Pajala () is a
locality and the seat of
Pajala Municipality
Pajala Municipality (; fi, Pajalan kunta) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in the locality of Pajala.
In 1884 Tärendö was detached from Pajala Municipality, forming a municipalit ...
in
Norrbotten County,
Sweden, with 1,958 inhabitants in 2010.
It is located in Swedish
Lapland.
Pajala is in the
Torne Valley and was dominated by people speaking a
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 ...
dialect until Eastern Sweden (Finland) got annexed by Russia in the 1800s and Pajala ended on the Swedish side of the river that marked the border. Today the town is nearly unilingually
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
although the Meänkieli name for the locality remains in use and is a minority language. Even so, Pajala has belonged to Sweden since the country's inception as a political unit.
History
Lars Levi Laestadius, a botanist, Lutheran minister, and founder of the revivalist movement
Laestadianism
Laestadianism, also known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Sápmi in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperance ...
, lived and worked in Pajala municipality in the mid-19th century. He lived in
Kengis
Kengis (; fi, Köngäs) is a small rural community in Pajala Municipality in northernmost Sweden, located very near the Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Fi ...
, but in 1869 his house and grave and the whole church of Kengis were moved to Pajala.
The town was
mistakenly bombed by
Soviet airplanes during the
Finnish/Soviet Winter War, in spring 1940. Seven Soviet planes dropped 134 bombs, a mix of explosive and firebombs, which destroyed six buildings, badly damaging telephone wires, and making the streets impossible to drive on due to 43 big craters. No human deaths were recorded, although two persons were slightly injured. Soviet officers later inspected the destruction and the Soviet Union paid damages to Sweden in 1940.
Literature about Pajala
The events in
Mikael Niemi's book ''"Populärmusik från Vittula"'' (''Popular Music from Vittula'') occur mainly in Pajala. Vittula, or more properly ''Vittulajänkkä'', is a colloquial name (vulgar in its Finnish-Sami etymology, at least) for a certain garden suburb in Pajala.
In another portrait of Pajala by Niemi, the crime novel ''"Mannen som dog som en lax"'' (''"The Man who Died like a Salmon"''), the author discusses the state of the minority language
Meänkieli in Pajala today.
Climate
Pajala has a harsh
subarctic climate that is somewhat moderated by the influence of the North Atlantic. Its inland position and lower elevation cause warmer summers, and winters are a bit less cold than most areas on similar latitudes.
References
Populated places in Pajala Municipality
Norrbotten
Municipal seats of Norrbotten County
Swedish municipal seats
Populated places in Arctic Sweden
{{Norrbotten-geo-stub