Rautalampi


Rautalampi is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the North Savo region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is. The municipality is unilingually Finnish.
Neighbouring municipalities are Hankasalmi, Konnevesi, Pieksämäki, Suonenjoki, Tervo and Vesanto. The distance from Rautalampi to Kuopio is about 70 kilometers.

Name

The name of the municipality means "iron pond", which is also why the coat of arms of the municipality features the symbol of iron.

History

The village was first mentioned in 1549, when it was a part of the parish of Sysmä. Even though Rautalampi was a part of Tavastia, most of its settlers were Savonians who came to the area in the 16th century. The oldest documents on Rautalampi only mention 22 Tavastian settlers in the area, while there were 57 Savonian settlers. The parish of Rautalampi was established in 1561. It was a large parish which included parts of 27 modern municipalities, most of them in the modern region of Central Finland.
Administratively Rautalampi was divided into three divisions :
Not too long after the establishment of the parish, most likely in 1563, the divisions were renamed: Keitele became Kymi, Konnevesi became Rautalampi and Saraavesi became Pernasalo. The Kymi fourth was later renamed to Kivijärvi in 1617. The territories of the fourths did not change until the fourths were abolished entirely in 1684.
The first ecclesiastical division of the Rautalampi parish happened when Laukaa became separate in 1628, while the last division was the separation of Konnevesi in 1919.

National park

was established in 2014. It is known for its prehistoric rock paintings.

Culture

Music

The Finnish rock band Grand Merlin, originally from Rautalampi, made a Finnish-language cover version of the 1974 Lynyrd Skynyrd single "Sweet Home Alabama" in 1983. The song under the name "Rautalampi" was written by the band's bassist Hannu Niskanen.

Food

In the 1980s, the traditional dish of Rautalampi was a "cobbler's roast" made of browned pork and vendace.

Notable people