of publi ...

in 1921, and it is known that it was built on the site of the old Pirkkala parish church. The white new church from 1994, designed by

Simo Paavilainen Simo Paavilainen (born 14 June 1944 in Vaasa) is a Finnish architect, and former Dean and Professor of Architecture at Helsinki University of Technology Department of Architecture. Paavilainen studied architecture at Helsinki University of Techno ...

and Käpy Paavilainen, is located near the current town center,

Naistenmatka Naistenmatka is the town and at the same time the administrative center of the municipality of Pirkkala in Pirkanmaa, Finland. Its population was 800 people in 1997, or about 15% of Pirkkala's population. The first buildings in the village of Nai ...

. In its year of completion, the church, which has a modern appearance, was chosen as the most beautiful new building in Finland. The Sculpture Park has been formed near the municipal center from the works of art of the international cast iron symposia of 2001 and 2003. It consists of sculptures of contemporary art, which are mostly placed around Lake Vähäjärvi. The idea of the cast iron symposiums is Villu Jaaniso, an artist from Pirkkala who moved from

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

to Finland. Other materials were used in the 2003 event. Perhaps the most prominent of the sights is the Jaaniso's ''Peruspirkkalalainen'' statue on the edge of the Suupantori market square in the town center, or the ''Valte'' statue according to its model.Pirkkalan kunta: Peruspirkkalalainen
(in Finnish)

Notable people

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Pirkkala is twinned with: *

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of the ...

, Sweden

Gallery

File:Pirkkala municipal office 2018.jpg, Pirkkala Municipal Ofiice File:Kauppakeskus Veska 20180625.jpg, Veska Shopping Centre File:Bauhaus Tampere 20180625.jpg, Baushaus store in Pirkkala File:Pirkkala Library C IMG 8186.JPG, Pirkkala Public Library File:Vanha Kirkko Pirkkala - panoramio.jpg, Old Church of Pirkkala File:Suuppa Pirkkala.jpg,

suburb along Suupantie

References

External links

Municipality of Pirkkala
– official site Populated places established in 1922 {{WesternFinland-geo-stub