Hyvinkää

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**Hyvinkään kaupunki**
Coat of arms	Location
Image:Hyvinkaa.vaakuna.svg	Image:Location of Hyvinkaa in Finland.png

City:	Hyvinkää (1917)
Country:	Finland (Suomi)
Province:	Southern Finland
Region:	Uusimaa
Neighbouring Towns:	Riihimäki, Nurmijärvi, Hausjärvi, Loppi, Tuusula, Vihti and Mäntsälä
Surface area :	336 km², water 18.48 km²
Population:	43.859
Density:	132,4/km²
coordinates:	N 60 37.811 E 24 51.522
website:	www.hyvinkaa.fi

Hyvinkää (IPA: /ˈhyʋiŋkæː/; Hyvinge in Swedish) is a small town in the province of Uusimaa, approximately 50 km north of the capital Helsinki. The town was chartered in 1960. Hyvinkää belongs to the Province of Southern Finland. The population was 43,859 (2005-12-31).

Highways and rail connections make it one of the suburban commuter centers of Greater Helsinki. The city planning has had an emphasis on recreational facilities, acknowleding the fact that the modest city center cannot compete with the shops and boutiques of the capital.

Some of the more well-known buildings in Hyvinkää are, among others, the Church (1961, Aarno Ruusuvuori) of Hyvinkää and the manor house of Kytäjä. The Finnish Railway Museum is located in Hyvinkää.

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History

Since the 1500's there has been a tavern in the area now known as Hyvinkäänkylä, which lies approximately half-way between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. The first tax catalogs also marked the existence of some houses in the area around the same time.

Hyvinkää village gradually grew in the latter half of the 19th century. But it was the construction of the railway network through Finland, beginning in 1861, that marked the starting point for the town's rapid growth.

Indeed it was the construction of Finland's first stretch of railroad, the Helsinki-Hämeenlinna line, that determined the location of Hyvinkää's present centre and Hyvinkää's railway station is one of the few original stations still in use. From Hyvinkää the railway also branches off to the port of Hanko. The Hanko-Hyvinkää Railroad was the first private railroad in Finland, founded in 1872, and acquired by the Finnish State RR Co. in 1875. In the early 1900's the station village in Hyvinkää was an intermediate stopping point for many emigrants leaving by ship from Hanko for a new life in North America.

The air quality of Hyvinkää was considered healthy due to dense pine forests, and in the 1880s a group of physicians from Helsinki opened a sanatorium for patients seeking rest and recuperation.

Industrialization brought a wool factory to Hyvinkää in 1892 - the Donner family's Hyvinge Yllespinneri. The factory ceased operation in the 1990s, but the red-brick halls still remain. The building has found several new uses, including an exhibition centre.

Hyvinkää airfield served as the country's main airport for a short time after the second world war while the airport at Malmi in Helsinki was under the control of the Allied Powers. There is now a motorsports centre near the airfield.

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