Jämsä is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Central Finland region, about 58 kilometres (36 mi) southwest of Jyväskylä. The municipality is officially Finnish-speaking.
It is the center of Finnish aeronautics industry – the aircraft factory and aeronautical engineering offices of Patria is located at Halli Airport in Jämsä.
Culture and education
Building culture
Jämsä’s building culture has distinctive features. Many of Jämsä’s farms prospered into large houses in the 19th century, and they competed for wealth with each other. The main building of the house was designed to be built or decorated in accordance with the style flow of the time. Thus, many of the big houses today still represent so-called repetition styles .
Neoclassicism is represented by Ruotsula and Kuikka, and a few houses in Juokslahti, Patajoki and Koskenpää have materials of the same style. Neo-Gothic can be seen in the houses of Kaipola and Karhala. The Neo-Renaissance is only represented in the Nikkar-style Vitikkala House. The Neo-Baroque, on the other hand, has left its mark on Saari Manor . It comes from the Baroquemaking attic roofs . Such was also done retrospectively for several houses that otherwise represented a different style. Such are, for example, the houses of Heinäkengä and Palmroth. All the attic roofs were probably made by one and the same master builder whose name is unknown. It is a specialty of Jämsä that the attic roofs can be seen combined with other style houses.
Education
There are three schools in the center of Jämsä, Vitikkala Primary School , Paunu School (junior high school) and Jämsä High School. In addition, vocational training in Jämsä is provided by Jämsä Vocational College , which has educational institutions on the Auvila campus (former agricultural and horticultural school and health care school) and on the Myllymäki campus (former forest machine school, business school and vocational and technical school).
The Jämsä Christian Folk High School is located in Jämsä.
Food culture
In the 1980s, Jämsä’s parish dishes were called lipone , ie meat cooked with chips and barley groats, diatomaceous earth and grandma’s buns .
Commerce and industry history
Tourism
In Jämsä, tourism has become a significant industry. Himos Ski Resort is located in Jämsä and has expanded from a ski resort to a year-round tourist center. In the summer, numerous events are held in Himos, e.g. HimosFestival and IskelmäHimos. Jämsä also hosts the annual paintball game “Big Game”, which attracts more than 600 players every August.
The Wanhan Witonen canoe route, which starts from Petäjävesi, flows through Jämsä , with varying rapids and lakes. The canoe route is named after an old five-mark banknote designed by Eliel Saarinen from 1909. The banknote depicts from Wanhan Witonen’s canoe route, Rasua Peninsula, Jämsänkoski.
Päijänne and nature play a key role in tourism in the Jämsä region. Isojärvi National Park is also close to Jämsä . Jämsä Sauna Village is also located on the shores of Lake Päijänne.
Industry
The paper
The municipality’s largest employers are UPM-Kymmene Corporation ‘s two paper mills, the Jokilaakso mills . The distance between Kaipola and Jämsänkoski is about 14 kilometers. In addition to Äänekoski , Jämsä is another well-industrialized municipality in Central Finland
Kuorevesi Halli airplane factory
In addition to the paper industry, Jämsä also has an aircraft industry, which is operated by Patria Kuorevesi Hall , where the Air Force Technical School has also operated . Jämsä is the only municipality in Finland that still has an aircraft industry.
Jämsä felt shoe industry
Felting began to come from Russia to Finland in the late 19th century, and the skill was also adopted in Jämsä. A considerable concentration of the felt industry was created in the Jämsä region, and at best there were as many as ten small felt factories in the village of Partala . The making of felt slippers was also adopted in Koskenpää at an early stage. Founded in 1921, Alex Lahtinen’s carding and felt shoe store is today the oldest felt shoe factory in Finland. In the 1990s, the blanket became a fashion material used to make items such as ornaments, clothing and accessories, hats, and jewelry. The School of Arts and Crafts, founded in Petäjävesi , also offers training in the field of felt.
