Mikkeli (Swedish: St. Michel) is a town and municipality in Finland. Mikkeli was the site for the headquarters of marshal Mannerheim during World War II.

It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Southern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of 46,612 and covers an area of 1622.11 km² of which 303.57 km² is water. The population density is 35.3 inhabitants per km².

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

The center of Mikkeli is located on the shore of a bay of Lake Saimaa. The lakes of the eastern parts of the town belong to the water system of River Vuoksi. In the west the town reaches Lake Puula that belongs to the water system River Kymijoki.

History

The peace treaty of Nöteborg in 1323, with which the pogosta (church parish) of Savilahti was transferred from the control of Novgorod to Sweden, is the oldest written record of the settlement in the present region of Mikkeli. The locality received its present name Mikkeli after archangel Michael by the early 16th century at the latest.

On January 23, 1597, more than 200 peasant rebels (called "club men" after their primitive arms) were killed in the parsonage of Kenkävero in Mikkeli.

In the war waged by King Gustav III of Sweden against Russia 1788–1790, a battle took place at Porrassalmi Strait, a few miles south of Mikkeli, on June 13, 1789. In the battle the Swedes (the Finns) victoriously defended their positions against superior Russians.

Mikkeli was granted town rights in 1838. The provincial government of the province of Mikkeli that had been established in 1831, moved from Heinola to Mikkeli in 1843.

In the Civil War, Mikkeli became in 1918 one of the localities from which the operation of White forces was conducted.

During the Winter War and Continuation War, the headquarters of the Finnish Army was located in Mikkeli. Because of the headquarters of the army was based in the city, the city was bombed heavily.

In August 9, 1986, there was a siege in Mikkeli after a bank robbery that had taken place the previous day in Jakomäki, Helsinki. The siege lead to a car explosion at the edge of the market place, in which the bank robber and one of his three hostages were killed.

In 1997 there was a province reform, which made Mikkeli the capital of the new province of Eastern Finland. In a separate reform, the rural municipality of Mikkeli which had surrounded the town and the municipality of Anttola were merged to Mikkeli in the beginning of the year 2001.

Interesting facts

• The former and present Finnish commissioners, Erkki Liikanen and Olli Rehn, are both born Mikkelians.
• The railroad carriage in which Mannerheim travelled during the war, is only opened to the public on his birthday (June 4).

Links

• Mikkeli city webpage (Finnish-only)