- Ilomantsi
Ilomantsi ("Ilomants" in Swedish) is a village and municipality of
Finland .It is located in the province of
Eastern Finland and is part of theNorth Karelia region. The municipality has a population of 6 228 (30.9.2007) and covers an area of 3,172.86 km² of which 401.96 km² is water. Thepopulation density is 2.1 inhabitants per km². The most eastern point of Finland and of the continental part ofEuropean Union is located in Ilomantsi near the village ofHattuvaara (in the EU, onlyCyprus is located further to the east).The nearest town is
Joensuu , 72 km away; the distance toHelsinki is 511 km. Neighbouring municipalities are Eno,Lieksa undJoensuu . In the east, Ilomantsi shares 100 km long border with the RussianRepublic of Karelia . The municipality is sparsely populated and is mostly characterized by with forests andbogland s. About 250 km² of the area is designated as natural reserves, among them the national parksPetkeljärvi andPatvinsuo . The most important bodies of water in Ilomantsi are the lakesKoitere andNuorajärvi and the riverKoitajoki .The municipality is unilingually Finnish. However, the local dialect is more Karelian than Finnish, and local words of Karelian or Russian extraction are used even in the spoken Finnish of Ilomantsi. Significantly, the central village of the municipality is not called "kirkonkylä" as is usual in Finland, but "pogosta" (a Russian loan-word, originally "
pogost "). Even the local newspaper is called "Pogostan Sanomat", i.e. "The Pogosta News".Ilomantsi has 17.4% Orthodox minority, which is the largest percentage among Finnish municipalities. The wooden Orthodox church of Ilomantsi is the largest in Finland and is dedicated to the prophet Elias. There are also five Orthodox chapels ("tsasouna") in the municipality. The Orthodox community of Ilomantsi is more than 500 years old and counts 1100 members.
External links
* [http://www.ilomantsi.com/en/index.php Ilomantsi in English]
* [http://www.ilomantsi.fi/ Municipality of Ilomantsi] (in Finnish only)
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