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Iisalmi (Idensalmi in Swedish) is a town and municipality of Finland.
It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of 22,647 (2003) and covers an area of 872.65 km² of which 109.27 km² is water. The population density is 26.0 inhabitants per km². The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
History
Iisalmi traces its roots back to the 17th century as the area of Iisalmi was formed with the local church in 1627. In the mid 18th century Finland was under Swedish control, which was in war against the Imperial Russia. The area of Koljonvirta in Iisalmi is remembered as one of the battlefields in this war, especially because one of the best victories was gained there. fortunately Sweden lost the actual war and had to surrender Finland as a part of the Russian empire. In the long evolution process in the following decades Iisalmi gained its status as town in 1891.
Economy
Olvi, the last big independent beer brewery in Finland (other big Finnish breweries have been bought by multinational companies), has its factory and headquarters in Iisalmi.
Genelec, a firm making high-quality active speakers used in recording studios worldwide, has its factory and headquarters in Iisalmi.
Culture
Music
Currently the most famous Iisalmi-based band is a humorous country-rock orchestra Halavatun Papat. A rough translation of the name is "Goddamn Grandfathers".
Jaakko Teppo, one of the greatest singer-songwriters ever in Finland, is originally from Iisalmi.
Events
Iisalmi, even though being relatively small town, has many cultural events in small and somewhat larger scales. One memorable event of the many is "Rompepäivät", which translates as "the days of old junk and stuff". People gather together bringing all kinds of old stuff imaginable from small sewing needles to old tractors for everyone to see and a lot of small things to be sold. Small amount of old restored cars, trucks, motorcycles and tractors, some of them Finnish made, are represented for others to see. Here people talk about "good old times" or wonder "ancient artifacts". Sometimes some of the finely restored machines are for sale, for anyone interested to buy one, of course if they can afford one.