Forssa

History

The development of Forssa into an industrial conurbation started when industrialist Axel Wilhelm Wahren founded a spinning mill on the shore of the river Loimijoki in 1847. Today the Forssa industrial community has been classified as a notable constructed cultural environment in Finland. In 1903 a party meeting of the Finnish Workers' Party, known as the Forssa meeting, was held in Forssa, where the party was renamed as the Social Democratic Party of Finland and a new party program was accepted into use. Forssa only became an independent municipality in 1923 when it was separated from the municipality of Tammela into its own market town. Forssa received city privileges in 1964. The depression in the early 1990s had a large impact on Forssa, resulting in economic problems and an unemployment rate that still remains high today. The current coat of arms of Forssa was designed by Olof Eriksson in 1962. Its heraldic description reads: A silver waterwheel on a blue shield. The coat of arms depicts water power and the river Loimijoki running through the city. The coat of arms was taken into use on 29 August 1962. The former coat of arms of Forssa was designed by Arne Wilhelm Rancken in 1947. The coat of arms had a wavy division with a silver waterwheel on a blue background at the bottom part, and three blue wavy lines and a red letter F on a silver background at the top part. This coat of arms was later discontinued as unheraldic.

Geography

The first planned constructed areas in Forssa were Wahreninkatu and the buildings at Viksberg. Kalliomäki with its lines was born starting from the 1870s after Wahren had ordered a zoning plan in the area. In addition to Kalliomäki, the oldest inhabited areas in Forssa include Vanha Kuhala to the south of the river Loimijoki, Uusikylä between Rautatienkatu and Räynynoja and Yliskylä, also known as Ameriikka, slightly to the west of Uusikylä. According to Helga Keränen's 1930 research, the market town of Forssa was divided into ten physiognomical areas, including the Kalliomäki area, the greater population area of Hämeentie, the Puisto area, the Forssa industrial area, the Viksberg industrial area, the Forssa business centre, the smaller population area of Keski-Forssa, "Amerikka" and the new population area of Yliskylä. This division only concerned the tightly built areas in Forssa, not the rural areas around them. Until 1946, the area of tightly-built wooden houses was fairly small compared to the conurbated area of today. A large part of the currently populated areas were still fields. As well as the aforementioned areas, there was inhabitation in Kekkala, a little in Pispanmäki and some buildings on the lands of the Viksberg manor. The construction of Rantalanmäki had already started at this point. New apartment buildings were built at the Kartanonkatu and Forssa market square area, as well as Viksberg, in the 1960s. which is 1.8 percent of the total surface area. In the central conurbation area, the only bodies of water are part of lake Kaukjärvi in the east, the river Loimijoki flowing through the city, the nearly filled-up lake Loimalammi flowing to the river, lake Linikkalanlammi in Linikkala and lake Mäkilammi in Vieremä. The largest lake in the region is…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,323
• Eurasian Kestrel

  Falco tinnunculus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,253
• European Pied Flycatcher

  Ficedula hypoleuca (Pallas, 1764) · Aves
  1,087
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  962
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  685
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  566
• Fieldfare

  Turdus pilaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  474
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  451

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2011-03-19
  Finland