- Övertorneå Municipality
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Övertorneå Municipality
Övertorneå kommun— Municipality —
Coat of armsCountry Sweden County Norrbotten County Seat Övertorneå Area[1] – Total 2,509.21 km2 (968.8 sq mi) – Land 2,381.35 km2 (919.4 sq mi) – Water 127.86 km2 (49.4 sq mi) Area as of January 1, 2010. Population (June 30, 2010)[2] – Total 4,877 – Density 1.9/km2 (5/sq mi) Time zone CET (UTC+1) – Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2) Postal code ISO 3166 code SE Province Norrbotten Municipal code 2518 Website www.overtornea.se Övertorneå Municipality (Swedish: Övertorneå kommun, Meänkieli: Matarengi, Finnish: Ylitornion kunta; sometimes also referred to as Matarengin kunta by northern Finnish press to avoid confusion with the similarly named Finnish municipality Ylitornio) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden, bordering Finland. Its seat is located in Övertorneå.
Until the Finnish War (1808–1809) Övertorneå and the Finnish Ylitornio were a single municipality. Following the war, the eastern part of the municipality was ceded to Russia as a part of Finland. In 1870 a minor part of Övertorneå Municipality was split off, forming the rural municipality Korpilombolo (now part of Pajala Municipality). In 1969 Övertorneå and Hietaniemi municipalities were merged, forming the present municipality.
Many places in the municipality have both a Swedish and a Finnish name, in the local dialect of Finnish known as Meänkieli, one of the minority languages of Sweden.
Contents
Localities
There are four localities (or urban areas) in Övertorneå Municipality:[3]
# Locality Population 1 Övertorneå 1,965 2 Juoksengi 401 3 Hedenäset 285 4 Svanstein 207 The municipal seat in bold
Smaller localities
There are nine smaller localities in Övertorneå Municipality:[4]
# Smaller locality Population 1 Pello 193 2 Kuivakangas 125 3 Aapua 122 4 Poikijärvi 107 5 Rantajärvi 102 6 Neistenkangas 93 7 Pudas 85 8 Haapakylä 59 9 Jänkisjärvi 52 Sights
Two old wooden churches in Övertorneå and Hedenäset. The church in Övertorneå has an organ from the 17th century.
Juoksengi is intersected by the Arctic Circle and is known as the "Arctic Circle Village" (Polcirkelbyn).
References
- ^ "Statistiska centralbyrån den 1 januari 2010" (in Swedish) (Microsoft Excel). Statistics Sweden. http://www.scb.se/Statistik/MI/MI0802/2010A01/mi0802tab3_2010.xls. Retrieved 2010-08-21.
- ^ "SCB, Befolkningsstatistik 30 juni 2010" (in Swedish). Statistics Sweden. http://www.scb.se/Pages/TableAndChart____244147.aspx. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
- ^ Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005
- ^ Statistics Sweden as of December 31, 2005 (Swedish)
External links
- Övertorneå Municipality – Official site
- Ylitornio-Övertorneå – Tourist site
Municipalities Municipal seats Localities in Övertorneå Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden Localities: Categories:- Municipalities of Sweden
- Municipalities of Norrbotten County
- Meänkieli language municipalities
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