Showcase April - Suomenlinna Fortress Island

This posts is a large - and I hope high-quality - photography post that depicts the fortress island of Suomenlinna a few kilometers off central Helsinki. I took part in the Nordic go championship tournament in Helsinki in April 2019. I visited the island with a local go playing friend of mine on April 21 2019. Our route through the islands was off the beaten path. He showed me the shipyard on the island that repairs sailboats. He told me its the only one of this size in the country.

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When I told an old go playing friend of mine from Helsinki that I was going to shoot photos at daytime and that I intended to go to Suomenlinna, he offered to go with me as my guide. This friend of mine has recently studied WW I time fortifications in the capital region. The Russians built a number of inland fortifications in order to protect Suomenlinna from being fired upon from the mainland which is what it is quite vulnerable to. It was fortunate because, thanks to him, I would probably have missed the shipyard of the fortress. I have a ton of pictures from our walk. I could've made for an Actifit post as well as the number of steps might have exceeded 10,000 yesterday. I was too tired from the walk and the tournament sauna afterwards. I had not even been drinking because I was driving but we only arrived at the home of the guy who was putting me up at midnight. We had to get up early today because today is the last day and the Swedes have a ferry to catch.

Anyway, on to the Suomenlinna pictures:

Not the Suomenlinna ferry. This one has just departed for Stockholm. Suomenlinna is only about 10 minutes from South Harbour. A single ticket costs the same as a single ticket on all public transport within Helsinki city limits.

Lonna, an island close to Suomenlinna, which is actually made up of four islands connected by bridges. A fifth one is close in the southeast but there is no bridge to it.

A view back towards the gate in the northern end of the main island. We are actually going to the west to an island where the Naval Academy is. You can walk around it but not walk all the pathways. There is extensive camera surveillance everywhere near the academy buildings. At the same time, the whole group of islands is one of the biggest free museums in the country.

The bridge to Pikku-Musta, an island where the Naval Academy is. The academy is in the buildings.

This one must be quite old.

This one was taken on the main island. I'm guessing that's a storage room used by the navy.

This is on Pikku-Musta. There is a sauna in that building. It's probably the largest sauna heated with wood in the world. My friend told me there is enough space for 1-2 companies. That's hundreds of men.

The stove is very large. Those pieces of firewood are about one metre long.

These buildings are on Länsi-Musta, an island accessible from Pikku-Musta. Those buildings have been converted into blocks of flats. They are probably in better condition than they look. The local island climate is quite unforgiving.

A gun emplacement on the southern shore of Länsi-Musta.

An ammunition storage room.

Harmaja light house. I'd say it is about three kilometers from Suomenlinna. I've heard its name on the radio in weather reports countless times. Now I see it for the first time.

These Canadian geese were everywhere. They didn't fear us at all. I didn't need the long lens to take this picture.

There was probably an anti-aircraft gun here at one point.

One was still there.

An Obuhov heavy naval cannon.

This is how the back of it looks like.

These wheels allow it to be turned.

A long lens picture of South Harbor from Länsi-Musta

Where on the main island now.

From a bridge on the way to Susisaari, the southern main island. Bastions, streches of wall where there used to be guns.

A little short cut to the dry dock.

This is it.

It was unexpected to see a ship with a steel hull. This dry dock is specifically for wooden ships.

There were maybe half a dozen sailships under repair. Those cranes are for lifting the masts. There was a scale in the largest one. One such mast weighs about a ton.

They were working on this ship that looked as if it were in a pretty shitty condition. But my friend said that as long as the keel is ok, they should be able to replace any damaged parts and make it seaworthy again.

Pretty horrible.

A pretty nice-looking old schooner, isn't it?

It's a pretty big dock. My friend told me it was the only one like this in the country.

There was one more section before the sea. The seawater is behind that gate.

My friend said these blocks had come off during the bombardment in the summer of 1855 by the British and the French navies during the Crimean war. Finland was a Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire at the time. The people of Helsinki had gathered to observe the bombardment in large crowds on the mainland. The bombardment caused major destruction.

That storage building seems to have taken a direct hit. It has been repaired using bricks.

The main fortress.

The commandant's house.

What is that thing?

A romantic little building near the main platform on the northern shore of the northern island.

The main gate from the south side. We're about to leave the island and head for the tournament sauna. There is a sauna evening at every Finnish go tournament lasting more than one day.

Another ship has departed.

South Harbour from the Suomenlinna ferry.