Mikkeli is a town and municipality in Finland. The municipality has a population of 52,604 and covers an area of 3,229.57 square kilometres of which 424.7 km2 is water.
Mikkeli was the site for the headquarters of the Finnish armed forces during World War II. In recognition of this, the town’s coat of arms incorporates a pair of crossed Marshal Mannerheim’s batons, and the town was awarded the Cross of Liberty, 4th class, to be displayed with the coat of arms.
Education
A central campus of South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) is located in Mikkeli and it is a major employer in the city. Its history goes back to 1965, when Mikkeli was selected as the site for a new higher education college specializing in professional, engineering and vocational studies. The new polytechnic received its first intake of students in 1969. It was originally housed in an old Russian army barracks on the outskirts of town. Purpose built accommodation has since been added, but the old buildings are still in use. For example, the student union is located in the “Officers’ Club” building. The Polytechnic changed its name to Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences in 2006 and merged in the beginning of 2017 with Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences to constitute a new university: South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk).
Several other universities also have operations in Mikkeli. The Mikkeli University Consortium includes units from University of Helsinki, Aalto University (formerly Helsinki School of Economics), University of Eastern Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology. Aalto offers a highly ranked Bachelor of Science degree in international business, taught in English, which draws students and faculty from around the world.
Traffic
Mikkeli has a fast road connection to capital area Greater Helsinki through Finnish national road 5 and Finnish national road 4, which is a four lane highway. Mikkeli has a railway station with five trains to and from Helsinki, daily. There are also bus connections to neighboring cities and municipalities and a small local bus transit network withing the city limits. Mikkeli also has its own airport, which however has had no scheduled commercial flights since 2005.
Culture
Mikkeli boasts its own concert hall, which is a world class facility, built in 1988 to commemorate Mikkeli’s 150th anniversary as a town. The concert hall is the home of St. Michel Strings chamber orchestra, and also provides the main venue for the annual Mikkeli International Music Festival, which attracts musicians and audiences from across Europe. For example, Mariinsky Opera led by Valery Gergiev performs there regularly.
Tourism
Mikkeli is a major holiday resort within the Finnish lakeland area. A well-known and popular travel centre and theme park Visulahti is in Mikkeli, located in the shores of Lake Saimaa. Mikkeli is a popular area for summerhouses due to its vast amount of lakes, in 2020 there were over 10 000 summer houses in Mikkeli, the second most in Finland increasing the population during the summer months. A Major part of tourism is based on nature and especially lakes.
Due to Mikkeli’s role as the headquarter city in the World War II, the town has several museums dedicated to that period of time such as, the Infantry museum, the Lokki Communications Center, and the Headquarters museum.
The annual trotting event St Michel ravit is Mikkeli’s largest event with approximately 20 000 spectators.
Hotels are concentrated in the center of Mikkeli. In other areas there are rental cottages scattered in the smaller villages and countryside.
Sport
Jukurit is an ice hockey team from Mikkeli, which competes in the Finnish premier league, Liiga. The team has won six Mestis (second highest league) championships (2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2013 and 2015).
Mikkelin Kampparit plays in the highest bandy division.
Mikkeli has two major football teams, Mikkelin Palloilijat (MP) and Mikkelin Pallo-Kissat (MiPK). Both of them have played in the Finnish premier league, currently MP is playing on the second highest level and MiPK on the third highest. The former EU commissioner Olli Rehn used to play for MP for 13 years (youth teams 1968–78, first team 1979–82).
