Muurame

Muurame is a municipality of Finland, located 16 kilometres (10 mi) south-west of Jyväskylä, the regional capital of Central Finland. Muurame itself is located between two lakes, Lake Päijänne and Lake Muuratjärvi. These two lakes are connected to each other via River Muurame. Altogether there are 37 lakes in Muurame. The biggest lakes beside Päijänne are Muuratjärvi and Lake Kuusjärvi.^[5] River Muurame streams through the population center of Muurame, which was founded in 1921.

Muurame
Municipality
Muuramen kunta Muurame kommun
Muurame church, designed by Alvar Aalto
Coat of arms
Location of Muurame in Finland
Coordinates: 62°08′N 025°40.5′E
Country	Finland
Region	Central Finland
Sub-region	Jyväskylä
Charter	1921
Government
• Municipal manager	Ari Ranta-aho
Area  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	194.05 km2 (74.92 sq mi)
• Land	144.06 km2 (55.62 sq mi)
• Water	49.99 km2 (19.30 sq mi)
• Rank	280th largest in Finland
Population  (2025-06-30)[2]
• Total	10,662
• Rank	91st largest in Finland
• Density	74.01/km2 (191.7/sq mi)
Population by native language [3]
• Finnish	97.5% (official)
• Swedish	0.2%
• Others	2.4%
Population by age [4]
• 0 to 14	21.5%
• 15 to 64	59.7%
• 65 or older	18.8%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Website	www.muurame.fi

Today Muurame shares a land border only with Jyväskylä. Before 2009, its neighboring municipalities were, in addition to Jyväskylä, the Rural Municipality of Jyväskylä and Korpilahti, and before 1993 also Säynätsalo. Säynätsalo was consolidated with the city of Jyväskylä in 1993, and the Rural Municipality of Jyväskylä and Korpilahti in 2009. Muurame still shares a water boundary not only with Jyväskylä but also with Toivakka.

The Muurame church is of Alvar Aalto's design, being his first church design to be completed in 1929.^[6] It was comprehensively restored in 2016 to its original design.^[6]

Name

Muurame is a dialectal word referring to the cloudberry, which also can be seen in the municipal coat of arms. Similar toponyms nearby include Muuratsalo, Muuratjärvi, Muuramenlampi and Muuratharju.^[7]

History

Muurame was originally a part of Jämsä. There were also external hunting grounds of Pälkäne in the area.^[8] In 1539, there were four farms in Muurame: two of the estates paid taxes to Jämsä, while the other two were taxed from Pälkäne.^[9]

Korpilahti, including Muurame, was separated from Jämsä in 1861.^[10] Muurame was in turn separated from Korpilahti in 1921.^[11] Säynätsalo was separated from Muurame ecclesiastically in 1922^[12] and administratively in 1924.^[13]

Notable people

Athletes

• Emilia Nyström, Finnish beach volleyball
• Erika Nyström, Finnish beach volleyball
• Jussi Pesonen, ice hockey player
• Harri Pesonen, ice hockey player
• Mikko Ronkainen, Freestyle skier

Twinnings

• Alatskivi Parish, Estonia^[14]
• Vinje, Norway^[15]

See also

• Muuratsalo