Valkeakoski is a small city and municipality in Finland. Valkeakoski is located 35 kilometres south of Tampere and 150 km (93 mi) north of Helsinki in the Pirkanmaa region. The municipality has a population of 20,800 and covers an area of 372.03 square kilometres of which 100.06 km2 is water. The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
Valkeakoski is best known for its paper industry and domestically highly successful football team, FC Haka.
The town and the paper industry have both grown by the Valkeakoski rapids between the lake Mallasvesi in the north and the lake Vanajavesi in the south.
History
The Valkeakoski area is known to have been inhabited since the Iron Age. More than a thousand years ago, the ridges on the area served as a foundation of the Rapola fort. In the following Middle Ages, the mill town Sääksmäki was the center of the area. However, industrialization towards the end of the 19th century increased the importance of what became the contemporary town of Valkeakoski. The channel of Valkeakoski was opened in 1869, and the first paper mill was completed in 1873, marking the beginning of a continuing tradition of the forest industry. The municipality of Sääksmäki, from which the town of Valkeakoski was detached in 1923 was consolidated with Valkeakoski in 1973.
Sports
Valkeakoski is notable for the football team FC Haka and also other Haka sections, especially the cross-country skiing section. The “skiing Haka” is one of the most successful skiing teams in Finland. The other major local sports organization Koskenpojat has also been really successful, winning many national championships in aerobic gymnastics.
