Mayor’s Greeting
Dear guests and inhabitants,
We have all reasons to be proud of our municipality. One of our villages, Solf (in Finnish Sulva), has been chosen the best residential area of Finland. During the years we have received several such nominations. Stundars, a large open-air museum with about 60 wooden houses from the beginning of the 20th century, was already in 1974 appointed one of the “seven tourist wonders” of our country. The municipality has actively been participating in the development of this unique piece of culture.
We are also very proud of our wonderful archipelago, which is the western half of the High Coast/Kvarken archipelago UNESCO natural heritage site. This area numbers more than 5000 islands and islets, some of which you can reach by crossing the longest bridge of our country. It is the best place on earth, where you with your own eyes can see the land uplift phenomenon. The land is rising with a pace of 8 mm per year, which transforms the landscape rapidly. The waters are shallow in Korsholm, so during a man’s age the change is visible. Places, where you used to swim, will eventually become too shallow for that and in the end the previous water floor raise over see level.
Korsholm is known for its positive spirit and active entrepreneurship. The population is steadily growing, and our companies are exploring international markets. Traditionally the unemployment rate of Korsholm and the region is very low. That is thanks to the great number of small enterprises, but also thanks to the general mutual trust we feel. For the region, engineering is a backbone, with a lot of companies engaged in for instance energy technology. There are several university units in the region, and, of course, both education and social and health services employ a lot of people, as everywhere.
In short, Korsholm is a thriving municipality. At the moment, the municipality is investing in developing a battery production area together with our neighbouring city Vaasa. Korsholm makes big efforts on developing the municipality centre, Smedsby. Almost constantly, Korsholm is investing in new school buildings and kindergartens.
Some words about the name of the municipality, which is Korsholm in Swedish and Mustasaari in Finnish. The municipality is bilingual, with both Finnish and Swedish spoken. More and more other languages are becoming more frequent, as well. From 16th century maps you can see that the word Mustasaari was used for a bigger region, whereas Korsholm in those days was apparently used for the spot where the centre of that region used to be. Over time, the use of these words changed and later Korsholm – for instance in 18th century maps – became the name of the region, and Mustasaari was used for a smaller area. So, Korsholm belongs to one of the few places in Finland where the Finnish and Swedish names do not have the same literal meaning, which is quite unusual. Korsholm means “The islet with a cross” and Mustasaari means “Black island”. There are several theories about the origins about the “Must” in Mustasaari, but in the Finnish spoken today, you understand it as “black”. The Finnish city Turku with its Swedish name Åbo belongs to the same category where the meaning of the names differs.
To conclude, whether you are just visiting the municipality or you are living here, you are always welcome to turn to us with any question you might have. I hope you enjoy our website.
Best regards,
Rurik Ahlberg
rurik.ahlberg@korsholm.fi