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Lapua (Swedish: Lappo) is a town and municipality of Finland.
It is located next to the Lapua River in the province of Western Finland
and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region.
The town has a population of 14,327 (31 December 2009)[2]
and covers an area of 750.81 square kilometres
(289.89 sq mi) of which 13.75 km2
(5.31 sq mi) is water.[1]
The population density is
19.44 inhabitants per square kilometre
(50.3 /sq mi).
The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
Lapua is famous for the anti-communist Lapua
Movement. Also, the Battle of Lapua was fought between
Swedish and Russian forces
near the outskirts of the town on July 14, 1808 as part of the Russo-Swedish War.
Lapua is the seat of the Evangelical
Lutheran Diocese of Lapua. The Lapua
Cathedral, designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, was built in
1827.
Lapua State Cartridge
Factory
Lapua is also home to a large ammunition factory, which commenced
operations in 1927 as the State Cartridge Factory. This
factory was the primary supplier of ammunition to the Finnish Army during the Winter War and World War
II.
An explosion occurred in a warehouse of this factory on April
13, 1976, resulting in the deaths of 40 mainly female employees.
Sixty children lost a parent in the disaster. This is the worst
accidental disaster in Finland's modern history. After the
explosion, the factory was relocated 5 kilometres (3 mi)
away from the town centre and continues production today as part of
the Nordic Ammunition Group (Nammo) as Nammo Lapua. The original site of the
factory and the surviving buildings are now an arts centre, a
library and a theater.
Notable
persons
References
External
links
Media related to Lapua at Wikimedia
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