Ostrobothnia & the West Coast

Ostrobothnia is young land in a literal sense: after the Ice Age the ground has risen steadily out of the sea, and the coast has moved westward over centuries, leaving harbours stranded inland. Finnic peoples lived on the rivers of the plain, and from the 13th and 14th centuries Swedish settlers took the coast, founding the fishing and farming villages whose descendants still speak Swedish.

Towns came in the 17th century, when the Swedish crown founded Vaasa in 1606 and chartered Kokkola in 1620 to handle the export of tar, the pine tar that Ostrobothnian farmers boiled from their forests and shipped to the navies of Europe. The tar trade made the coast rich for two centuries and built its shipyards. The Finnish War of 1808–09 was fought across the plains — at Lapua, Oravais and elsewhere — before Russia took Finland, and in 1854, during the Crimean War, British boats raided the coast and one was captured at Kokkola.

Vaasa burned in 1852 and was rebuilt on a new site to the north-west. In the civil war of 1918 the White Senate made Vaasa its seat of government while the Reds held Helsinki, and General Mannerheim's army drew on South Ostrobothnian volunteers. The region's conservative, rural politics produced the Lapua movement, a right-wing campaign of 1929–32. After the Second World War, Vaasa industrialised, and Vaasa and Seinäjoki grew into regional centres.

The coast and the plain are two cultures. Ostrobothnia proper, around Vaasa, Jakobstad and Närpes, is about half Swedish-speaking, and its villages have their own Swedish dialects. Inland South Ostrobothnia is almost entirely Finnish-speaking, and its people, eteläpohjalaiset, have a strong regional identity.

The plain's folklore includes the häjyt, knife-fighting troublemakers of the 19th century who became figures of legend and film, and the Kauhava puukko, a craftsman-made knife still produced there. The typical farmhouse of the lowlands, the Ostrobothnian house, stands among open fields and hay barns.

Two national poets came from the coast: J. L. Runeberg was born in Jakobstad in 1804, and Zacharias Topelius near Nykarleby in 1818. Seinäjoki hosts the Tangomarkkinat, the tango festival held since 1985, where a tango king and queen are crowned — Finnish tango is a serious national passion — and the Provinssi rock festival. Coastal villages keep up Midsummer poles, and revival movements have long shaped church life in the region.

Vaasa has about 68,000 residents and Seinäjoki about 65,000; Kokkola has about 48,000 and Jakobstad about 19,000. Smaller towns include Kristinestad, Kaskinen, Närpes, Lapua and Kauhava, and much of the population lives in farming villages strung along rivers.

Vaasa is the centre of a large energy-technology industry, with engine, electrical and power-grid manufacturers, and has universities in both Finnish and Swedish. Seinäjoki is a food-industry and services town — the meat company Atria has its head office there — and South Ostrobothnia is known for entrepreneurship, farming and small firms. Kokkola has a large chemical and metals industry at its port, and Närpes is known for its greenhouse tomatoes. Many coastal families have relatives in Sweden, and ferries and commuting keep the ties alive.

Days start early and life is family- and church-centred, with strong associations, sports clubs and village halls. The ageing countryside and the future of rail links are the regional debates.

This is farming country, and its food is plain and hearty. Leipäjuusto, "bread cheese", is a mild cow's-milk cheese baked until browned in spots, squeaky when bitten and traditionally served with cloudberry jam or with coffee. Rieska, a flat, soft unleavened bread of barley or potato, and sour rye bread are everyday staples, and potatoes, pork and milk anchor the farm table.

The coast adds Baltic herring, whitefish and salmon, salted, smoked or fried, and the Swedish-speaking villages share Scandinavian habits — pickled herring, Midsummer snaps and cardamom buns with coffee. Närpes tomatoes are a regional pride, and Ostrobothnian farms grow potatoes and grain.

Isokyrö, in South Ostrobothnia, is home to the Kyrö distillery, which makes rye whisky and a rye-based gin from local grain. Coffee is drunk constantly and strong, and pulla and cakes appear at every visit, as well as at the church and village-hall gatherings that shape social life here.

The Kvarken Archipelago off Vaasa, shared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Sweden's High Coast, is the natural highlight: low islands of boulders and long ridged moraines, the De Geer moraines, where the land rises by several millimetres a year. Replot Bridge, Finland's second longest, leads to Replot and Björkö, with walking trails and the fishing harbour of Svedjehamn.

Vaasa itself has its broad boulevards, the Ostrobothnian Museum, the Kuntsi museum of modern art, and the ruins of Old Vaasa's church to the south-east. Along the coast lie Kristinestad's wooden old town, Närpes's church stables, Jakobstad's wooden quarter of Skata, and Nykarleby, near Topelius's birthplace at Kuddnäs.

Inland, Seinäjoki's Aalto Centre — the Lakeuden Risti church, town hall, library and other public buildings — was designed by Alvar Aalto, and the open plains of South Ostrobothnia, with the Kyrönjoki river and old farmhouses, suit cycling. Lapua saw a battle of the 1808 war. Kokkola, to the north, has Neristan, its old quarter of wooden houses, and the English Park, where the boat captured in 1854 is displayed.