Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä (ˈjyʋæsˌkylæ) is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The Jyväskylä sub-region includes Jyväskylä, Hankasalmi, Laukaa, Petäjävesi, Toivakka, and Uurainen. Other border municipalities of Jyväskylä are Joutsa, Jämsä and Luhanka. Jyväskylä is the largest city in the region of Central Finland and in the Finnish Lakeland; as of , Jyväskylä had a population of . The city has been one of the fastest-growing cities in Finland during the 20th century; in 1940, there were only 8,000 inhabitants in Jyväskylä. Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, gave the city the nickname "Athens of Finland". This nickname refers to the major role of Jyväskylä as an educational centre. The works of the notable Finnish architect Alvar Aalto can be seen throughout the city. The city hosts the Rally Finland, which is part of the World Rally Championship. It is also home of the annual Jyväskylä Arts Festival. The second part of the city's name, kylä, means village. The first part of the city's name, jyväs-, looks like the stem of an adjective *jyvänen, derived from jyvä, "grain" (compare Wiktionary). Alternatively, it has been associated with Taxus, a genus of yews, and the Old Prussian word juwis. It has also been speculated that the word jyväs refers to the sun's reflection of the surface of the water. Erkki Fredrikson, the curator of the Museum of Central Finland, put forward a theory related to the name, that the origin word for the city's name was syväs and not jyväs, and that the name was once derived from Jyväsjoki (literally the "grain river"), which, according to Fredrikson's assumption, was actually called Syväsjoki (literally the "deep river"). However, the name Jyväsjoki was registered in 1506 for the region's first known resident, Heikki Ihanninpoika Jyväsjoki.