1.
Finland
–
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
2.
Gustav III of Sweden
–
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. Gustav was an opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII. Nonetheless, his leadership in the Battle of Svensksund averted a complete military defeat. The much-praised Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 was severely curtailed, however, by amendments in 1774 and 1792, effectively extinguishing independent media. Gustavs immense powers were placed in the hands of a regency under his brother Prince Carl and Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm until his son, the Gustavian autocracy thus survived until 1809, when his son was ousted in another coup detat, which definitively established parliament as the dominant political power. A patron of the arts and benefactor of arts and literature, Gustav founded the Swedish Academy, in 1772 he founded the Royal Order of Vasa to acknowledge and reward those Swedes who had contributed to advances in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. In 1782, Gustav III was the first formally neutral head of state in the world to recognize the United States during its war for independence from Great Britain. Nonetheless, he perhaps owed most of what shaped him during his education to the poet. State interference with his education as a child caused significant political disruptions within the royal family. Even his most hostile teachers were amazed by his combination of natural gifts, on the whole, Gustav cannot be said to have been well educated, but he read widely, there was scarcely a French author of his day with whose works he was not intimately acquainted. His enthusiasm for the ideas of the French enlightenment was as sincere as that of his mother, if more critical. Gustav married Princess Sophia Magdalena, daughter of King Frederick V of Denmark, by proxy in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on 1 October 1766 and in person in Stockholm on 4 November 1766. The match was not a one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament. The marriage produced two children, Crown Prince Gustav Adolf, and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland, for the consummation of the marriage, the king and queen requested actual physical instruction by Count Adolf Munck, reportedly because of anatomical problems of both spouses. There were also rumors that the queen was pregnant by Munck. Gustavs mother supported rumors that he was not the father of his first son and it was rumored at the time that Gustav was homosexual, a possibility asserted by some writers. The close personal relationships which he formed two of his courtiers, Count Axel von Fersen and Baron Gustav Armfelt, were alluded to in that regard. His sister-in-law Charlotte implied as much in her famous diary, professor Erik Lönnroth of the Swedish Academy, who described the assistance provided by Munck, has concluded that there is no factual basis for the assumption that Gustav III was homosexual
3.
Grid plan
–
The grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. In the context of the culture of ancient Rome, the grid method of land measurement was called centuriation. The grid plan dates from antiquity and originated in multiple cultures, by 2600 BC, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, were built with blocks divided by a grid of straight streets, running north-south and east-west. Each block was subdivided by small lanes, the cities and monasteries of Gandhara, dating from the 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD, also had grid-based designs. Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan since 1959, was founded on the grid-plan of the nearby ruined city of Sirkap. A workers village at Giza, Egypt, housed a rotating labor force and was out in blocks of long galleries separated by streets in a formal grid. Many pyramid-cult cities used a common orientation, an axis from the royal palace. Hammurabi was a king of the Babylonian Empire who made Babylon one of the greatest cities in antiquity and he rebuilt Babylon, building and restoring temples, city walls and public buildings, and building canals for irrigation. The streets of Babylon were wide and straight, intersected approximately at right angles, the tradition of grid plans is continuous in China from the 15th century BC onward in the traditional urban planning of various ancient Chinese states. Guidelines put into form in the Kaogongji during the Spring and Autumn period stated. Three gates on each side of the lead into the nine main streets that crisscross the city. Teotihuacan, near modern-day Mexico City, is the largest ancient grid-plan site in the Americas, the citys grid covered eight square miles. Perhaps the most well-known grid system is spread through the colonies of the Roman Empire. The archetypal Roman Grid was introduced to Italy first by the Greeks, with such information transferred by way of trade, although the idea of the grid was present in Hellenic societal and city planning, it was not pervasive prior to the 5th century BC. However, it slowly gained primacy through the work of Hippodamus of Miletus, the concept of a grid as the ideal method of town planning had become widely accepted by the time of Alexander the Great. His conquests were a step in the propagation of the grid plan throughout colonies, some as far-flung as Taxila in Pakistan, that would later be mirrored by the expansion of the Roman Empire. The Greek grid had its streets aligned roughly in relation to the points and generally looked to take advantage of visual cues based on the hilly landscape typical of Greece. The Etruscan people, whose territories in Italy encompassed what would eventually become Rome and it was based on Greek Ionic ideas, and it was here that the main east-west and north-south axes of a town could first be seen in Italy
4.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
5.
Spa town
–
A spa town is a resort town based around a mineral spa. Patrons visited spas to take the waters for their health benefits. The word spa is derived from the name of Spa, such a town in Belgium, thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. He became interested in the properties of the hot mineral waters there and in 1676 wrote A discourse of Bathe. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water and this brought the health-giving properties of the waters to the attention of the aristocracy, who started to partake in them soon after. The term spa is used for towns or resorts offering hydrotherapy, Most are within 30 km of Daylesford, Victoria, the Daylesford and Hepburn Springs call themselves the Spa Centre of Australia. Chaudfontaine Ostend Spa See, List of spa towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina Banja Vrućica, the traditional ones are, Águas de Lindoia, Serra Negra, Águas de São Pedro, Caxambu, Poços de Caldas, Caldas Novas, Araxá, and São Lourenço. See, List of spa towns in Bulgaria Bulgaria is known for its more than 500 mineral springs, other famous spa towns include Sandanski, Hisarya, Bankya, Devin, Kyustendil, Varshets, Velingard. In Bulgarian, the word for a spa is баня, See, List of spa towns in Canada Harrison Hot Springs is one of the oldest among 18 in British Columbia, there are also two in Alberta and one in Ontario. See, List of spa towns in Croatia In Croatia, the word Toplice implies a spa town, the most famous spa towns in Croatia are Daruvar, Šibenik and Sisak. See, Spa towns in the Czech Republic In the Czech Language, the most famous spa towns in Czech Republic are Karlovy Vary, Teplice, Františkovy Lázně and Mariánské Lázně. See, List of spa towns in France In France, the words bains, thermes, there are more than 50 spa towns in France, including Vichy, Aix-les-Bains, Bagnoles-de-lOrne, Dax, and Enghien-les-Bains. See, List of spa towns in Germany In Germany, the word Bad implies a spa town, blasien, Titisee, Tegernsee, Travemünde and Zingst. Wiesbaden is the largest spa town in Germany, See, List of spa towns in Hungary In Hungary, the word fürdő or the more archaic füred, fürdőváros or fürdőhely implies a spa town. Hungary is rich in waters with health benefits, and many spa towns are popular tourist destinations. Budapest has several spas, including Turkish style spas dating back to the 16th century, eger also has a Turkish spa. Other famous spas include the ones at Hévíz, Harkány, Bük, Hajdúszoboszló, Gyula, Bogács, Bükkszék, Zalakaros, the Cave Bath at Miskolctapolca and the Zsóry-fürdő at Mezőkövesd. See, List of spa towns in Italy In Italy, spa towns and these places were known and used since the Roman age
6.
Esker
–
Eskers are frequently several kilometres long and, because of their peculiar uniform shape, are somewhat like railway embankments. The term esker is derived from the Irish word eiscir, which means ridge or elevation, the Irish word was and is used particularly to describe long sinuous ridges, which are now known to be deposits of fluvio-glacial material. Most eskers are argued to have formed within ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed within and they tended to form around the time of the glacial maximum when the glacier was slow and sluggish. After the retaining ice walls melted away, stream deposits remained as long winding ridges, water can flow uphill if it is under pressure in an enclosed pipe, such as a natural tunnel in ice. Eskers may also form above glaciers by accumulation of sediment in supraglacial channels, in crevasses, Eskers form near the terminal zone of glaciers, where the ice is not moving as fast and is relatively thin. Plastic flow and melting of the basal ice determines the size and this in turn determines the shape, composition and structure of an esker. Eskers may exist as a channel, or may be part of a branching system with tributary eskers. They are not often found as continuous ridges, but have gaps that separate the winding segments, the ridge crests of eskers are not usually level for very long, and are generally knobby. Eskers may be broad-crested or sharp-crested with steep sides and they can reach hundreds of kilometers in length and are generally 20–30 metres in height. The path of an esker is governed by its pressure in relation to the overlying ice. This process is what produces the wide eskers upon which roads, less pressure, occurring in areas closer to the glacial maximum, can cause ice to melt over the stream flow and create steep-walled, sharply-arched tunnels. The concentration of debris in the ice and the rate at which sediment is delivered to the tunnel by melting. The sediment generally consists of coarse-grained, water-laid sand and gravel and this sediment is stratified and sorted, and usually consists of pebble/cobble-sized material with occasional boulders. Bedding may be irregular but is almost always present, and cross-bedding is common, Eskers are critical to the ecology of Northern Canada. In Sweden Uppsalaåsen stretches for 250 km and passes through Uppsala city, great Esker Park runs along the Back River in Weymouth, Massachusetts and is home to the highest esker in North America. Pispala in Tampere, Finland is on an esker between two lakes carved by glaciers, a similar site is Punkaharju in Finnish Lakeland. The village of Kemnay in Aberdeenshire, Scotland has a 5 km esker locally called the Kemb Hills, there are over 1,000 eskers in the state of Michigan, primarily in the south-central Lower Peninsula. The longest esker in Michigan is the 22 mile long Mason Esker, Esker systems in the U. S. state of Maine can be traced for up to 100 miles
7.
Finnish national road 4
–
Finnish national road 4 is a highway in Finland. It is the route from Helsinki to Northern Finland and a major road link in the country. It runs from Erottaja in Helsinki to Sami Bridge in Utsjoki, the road is 1,295 kilometres long. The road is part of the European route E75 and it is a part of TERN. The route of the road is Helsinki – Lahti – Heinola – Jyväskylä – Äänekoski – Oulu - Kemi – Rovaniemi – Sodankylä – Ivalo – Inari – Utsjoki, the original highway 4 ran from Helsinki to Petsamo before World War II. Since the end of the war, the road has been rerouted to Ivalo, other route modifications have been made through the years. About 200 kilometres of the highway is motorway, media related to National road 4 at Wikimedia Commons Nelostieyhdistys HS article International Edition
8.
Lahti
–
Lahti is a city and municipality in Finland. Lahti is the capital of the Päijänne Tavastia region and it is situated on a bay at the southern end of lake Vesijärvi about 100 kilometres north-east of the capital Helsinki. In English, the Finnish word Lahti literally means bay, the Lahti region is growing and is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. The coat of arms of the city depicts a train wheel surrounded by flames, Lahti was first mentioned in documents in 1445. The village belonged to the parish of Hollola and was located at the trade route of Ylinen Viipurintie. The completion of the Riihimäki – St. Petersburg railway line in 1870 and the Vesijärvi canal in 1871 turned Lahti into a lively station, for a long time, the railway station at Vesijärvi Harbour was the second busiest station in Finland. Craftsmen, merchants, a few servants and a lot of industrial workers soon mixed in with the existing agricultural peasantry. On 19 June 1877, almost the entire village was burned to the ground, however, the accident proved to be a stroke of luck for the development of the place, as it led to the authorities resuming their deliberations about establishing a town in Lahti. The village was granted town rights in 1878 and an empire-style, grid town plan was approved. This grid plan still forms the basis of the city center, most of the buildings were low wooden houses bordering the streets. Lahti was founded during a period of economic recession. The Russian Empire was encumbered by the war against Turkey, the recession also slowed down the building of the township, land would not sell and often plots were not built on for some time. In its early years, the town with its meagre 200 inhabitants was too small to provide any kind of foundation for trade, at the end of the 1890s, Lahtis Township Board increased its efforts to enable Lahti to be turned into a city. At the end of 1905, the area now comprises Lahti accommodated around 8,200 people of whom just under 3,000 lived in the city itself. All essential municipal institutions were built in just ten years, including a hospital, at the same time, a rapid increase in brick houses was taking place in the centre of the city. The Battle of Lahti was fought in the 1918 Finnish Civil War as the German Detachment Brandenstein took the town from the Reds. In the early 1920s the city gained possession of the grounds of the Lahti Manor, through the addition of new areas in 1924,1933 and 1956, Lahti grew, both in terms of population and surface area. Lahti has a continental climate, also closely bordering on a subarctic climate
Finland
Media related to Heinola at Wikimedia Commons
