Reposaaren yhdyskunta

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Reposaari is the outermost island in the Kokemäenjoki delta, at the edge of the open waters of the Selkämeri. Reposaari, together with Mäntyluoto (see Mäntyluoto pilot and harbour environment), forms a settlement that grew off the town of Pori in the second half of the 19th century, and which has had great local and national significance, especially thanks to its port activities, shipyard and steam sawmill.

The regular, elongated grid plan of the Reposaari built-up area was completed in 1874. The unified, modest wooden building stock dates mainly from the golden age of seafaring in the second half of the 19th century and from the early 20th century. The Reposaari district of Pori, with its church, schools, hotels and classical-style wooden houses on green plots, forms a miniature town. The hexagonal wooden church and octagonal bell tower of Reposaari were built in 1876, the elementary school in 1877, the pilot station at the end of the 19th century, and the VPK building, designed by architect Johan Nordstrand, in 1901.

The oldest part of the building stock in the area consists of the hotel completed in 1838 and the bourgeois villas built in the mid-19th century, the most striking of which is the three-storey Villa London, completed in 1892.

The area of the former Reposaari sawmill includes a wooden office building and a unified group of nine workers' dwellings. Of the Reposaari sawmill, one of the country's most important large sawmills, which burned in 1995, only the chimney remains, after the ruins of the burned sawmill were demolished in the summer of 2000. The former sawmill community has survived as a compact area.

The cemetery, established in 1896, contains a mass grave for those who died in the sinking of torpedo boat S2 in 1926, for which a monument designed by Väinö Aaltonen and unveiled in 1930 was erected. In the present-day fortress park is a concrete bunker station built in the 1930s, and trenches.

Reposaari's wooden pilot station belongs to the harbour's building stock and is a rare example of the early harbour pilots' activities. Port activities, the shipyard and the steam sawmill formed the economic basis until the 1960s and 1970s, after which centralisation and intensifying competition caused them to cease operations.

History

Thanks to its sheltered location and deep natural harbour, Reposaari was already well known from early on as an intermediate stop for ships arriving from the Baltic Sea at the trading places on the rivers of the Gulf of Bothnia. The island was handed over for the use and enjoyment of the newly founded town of Pori in 1558. Initially the island was mainly used as pasture for livestock, but already in the 17th century its harbour was used for loading the largest ships. The first quay was built on the island in 1775, and the harbour bailiff began work in 1780. From the end of the 18th century onwards, as the mouth of the Kokemäki river became shallower, Reposaari became the official outer harbour of Pori. Shipbuilding at Reposaari began in 1826. The boatyard, which operated in today's Varvinranta, launched its last ship in 1863.

Ironworks owner Gustaf Tigerstedt received permission from the Senate in 1871 to build a steam sawmill on Reposaari. The following year the builder and owner of the sawmill became J.E. Francke, a wholesale merchant from Stockholm. In the first half of the 20th century the sawmill was one of Finland's most significant sawmill enterprises. The export harbour and the sawmill gave rise to the island's own community in the 19th century.

The growth of the settlement required control of building, and the town plan was confirmed in 1874. In the 1870s Reposaari was Finland's largest export harbour, which was reflected in the strong growth of the built-up area. At that time, among other things, a church and a school were built. Reposaari retained its position as an important export harbour until the 1890s, when a new harbour and railway were built on the neighbouring headland, Mäntyluoto. During the 20th century port activity became increasingly concentrated in Mäntyluoto and later, after the completion of the embankment road, moved to a new deep-water harbour at Tahkoluoto. The harbour of Reposaari was converted into a fishing harbour in 1967. The embankment road leading to Reposaari across Lampanluoto and the smaller islands was completed in 1956.

The machine works of Reposaari was founded in 1916. Its activities expanded to shipbuilding in 1945 as a consequence of war reparations. Increasing competition and corporate acquisitions ended the operations of the machine works, as well as those of the sawmill, in the 1970s. The structures of the machine works have mostly been demolished, and holiday home fairs are held on its site in 2008.

During the Crimean War Reposaari was used as an observation post. In the early 20th century the Russians had a gun battery built on Riitakallio, which was part of the extensive defence zone of the city of Pietari. The Reposaari coastal battery of the Maritime Defence League was built in 1935 as voluntary national defence work close to the southern tip of Reposaari. The observation tower was built the following year. The battery was funded by kauppaneuvos Werner Hackl. The battery was expanded into a fortress in 1939. The main task of the fortification was to protect the harbour and the town of Pori. Today the area is a museum.