The municipality has a population of 5,038 (31 August 2024)[2] and covers an area of 780.96 square kilometres (301.53 sq mi) of which 456.24 km2 (176.16 sq mi) is water.[1] The population density is 15.52 inhabitants per square kilometre (40.2/sq mi).
The medieval church of Pyhtää. Lithography by Johan Knutson, mid 19th century.
The medieval church (as opposed to the municipality) is situated in the village of Itäkirkonkylä ("East Church Village"). During the Reformation, the rather beautiful and moving pictures on the walls were whitewashed over. Some years ago, they were rediscovered and the whitewash removed. The village lies just to the East of the westernmost tributary of the Kymi River and was at one time on the border between Russia and Sweden established by the Treaty of Åbo in 1743. Indeed, on the Western side of the river is a municipality called Ruotsinpyhtää ("Swedish Pyhtää") known as Strömfors in Swedish.
Pyhtää is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 88% Finnish speakers, 7% Swedish speakers, and 5% speakers of other languages.
In the 1980s, salmonsoup, saltedherrings and clot soup (klimppisoppa) were named as Pyhtää's traditional parish dishes.[5]
^Jaakko Kolmonen (1988). Kotomaamme ruoka-aitta: Suomen, Karjalan ja Petsamon pitäjäruoat (in Finnish). Helsinki: Patakolmonen. pp. 102–103. ISBN951-96047-3-1.
^"Sõprusvallad" (in Estonian). Haljala vald. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
