Vaasa (
Swedish Vasa) is a city on the west coast of
Finland. It received its charter in 1606, during the reign of
Charles IX of Sweden and is named after the Royal
House of Vasa. Today, Vaasa has a population of 58,607 (30 June 2009),
[2] (about 90000 in the Vaasa sub-region) and is part of the administrative province of
Western Finland and is the regional capital of
Ostrobothnia.
The city is bilingual with 69.8% of the population speaking Finnish as their first language and 24.8% speaking Swedish.[3] The city is an important centre for Finland-Swedish culture.[citation needed]
Over the years, Vaasa has changed its name several times, due to alternative spellings, political decisions and language condition changes. At first it was called Mustasaari or Mussor after the village where it was founded in 1606, but just a few years later the name was changed to Wasa to honor the royal Swedish lineage. The city was known as Wasa between 1606 and 1855, Nikolaistad (Swedish) and Nikolainkaupunki (Finnish) between 1855 and 1917, Vasa (Swedish) and Vaasa (Finnish) beginning from 1917, with the Finnish name being the primary name from ca 1930 when Finnish speakers became the majority in the city.
The history of Korsholm (Mustasaari in Finnish) and also of Vaasa begins in the 14th century, when seafarers from the coastal region in central Sweden disembarked at the present Old Vaasa, and the wasteland owners from Finland Proper came to guard their land.
