Rautalampi

History

The village was first mentioned in 1549, when it was a part of the parish (pitäjä) of Sysmä. Even though Rautalampi was a part of Tavastia, most of its settlers were Savonians who came to the area in the 16th century. The oldest documents (1552-1554) on Rautalampi only mention 22 Tavastian settlers in the area, while there were 57 Savonian settlers. The parish (pitäjä) of Rautalampi was established in 1561. It was a large parish which included parts of 27 modern municipalities, most of them in the modern region of Central Finland. Administratively Rautalampi was divided into three divisions (despite their amount, called "fourths"): *Keitele, named after the lake Keitele, containing modern Viitasaari, Kivijärvi (incl. Kinnula and the Salamajärvi village in modern Perho The first ecclesiastical division of the Rautalampi parish happened when Laukaa became separate in 1628, while the last division was the separation of Konnevesi in 1919 (administratively slightly later in 1922).