Archipelago Sea

The Guardian's journalist Tristan Parker wrote an article praising the Turku Archipelago on July 29, 2021, mentioning that "nowhere has the gentle magic of the smaller islands – or their wildlife.

"[1][2] The Archipelago Sea covers a roughly triangular area with the cities of Mariehamn, Uusikaupunki, and Hanko at the corners.

[6] Because the islands are made of mainly granite and gneiss, two very hard types of rock, erosion is significantly slower than rebound.

However, due to its southern location, the effect of postglacial rebound is smaller than – for example – in Kvarken (Finnish: Merenkurkku) further north.

The border between the regions runs roughly along Skiftet (Kihti in Finnish), a relatively open sea area.

The archipelago is divided into 30 municipalities, grouped in the autonomous region of Åland and in the historical provinces of Varsinais-Suomi and Uusimaa.

In the 18th and 19th centuries the proportion of twin births was greater than anywhere in Europe, and enormously higher than in continental Finland.

The other ferries (förbindelsefartyg in Swedish, yhteysalus in Finnish) are more ship-like in construction, are operated by the maritime administration and may charge a small fee.

There are also large commercially operated cruiseferries connecting the Finnish cities of Turku and Helsinki to Åland and Sweden.

This greatly eases transportation, as it makes it possible to simply drive a car (or even a heavy van if ice is very thick, usually every few years) from the continent to the islands.

On the other hand, during spring and autumn there is a period of thaw (menföre in Swedish, kelirikko in Finnish) when the ice is too weak even for walking, but too thick for boating.

The principal tourist attraction is scenery and nature along the way, but significant sights also include the Louhisaari manor and several medieval churches.

On the other hand, the continental Finnish Midsummer tradition of lighting bonfires has been introduced to the archipelago relatively recently.

More than 80% of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and this proportion is even higher in the archipelago, as the area doesn't have an orthodox or catholic parish.

The main dish of the Christmas dinner is usually a northern pike, in contrast to the ham which is eaten in mainland Finland.

The bigger islands resemble the coastal regions of continental Finland whereas skerries have a radically different environment.

The very low salinity of the Baltic Sea makes splashes of seawater more benign for plant life.

For example, junipers on small islands grow only to a height less than 0.5 metres (1.6 feet), but can cover several square meters.

This not necessarily viewed as a good thing by nature lovers, since great cormorants live in dense colonies which will eventually poison surrounding plant life by their excrement.

[citation needed] The greatest threat to the environment is eutrophication caused mainly by agriculture and fish farms.

Eutrophication has been partly brought under control in Finland, but the effects are masked by the general decline in the condition of the Baltic Sea.

At that stage the Danish straits were closed and the current Baltic Sea was the fresh-water Lake Ancylus.

During that period the outer archipelago was formed by the highest points of the main islands of Houtskär, Korpo and Nagu.

Due to post-glacial rebound the entire archipelago has risen approximately 25 metres (82 feet) since, enlarging existing islands and creating many more.

The islands occupy a strategic position, guarding the approaches to Stockholm, Turku and the entire Gulf of Bothnia.

According to legend, the notorious pirates known as the Victual Brothers, who terrorized the Baltic Sea region in the Middle Ages, would have lit stray fires in the Archipelago Sea, which would have lured other ships to shore, looted the booty and possibly killed the ship's crew.

According to the same tradition, the pirates were also joined by young adventurous men from coastal villages who did not see a future for themselves in their home region.

The archipelago remained in Swedish control until the end of the war, but in the subsequent Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809 Sweden was forced to cede the area along with rest of Finland.

Shortly after, the Swedish speaking inhabitants of Åland, in the western part of the Archipelago, appealed to Sweden to annex the islands.

At the end of the war in 1940 Finland was forced to rent Hanko at the eastern extreme of the Archipelago Sea to Soviet Union as a military base.