The Orivesi railway station is located in the town of

Orivesi Orivesi () is a town and a municipality of Finland. It is part of the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality official language is monoling ...

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 ...

. The class IV station was built during the years 1881 to 1883. The station has been renewed several times, but the station building has remained almost unchanged in appearance. Some of the buildings in the station were transferred from Terijoki in the 1920s. The station is a crossing point between the tracks 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 ...

Haapamäki Haapamäki is a village in the municipality of Keuruu, Finland. It is historically an important meeting point of major railway lines, which converge at Haapamäki railway station. It is from Haapamäki to the center of Keuruu and to the city of ...

and the tracks from Orivesi to

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 ...

History

The construction of the

–

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

railway through Orivesi was initiated in June 1879. At the same time, however, there was still a dispute about the alignment of the line in the Orivesi area. On 28 July 1879, the Orivesi municipal assembly proposed that the railway should be built through Hieta, Pappila and the Orivesi parish village. The advantages of the railway line were seen in that in Pappila, the present station area, there would be a connection to the ships operating on lake Längelmävesi, and in the parish village, the railway would cross with the main roads. Juho Hörtsänä of Onnistaipale and Kalle Säynäjoki and Juha Kauppi of Yliskylä demanded that the railway be routed from Siitama directly to Hirsilä, on the western side of the parish village, and refused to donate 40 sleepers per

mantal A mantal () is an obsolete unit once used in Finland and Sweden to measure the size and productivity of a piece of land. In the 1900s, the mantal lost its relevance because crown land taxes ceased to exist and the government started drawing reve ...

to the construction site, as had been agreed between the residents to financially support the construction work. In their view, a significant amount of arable farmland would be ruined by the planned line; on the other hand, the alignment proposed by them would have passed through their forests, additionally expediting the transportation of timber. The position of the majority eventually prevailed and it was decided to build the line as originally proposed by the municipal assembly. The railway was planned to be opened for traffic in 1883, but it was completed ahead of schedule and provisional traffic could start in Orivesi on 22 November 1882. The official inauguration ceremony was held on 23 September 1883. In addition to the railway line, the location of the stations was also a matter of debate. The Railway Administration proposed that the Orivesi station be built in Pappila, but the municipal assembly set a demand on 14 October 1879 that the station be built in the parish village. However, the Administration did not give in to this demand and built the station according to its original plan in Pappila between 1881 and 1883. In the same decade, the name of the Orivesi station became a topic of discussion. There was a proposal to rename it to Pappila, which would have allowed the Oripohja station in the parish village to be given the Orivesi name instead, but the changes were never realized. Demands to build a siding from the Orivesi station to the village's harbour on the Längelmävesi sprung up in the 1880s, though it was not built immediately. In 1888, Antti Mattila, a land merchant and peasant representative from

Längelmäki Längelmäki is a former municipality of Finland. Längelmäki was divided in 2007 between Jämsä and Orivesi. Längelmäki is situated by the lake Längelmävesi, from which it has got also its name. The administrative center of Längelmäki ...

, submitted a petition to the

Diet of Finland The Diet of Finland ( Finnish ''Suomen maapäivät'', later ''valtiopäivät''; Swedish ''Finlands Lantdagar''), was the legislative assembly of the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1809 to 1906 and the recipient of the powers of the Swedish Ri ...

for the construction of a railway connection. Construction work started very quickly and the line was completed on 15 September 1890. Orivesi became a junction station on 1 December 1946 as the first section of the current Orivesi-Jyväskylä line to Torkkeli was opened for traffic. Later, the line was opened as far as

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 ...

, and finally, on 28 May 1978, to

. In the 1930s, a branch line was also planned to

Kuhmoinen Kuhmoinen ( sv, Kuhmois) is a municipality of Finland, in Pirkanmaa region, but until 2021, it was part of the Central Finland region. The municipality is home to inhabitants. Neighbour municipalities are Jämsä, Kangasala, Luhanka, Orivesi, ...

on the shore of the Päijänne, but the project never received much interest later on and was shelved.

Architecture

The Orivesi station was built according to the type drawings for a Class IV station, but was extended in 1910 and minor alterations were made later; the layout remains intact, however. Around the station there is a small park and a settlement dating to the late 19th century. In the 1920s, more buildings were brought in from Terijoki.

References

External links

Historically significant environments in Finland 1993, at the Finnish Museum Bureau
{{Railway stations in Pirkanmaa

Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

Railway stations in Pirkanmaa Railway stations opened in 1883 Railway stations in Finland opened in the 19th century