Nokia, Finland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nokia church (designed by C. L. Engel)
in December, 2005

For the corporation, see Nokia.

Nokia (pronounced /ˈnokiɑ/ in IPA) is a small town on the banks of the Nokianvirta (Kokemäenjoki) River in the region of Pirkanmaa and the province of Western Finland, some 15 km west of Tampere. As of October 2006 it has a population of 29,685.

1 History
- 1.1 Industrial history
2 Present
- 2.1 Statistics
3 External links

[edit] History

Nokia has been around long enough that its name is obscure even to most Finns. In modern Finnish, noki means soot and nokia is the inflected plural of "soot", although this form of the word is rarely if ever used. However, the name actually originates from the archaic Finnish word nois (pl. nokia) or nokinäätä ("soot marten"), meaning sable. After sable was hunted to extinction in Finland, the word was applied to any dark-coated fur animal, such as the marten, which are found in the area to this day. The sable is enshrined on the Nokia coat of arms.

The first literary reference to Nokia is in a 1505 document in connection with the Nokia Manor.

Nokia was the setting of one of the largest battles in the Club War, a 1596 peasant uprising against Swedish feudal lords. The peasants, unsurprisingly armed with clubs, took up residence in Nokia Manor and won several skirmishes against the feudal cavalry, but were decisively defeated by Klaus Fleming on January 1-2, 1597. Thousands of clubmen were slain and their fled leader, Jaakko Ilkka, was captured a few weeks later and executed. The Club War was the last major peasant revolt in Finland, and it permanently consolidated the hold of the nation state. Much later, in the Finnish Civil War (1918), Nokia (along with neighboring Tampere) was a Communist stronghold and saw some combat.

Nokia used breached out to current heart of Tampere, the Pispala area was part of Nokia´s Suur-Pirkkala area. The Suur-Pirkkala were split into Pohjois- and Eteläis-Pirkkala (Northern and Southern). In 1938 the name of Northern-Pirkkala was changed into the city of Nokia and Southern-Pirkkala restored its original Pirkkala name.

Pispala is currently one of the most viewed and visited special neighbourhoods in Tampere, with houses on steep hill exceptionally tight and random built. History behind it is that it was allowed to be built houses for working class since there was no law or order until it was joined to Tampere town.

[edit] Industrial history

Telecommunication giant Nokia was established in Nokia (hence the name.) The now billion-dollar company was founded by Fredrik Idestam in 1865 as a pulp mill for manufacturing paper. Finnish Rubber Works Ltd (Suomen Gummitehdas Osakeyhtiö) (founded 1898) set up a factory in Nokia in 1904. These two companies and Finnish Cable Works Ltd ("Suomen kaapelitehdas Oy") were fusioned 1967 forming Nokia Corporation. Different branches of this conglomerate were split into several companies or sold away around 1990. The rubber works still operates in Nokia as Nokian Tyres and the paper mill as Georgia-Pacific Finland Oy. The telecommunication company Nokia no longer has any operations in the town of Nokia.

[edit] Present

Today's Nokia is famous for its spa, factory shops, waterways, and events. Nokia also enjoys good road and air connections. From a religious perspective, Nokia is most well known for the charismatic Nokia Revival which began in 1990, and continues to the present through the work of Markku Koivisto and Nokia Missio.