Kemi (; sme, Giepma ; smn, Kiemâ; sms, Ǩeeʹmm; Swedish (historically): ''Kiemi'') is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

is to the south and to Rovaniemi is to the northeast. It was founded in 1869 by a decree of the Emperor

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Gra ...

because of its proximity to a deepwater port. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which are water. The population density is .

History

World War II hostage crisis

During World War II, after Finland signed the Moscow Armistice and found itself involved in the Lapland War against its former German ally, German forces at the beginning of October 1944 captured 132 Finnish civilian hostages in Kemi (as well as 130 in Rovaniemi) and threatened to kill them unless the Finnish army released the German POWs captured in the Battle of Tornio. However, Finland refused to comply and threatened to retaliate by killing the German POWs. The hostages were released unharmed on October 11, 1944, near Rovaniemi.

Geography

Kemi is situated on the Bothnian Bay, at the mouth of the river Kemijoki, and it is part of the

Lapland Lapland may refer to: Places *Lapland or Sápmi, an ethno-cultural region stretching over northern Fennoscandia (parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia) **Lapland (Finland) (''Lappi''/''Lappland''), a Finnish region *** Lapland (former pr ...

region.

Climate

Economy

The main economic activity in Kemi is centered on two large paper and woodpulp mills and on the only

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

mine in Europe (which supplies the Outokumpu ferrochrome plant in Tornio). The Chinese company Kaidi has announced plans to build the world's first second-generation biomass plant in Kemi, scheduled to begin operations in 2019. In April 2007, the city of Kemi laid off all of its municipal workers for 2 weeks due to the failing economy of the city. Spiraling specialist healthcare costs and a fleeing industry tax base are stated as the cause for the firing. These are the most drastic temporary dismissals to take place in Finland since 2000.

Sights

Kemi has a claim to fame as the home of the world's largest snow castle (reconstructed every year to a different design). The

SnowCastle of Kemi The SnowCastle of Kemi ( fi, Kemin lumilinna) is the biggest snow fort in the world. It is rebuilt every winter with a different architecture in Kemi, Finland. In 1996 the first snow castle drew 300,000 visitors. For several years the snowcastle ...

is usually built in the inner harbor of the city. A model of The Crown of Finland (the original was never made for the

King of Finland This is a list of monarchs and heads of state of Finland; that is, the kings of Sweden with regents and viceroys of the Kalmar Union, the grand dukes of Finland, a title used by most Swedish monarchs, up to the two-year regency following the inde ...

) is kept in the town's gemstone gallery. It also houses replicas of the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain, the scepter of the

Czar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

of Russia, the

Orbs Open Relay Behavior-modification System (ORBS), created and run by Alan Brown in New Zealand, was one of the first DNS-based Blackhole Lists (DNSBL), a means by which an internet domain may publish a list of IP addresses, in a database which can ...

of Denmark, and the diamond necklace of

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...

, among other items. Additional attractions include: * Kemi church *Kemi Gemstone Gallery *Icebreaker

Sampo In Finnish mythology, the ''Sampo'' () is a magical device or object described in many different ways that was constructed by the blacksmith Ilmarinen and that brought riches and good fortune to its holder, akin to the horn of plenty (cornucopi ...

*The sailship Jähti

Culture

Kemi is the hometown of the power metal band Sonata Arctica.

Politics

Results of the

2019 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 14 April 2019. For the first time, no party received more than 20% of the vote. The Centre Party, which had been the largest party following the 2015 elections, dropped to fourth place, losing 18 seat ...

in Kemi: * Left Alliance 26.2% *

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

23.6% *

The Finns Party The Finns Party, formerly known as the True Finns ( fi, Perussuomalaiset, PS, sv, Sannfinländarna, Sannf.), is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The ...

19.8% * Center Party 13.6% * National Coalition Party 7.2% * Green League 5.1% * Movement Now 1.8% * Christian Democrats 0.7% *Communist Worker‘s Party - For Peace and Socialism 2,7%

Town manager

Transportation

Kemi railway station is an intermediate station on the railway between

and Helsinki. It is operated by VR. The junction of the Kolari and Rovaniemi lines lies to the north of Kemi station. Finnish national road 4 and European routes E8 and E75 run through the town. Kemi-Tornio Airport is located north of Kemi city center. The

Port of Kemi The Port of Kemi is a cargo port in the city of Kemi, Finland, on the northern shore of the Bothnian Bay. The port comprises three facilities: *Ajos harbour: the main facility at Kemi, handling both containerised and bulk cargo; four piers and ...

is a cargo port handling

containerised Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the pro ...

and bulk cargo as well as oil and petrochemical products.

Education

A polytechnic university of applied sciences is situated in Kemi.

Notable residents

Juhani Paasivirta Juhani Paasivirta (12 March 1919 in Kemi – 11 July 1993 in Turku), Finnish historian, PhD 1947. Paasivirta became in 1951 associate professor in political history at Helsinki University and was 1965-83 professor on the subject at the Univer ...

(1919–1993), Finnish historian *

Ensio Seppänen Kauko Ensio Seppänen (7 September 1924 in Kemi – 28 June 2008 in Kemi) was a Finnish sculptor, professor (1978) and sculpture pioneer in Lapland. He created a total of 127 public sculptures. On the occasion of his crafting more public sculp ...

(1924–2008), Finnish sculptor and professor *

Anna-Liisa Tiekso Anna-Liisa Korpinen ( Tiekso; 14 March 1929 – 20 September 2010) was a Finnish politician. She represented Lapland in the Parliament of Finland as a member of the Finnish People's Democratic League from 1951 to 1974. In 1968, she was appointed ...

(1929–2010), Finnish politician

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Kemi is twinned with: * Tromsø ( Norway), since 1940 * Volgograd ( Russia), since 1953 * Liptovský Mikuláš ( Slovakia) *

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

( Northern Ireland) *

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; german: Stuhlweißenburg ), known colloquially as Fehérvár ("white castle"), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the regional capital of Central Transdanubia, and the centre of Fejér ...

( Hungary) *

Luleå Luleå ( , , locally ; smj, Luleju; fi, Luulaja) is a city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban core (2018) and is the seat of Lu ...

(

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

)

References

External links

Town of Kemi
– Official website * {{authority control Cities and towns in Finland Populated coastal places in Finland Grand Duchy of Finland Mining towns in Finland Port cities and towns in Finland Populated places established in 1869 1869 establishments in the Russian Empire