Muurame 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 ...

, located south-west of

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

. Muurame itself is located between two lakes, Lake Päijänne and Lake Muuratjärvi. These two lakes are connected to each other via River Muurame. All together there are 37 lakes in Muurame. Biggest lakes beside Päijänne are Muuratjärvi and Lake Kuusjärvi. River Muurame streams through the population center of Muurame. Muurame was founded in 1921. The Muurame church is of Alvar Aalto's design, being his first church design to be completed in 1929. It was comprehensively restored in 2016 to its original design.

Name

''Muurame'' is a dialectal word referring to the cloudberry, which also can be seen in the municipal coat of arms. Similar toponyms nearby include Muuratsalo, Muuratjärvi, Muuramenlampi and Muuratharju.

History

Muurame was first mentioned as ''Murame ärmarch'' in 1554 when it was a part of the

Jämsä Jämsä () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Central Finland region, about southwest of Jyväskylä. The municipality has a population of (), which make it the second largest town of the Central Finland after Jyväsk ...

parish. In the 18th century, the village was variously known as ''Muranjärvi'', ''Murame'' and ''Muratjärvi''.

Korpilahti Korpilahti is a former municipality of Finland. Together with Jyväskylän maalaiskunta, Korpilahti was consolidated with Jyväskylä on January 1, 2009. It is located in the former province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland ...

, including Muurame, was separated from Jämsä in 1861. Muurame was in turn separated from Korpilahti in 1921. Plans to separate Säynätsalo from Muurame appeared in 1922, but the separation happened two years later in 1924. Lehtisaari and northern Muuratsalo (incl. Haikka) remained parts of Muurame until 1935.

Notable people

Athletes

* Emilia Nyström, Finnish beach volleyball * Erika Nyström, Finnish beach volleyball * Jussi Pesonen,

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player * Harri Pesonen, ice hockey player * Mikko Ronkainen, Freestyle skier

Twinnings

Alatskivi Parish Alatskivi Parish was a rural municipality in Tartu County, Estonia. Settlements International relations Twin towns — Sister cities Alatskivi Parish was twinned with: * Kävlinge Municipality, Sweden * Muurame Municipality, Finland See ...

, Estonia *

Vinje Vinje is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Telemark in the Counties of Norway, county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative ...

, Norway

References

External links

Municipality of Muurame
– Official website Populated places established in 1921 {{WesternFinland-geo-stub