Lauttasaari
Lauttasaari (Finnish: [ˈlɑu̯tːɑˌsɑːri]; Swedish: Drumsö) is an island in Helsinki, Finland, about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the city centre.
Notably, almost the entire shoreline remains in public use, with footpaths, beaches, playgrounds, patches of forest, and rocky outcrops.
The island of Lauttasaari has probably been a recreational area for the Finns even before the Middle Ages and it has had a Finnish name.
[3] The name has traditionally been seen as coming from the Swedish language nickname Drumber meaning a fat and clumsy person.
[3] In the 2000s it was proposed that the name is based on the Gaelic-Saxon word drum meaning a moraine hill (cf.
[4] The Finnish name Lauttasaari was taken into use in 1919 and refers to the ferry traffic between the island and mainland Helsinki at the time.
They were later combined into the Lauttasaari manor, whose current main building was commissioned by Claes Wilhelm Gyldén in 1837.
No garrison was founded in Lauttasaari, but fortifications and ammunition depots of the coastal artillery were built on the island.
The leading battery of the southwestern sector was located in Veijarivuorenniemi in Lauttasaari, of which one cannon has been preserved on site as a memorial monument.
[7]: 28 In 1911 Julius Tallberg bought the Lauttasaari manor for 750 thousand Finnish markka, whose lands covered about half of the island.
[7]: 24–26 Tallberg started developing the island by himself and hired Birger Brunila to make a building plan.
[7]: 53 From 1913 to 1917 the island was also served by a horse-drawn tram, trafficking from the ferry pier at the start of the current Lauttasaarentie street to Katajaharjunniemi.
[8] According to Eliel Saarinen's 1918 Pro Helsingfors plan a large part of Lauttasaari would be designated as a harbour area, with a train connection from the Leppävaara railway station at the current sites of Ring I and Länsiväylä.
Birger Brunila's 1913 plan was finally put the action and the first apartment buildings were built on the fields of the manor.
[17] The largest greenspace in Lauttasaari is the former military area of the Veijarivuori park in the southernmost part of the island, also known as "Ryssänkari".
[citation needed] The basic repairs of the church are estimated to be complete in spring 2022 after a year and a half of renovations.
[20] Until then the Finnish and Swedish speaking congregations of Lauttasaari work at a temporary location in the former premises of the Nokia Oyj research centre in Vattuniemi.
[24] Lauttasaari also has a community health center, a swimming pool, a sports field and a library.
Before the Länsiväylä highway was built the street Lauttasaarentie was part of the main road leading west from Helsinki.
The Lauttasaari metro station is served by two entrances: one in the Lauttis shopping centre, and one on Gyldenintie.
The Länsiväylä (also the National road 51) motorway that links central Helsinki with Espoo passes through Lauttasaari, and has two interchanges on the island.
Going towards the city center of Helsinki, the Länsiväylä will run along the Lauttasaari Bridge, which was built in late December 1969.
A local voluntary fire brigade was founded in 1916 by the initiative of postman Emil Wathén[31] with financial support from Julius Tallberg, for which Tallberg donated the building lot and building supplies for its own fire brigade house.
A noteworthy aspect of the fire brigade's history is that the artist Ola Fogelberg, nicknamed "Fogeli", living in Lauttasaari served as its chief for several years.
The Koivusaari metro station was built in anticipation of extending the island by land fill and constructing residential buildings on it.
The subdistrict of Kotkavuori comprises the northeastern part of the island, nearest Helsinki city centre.
The subdistrict has one of the two main hills of the island, where the iconic Lauttasaari water tower was located in 1958–2015.
Since 2000, there has been a significant change in the makeup of the area, and several office and industrial facilities have been demolished, with apartments being built to replace them.
