The story
Heinola used to be a remote village of then larger Hollola until it gained significance in 1776 when Gustav III of Sweden promoted it to be the governmental center of the province in which it was then located. The grid plan of the city center is from that era. Heinola also became a center of commerce for nearby regions.
When Finland became a part of Russia in 1809, the capital of the province was moved eastwards with the state border. To compensate this, Heinola was granted town rights on 26 December 1839 by Czar Nicholas I. Before World War II, Heinola was widely known as a spa town, and until 1972 it served as a location for an institute (seminaari) that taught elementary school teachers. These both were established in the 1890s and played an important role in the town life.
On 29 June 1985, the jury for the 1985 International Mathematical Olympiad met in Heinola to decide the final problem list. The actual competition happened in nearby Joutsa.
Heinolan maalaiskunta was merged into Heinola in 1997.
From Wikipedia’s article on Heinola, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5