Hämeenlinna

A city of approximately 50.000 inhabitants located in southern Finland, between Helsinki and Tampere. It is named after a castle built on the bank of the Vanaja river in the 1600s. Also the birthplace of Finland's national composer, Jean Sibelius.
Around 25% of the population consists of elderly people, and because of that and Hämeenlinna's location in the south, the city could be described as the Florida of Finland.

Hämeenlinna was officially founded in the year 1639 by Finland's Governor General, Count Peter Brahe, although the area was a place of trade for several hundred years before founding.

Today, it is the administrative capital of the country's southern provence, and is the base for the country's Western Command of the armed forces.

Hämeenlinna is a member of the "Cities of Tomorrow" international network of cities, whose goal is to share best practice in local government reform. Hämeenlinna's sister cities in this network are Braintree, Great Britain, Christchurch, New Zealand, Delft, Netherlands, Duisburg, Germany, Farum, Denmark, Hämeenlinna, Finland, Mitaka, Japan, Neuchatel, Switzerland, Phoenix, USA, Quebec, Canada and Tilburg, Netherlands.

ATTRIBUTIONS: City of Hämeenlinna home page; Bertelsmann Foundation.