The Nature Path of Vartiosaari



1. Steam-ship waiting room



In the early 20th century Helsinki used to have a vivid network of steam-boat traffic, connecting the city with its coastal villa-areas and some nearby islands. Vartiosaari was one major stop in this network. Nowadays only a small waiting-room remains as a reminder of this period in history, but the hope of reactivating the Helsinki archipelago ship-traffic keeps on living.

2. Ice Age boulder



During the Ice Age , which ended at Southern Finland about 10 000 years ago, Finland was fully covered by a 1-2 km thick ice layer. While moving around, the ice rounded and smoothed the bedrock underneath, it also carried with it huge stones. This rock at Vartiosaari, carried here maybe from hundreds of kilometers away, is an example of the incredible natural force of the Ice.

3. The Mansion of Sunnanvik



Many buildings at Vartiosaari were created during the ”golden era” of villas, at the turning point of the 19th and 20th century. The mansion of Sunnanvik was built in the 1920 by a rich banker from Helsinki and is one of the most majestic houses at the island. It is nowadays owned by the City of Helsinki, which rents it to the Finnish union organization of academic workers and is the scene of many colourful happenings. Presently about half of the buildings on the island are privately owned, the other half is owned by the city. City-owned houses are rented to different organizations and societies, amongst them clubs of homeless people, artists and the youth.

4. Finland’s only population of the shorepest-plant



This is the only known place in Finland where the ”shorepest-plant” grows. The plant is quite common in Estonia, though, so maybe it was some lonely floating piece of root which brought the shorepest to Vartiosaari. This sandy beach where the shorepest grows used to be quite bare and open some decades ago, but now it is getting slowly covered by different plants, a sign of overfertilization through agricultural water pollution.

5. "Hiidenkirnu" (Ice Age hole)



When towards the end of the Ice Age cracks in the ice were filled by spiralling whirling melting water, loose stones drilled big holes into the bedrock. This happened also at the southeastern shore of Vartiosaari, where one can nowadays find a hole of 1,5 depth in a rock. The Finnish name of the formation, "hiidenkirnu", means 'devil's churn', the butter-making place of the devil.

6. "Lehto" - Rich-Soil Forest



This forest type, in Finnish called "lehto", is the most fertile forest found in the Nordic countries. Because of their rich soil, most lehtos have been cleared and turned into cultivation fields. The few survivors are nowadays protected by law. The lehto of Vartiosaari has a wet rich soil and is covered by an almost a jungle-like vegetation.

7. The ”Chinese Path”



According to a local legend, this road was built by Chinese prisoners brought to Finland by the Tsar of Russia in 1916. Before and during the First World War, the Tsar’s army fortified Helsinki to be part of the extensive defence-system of St. Petersburg. Some 2000 of the fortification-workers were Chinese. They were not fed and clothed properly, so they caused plenty of trouble and were soon sent back. Many reminders of this page of history are still visible around the Helsinki metropolitan area.

8. Birch Alley & vegetable gardens



One unique aspect of Vartiosaari is that its roads are still in their original shape and size, inherited directly from the pre-automobile era. The story could have been written differently, since there were advanced plans to build a major highway in the 1960s, which mercifully never materialised.

Public vegetable gardens, shared by many people and located in the middle of the city area are something very dear to many inhabitants of Helsinki. This institution was developed about 100 years ago in order to provide extra food and recreational experiences for the urban working class people. At Vartiosaari, there are about 100 small cultivation fields for the city people.

9. Stable



The stable of Vartiosaari was built in 1918. Over the decades, it has accommodated cows, horses, pigs, chichken, rabbits, sheep and goats. The days when Vartiosaari was used for cultivation in a major way are past, but the stable still provides a home for animals like sheep and chicken. During recent winters, there was small-scale forest-logging work at Vartiosaari. The logs were drawn from the woods by two working-horses, who were also accommodated in the old stable.

10. ”Viking Hill” lookout-point



The highest point of the island (32 m above sea-level) is believed to have served as a watchplace during the Viking era. Also the name of the island (Vartiosaari = "The Guardian Island") indicates the important strategic role the island played in the past. When suspicious boats were spotted at sea, a huge bonfire was lit in order to warn the people at the mainland about the possible invaders. The old main-harbour of the Helsinki region was located about two kilometers from the island; that's why we can nickname Vartiosaari the "Gibraltar of Helsinki".

11. ”Tapionpöytä”, the ”Table of Tapio” - a rare mutation of spruce trees



There is a rare of mutation of spruce-trees, which causes its branches to spread in a horizontal level instead of gaining height. According to the pre-Christian Finnish nature religion, this kind of tree was especially suitable to be used as a altar for offerings. The tree was called "Table of Tapio", since it was the main deity of the forest, Tapio, who received the offerings put on the "table". The complex ritual performed at the Tapionpöytä included a full prostration and kissing the soil; a certain degree of humility was needed in order to get along with a god of such immense importance in a land almost fully covered by forest.

12. "Jatulintarha" - A Stone Labyrinth



Along the long Finnish coast there are about one hundred man-made stone labyrinths. In recent centuries, the labyrinths have been playgrounds of inhabitants of the coastal archipelago, although their older ritual use is no more known. As a archetypal form, such labyrinths are found in various forms in many cultures around the world, for example among Native Americans in Canada. The Swedish name "jungfrudans", "bride dance", indicates the use of the stone-labyriths as a places of testing candidates of marriage-partners. The boy and girl were connected by a rope, which was not supposed to touch the ground while a "dancer" proceeds on his/her way to the heart of the labyrinth while the other party of the game had to turn back and forth in order to regulate the lenght of the rope to be suitable.

13. ”Tonttukirkko”, the ”Troll Church”/boulder field



The Finnish ground was so heavily pressed down by the incredible ice-masses of the Ice Age, that it is still nowadays slowly rising after being released under the weight. That's why the small rocky cliff of Tonttukirkko, now more than 20 meters above sea-level, used to be a shore-line some 4000 years ago. The place with its many details has enjoyed the special attention of playing children for decades. The nearby villa of Helsinki City’s youth center makes sure that there are every year new kids to explore the "Troll Church".

14. Pasture Area



In the Nordic countries, meadows grazed by domestic animals are amongst the richest biotopes in terms of the diversity of different plants and insects. Alarmingly, the area of meadows of Finland has decreased by 99% in one hundred years during the modernization of extensive animal husbandry into the presently dominant market-driven intensive agriculture. At Vartiosaari, there are three different meadow-areas being kept open by sheep owned by the Helsinki City. A herd of some 20 animals is brought to the island every summer in order to keep the cultural landscape alive and prevent it from being encroached by bushes and trees.