Pargas () is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, in the

Archipelago Sea The Archipelago Sea (, ) is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland, within Finnish territorial waters. By some definitions it contains the List of archipelagos by number of islands, larges ...

, the biggest archipelago in the world by the number of islands, 50,000. The big

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

mine in Pargas is the base of the main industry and except for the central parts, the municipality is still mostly rural. Pargas is located in Åboland in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

. It was created as Väståboland on 1 January 2009 in Southwest Finland, when the municipalities of Pargas, Nagu, Korpo, Houtskär and Iniö were merged into a single municipality. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

is . Pargas is a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of Finnish speakers, Swedish speakers, and speakers of other languages.

Economy

Pargas has a large

industry, with the industry and Nordkalk as an important local employer, agriculture employs many in the rural regions of the municipality. Furthermore, the shipping industry is a relevant industry in the region. The municipality is suffering from high debt.

History

Archaeological excavations revealed that the

vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

used to travel to the archipelago in the 9th century. Karin Thomasdotter (1610–1697), who served as vogt in Pargas for over forty years, was one of the longest serving vogts, and also one of only two females to have the position in contemporary Finland.

Recent history

On 1 January 2009, Pargas, Nagu, Korpo, Houtskär and Iniö merged to form the new municipality of ''Väståboland'' ().

Name dispute

Shortly after the merge, people started debating if the ''Väståboland'' name was the right name for the merged municipality; those arguing against the ''Väståboland'' name proposed ''Pargas'' as a 'new' name. The former municipalities could not agree on a new name, and Pargas insisted on a change, so the state had to step in and decided that the name would be ''Väståboland''. The debates became heated and a referendum was arranged to decide what name the municipality should have in May 2011. The result of the referendum showed that 57,7% of the voters supported ''Pargas'' and 40.1% of voters supported ''Väståboland''. Though the overall majority supported changing the name, there was an overwhelming support for the name ''Väståboland'' in 4 out of 5 of the former municipalities. In Iniö, only 1 voter out of 173 total voted for ''Pargas'', in all four, 62 out of 2060, while in Pargas proper, 74,5% voted for ''Pargas''. The municipality council () decided on 14 June 2011 in favour of the majority population and decided to rename the municipality ''Pargas'' on 1 January 2012. The Council considered taking this issue up again for debate and vote. The council made a re-vote on 6 September 2011 with 25 votes for ''Pargas'', 17 for ''Väståboland'' and 1 blank vote.

Merge with Kimitoön

The possibility of merging with Kimitoön to form a single municipality that would include the entire Åboland archipelago has been discussed since 2007, with interest being reignited by the healthcare reforms during the Sipilä Cabinet.

Climate

Pargas has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Dfb'') closely bordering on an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(''Cfb'').

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Pargas is twinned with: * Haninge Municipality, Sweden

References

External links

Town of Pargas
– Official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Pargas Cities and towns in Finland Populated coastal places in Finland Populated places established in 2009 Municipalities of Southwest Finland 2009 establishments in Finland