Kärkölä
# Kärkölä

Kärkölä (Finnish:) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijänne Tavastia region. The municipality has a population of 4,171 (28 February 2023) and covers an area of 259.30 square kilometres (100.12 sq mi) of which 2.84 $km^2$ (1.10 sq mi) is water. The population density is 16.26 inhabitants per square kilometre (42.1/sq mi). Its seat is in Järvelä, which is located along the Riihimäki–Lahti railway.

Neighbour municipalities: Hausjärvi, Hollola, Hämeenlinna, Mäntsälä and Orimattila. The distance between Kärkölä and Lahti is 29 kilometres (18 mi).

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

## History

Kärkölä once belonged to the Hollola parish, and in 1711 it became the Hollola chapel parish. The first church was completed in 1754 and the second in 1889. Officially, the municipality of Kärkölä was founded in 1867. In the late 19th century, the eccentric engineer named Carl Constantin Collin, who ruled over large areas of both Hollola and Kärkölä, built large parks and building groups in the Huovila area.

## Villages

Hevonoja, Hongisto, Hähkäniemi, Iso-Sattiala, Järvelä, Karvala, Kärkölä (Kirkonkylä), Lappila, Maavehmaa, Marttila, Nummenkulma, Uusikylä, Vähä-Sattiala

## Notable people

* Carl Niclas von Hellens (1745–1820), botanist
* Erik Gabriel Melartin (1780–1847), the Archbishop of Turku
* Helvi Sipilä (1915–2009), diplomat, lawyer and politician
* Emil Väre (1885–1974), wrestler and Olympics gold medalist
