History

The first perma­nent inhabi­tants arrived on the shores of Lake Pieli­nen at the begin­ning of the 16th century. Upon the signa­ture of the Peace of Stolbova in 1617, the Nurmes area became part of the Swedish empire.

The Luthe­ran parish of Pielis­järvi was establis­hed in 1639 and its first centre and church was located in Nurmes, in the midst of this large district’s Luthe­ran popula­tion. Some ten years later, the main church was trans­fer­red to Lieksa. Nurmes separa­ted from Pielis­järvi and became an indepen­dent admini­stra­tive parish and congre­ga­tion in 1810.

The rural munici­pa­lity of Nurmes inclu­ded present-day Nurmes, Rauta­vaara and Valtimo, as well as parts of Juuka and Kuhmo. Nurmes origi­nally covered an area of more than 4,100 square kilomet­res but has now shrunk to 60 percent of the origi­nal district.

The church village effec­ti­vely became the centre of Nurmes in the early 19th century. Admini­stra­tive person­nel working for the crown, congre­ga­tion and parish settled in the church village and main roads were built there: to Lieksa in the year 1800, to Kuopio in the 1820s, to Kajaani in 1831 and to Joensuu via Juuka in 1839. Water­borne traffic also impro­ved consi­de­rably in the 1840s, when the clearing of the River Pielis­joki began.

A rural popula­tion centre arose around the vicarage and Tuupala; by the 1880s, this commu­nity consis­ted of 38 houses. In July 1891, a fast-sprea­ding fire broke out in the bell tower of the church in Lapin­särkkä and destro­yed the densely and chaotically built settle­ment. Only a few buildings were left intact, with the rest of the village being burnt to ashes. After the fire, the church village was named Porokylä (the ash village) and the village which existed before the fire was named Vanha­kylä (the old village).

However, the fire did not deal a mortal blow to the village. Local builders still sufficed to build accom­mo­da­tion for the many people moving into the borough. But they had learned nothing from the fire and building conti­nued in a haphazard manner. As a result, Porokylä redeve­lo­ped into a popula­tion centre similar to the one before the fire. Many crafts­men still lived in the village and the coope­ra­tive dairy and shop were located there. Industry expan­ded with the founding of tile facto­ries in Pohjois­pää and Laamila. The railway spur to Porokylä opened in 1929.

The civil autho­ri­ties, jail, vicarage, elemen­tary school, dairy and the shops, works­hops, warehouses and cemetery of the rural munici­pa­lity were located in Porokylä, which was built without an orderly plan. This chaotic layout led the provincial govern­ment to ban construc­tion there in 1935, with an edict which remai­ned in effect for almost 15 years. A building plan requi­ring orderly construc­tion was not appro­ved until Decem­ber 1948. Construc­tion has been more orderly since then.

In the 1850s, a new inter­me­diate form of admini­stra­tion was created between the rural munici­pa­lity and the town – the borough. Accor­ding to the origi­nal plans of the 1860s, the borough was suppo­sed to be establis­hed in the church village, but due to confusion over landow­ners­hip it was centred in Mikon­niemi, a few kilomet­res from the church village. The Senate appro­ved the incor­po­ra­tion papers in Decem­ber 1876. The borough was made part of the congre­ga­tion of Nurmes and was jointly adminis­te­red along­side the rural munici­pa­lity until 1901.

The struc­tu­ral backbone of the borough was the town plan comple­ted in 1879. True to the spirit of the time, it was a so-called empire grid based on fire safety and elegance. This was visible in the spacious and orderly manner of building, the broad streets and the planting of leafy trees. The plan was based on a design by Ferdi­nand Öhman and super­vi­sed by Julius Baselier. The first lots were sold in summer 1880, but construc­tion was slow to begin. Building was then expedi­ted by a fire in the church village.

The first houses were built around the market place. Another popular area was the Porokylä side of the borough, where the lots were cheaper. Prior to the First World War, the borough erected public buildings on lots speci­fically reser­ved for them in the plan. Thus a church, two schools, a borough hall and prayer house were built. The railroad station area was comple­ted in 1911.

The construc­tion of Kirkko­katu road began in the summer of 1881. Raati­huo­neen­katu served as a field for lot owners for its first decade in existence, but was soon opened as an impor­tant route to Porokylä. Nurmek­sen­katu, which ran lengthwise along­side Lake Nurmes­järvi, was opened in the latter half of the 1890s. The borough market place was a potato field until 1910.

The popula­tion struc­ture of the boroughs and towns diffe­red from those of the surroun­ding count­ry­side, since their popula­tion base consis­ted of wealthy merchants, civil servants and crafts­men. There was little industry in the borough to begin with. For a long time, the liquor distil­lery and the bobbin factory were the only industrial plants – only with the founding of the sawmill did a signi­ficant amount of industry come to the borough. The borough built its own elect­ric plant in 1917.

In the 1930s, the borough began to grow vigorously when the econo­mic boom created favou­rable condi­tions for trade and industry. Construc­tion increa­sed drama­tically in the late 1940s. More space was acqui­red by amending the town plan: lots were sub-divided, building efficiency increa­sed and recrea­tion areas were used for construc­tion.

Social develop­ment in Finland was rapid after the Second World War. Migra­tion from the count­ry­side to the towns increa­sed radically, while the duties of the state and the munici­pa­lity multiplied. In small munici­pa­li­ties, the econo­mic and popula­tion base was insuf­ficient to carry out these tasks. This was also the case in Nurmes.

Merging the rural munici­pa­lity of Nurmes with the borough of Nurmes was first discus­sed in the 1950s, when some citizens of Porokylä sugges­ted adding the village to the borough. This sugges­tion gained support in the borough, but the rural munici­pa­lity opposed the idea: in practice, the project would have marked an end to the rural munici­pa­li­ty’s viabi­lity. The project was also rejec­ted by the state admini­stra­tion. In 1952, the areas outside the borough’s popula­tion centres were annexed to the rural munici­pa­lity, despite protests made on econo­mic grounds.

In the 1970s, general opinion within the borough also shifted in favour of the merger. A change in the system of govern­ment aid and the compre­hen­sive school reform provi­ded the final stimu­lus for the merger, since it relie­ved the econo­mic burdens associa­ted with it. The final negotia­tions were held in autumn 1971.Two paral­lel munici­pal organi­sa­tions were viewed as an obstacle to the develop­ment of Nurmes. A petition in favour of the munici­pal merger was submit­ted to the Ministry of the Interior in January 1972. The govern­ment quickly respon­ded and the rural munici­pa­lity merged with the borough at the begin­ning of 1973. The borough became a town on 1 January 1974.