Santahamina (Sandhamn)

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

The strategically important location of Santahamina island in front of Helsinki has shaped the cultural environment of an area used for military purposes for centuries into an exceptional whole. Its foundation is the gun batteries begun in 1850 as part of the nationwide military construction of the Russian Empire and supplemented until 1917, as well as the garrison built in the 1910s. The significance of the building phases carried out by the Puolustusvoimat is shown, among other things, by the Kadettikoulu, completed in 1940, which has been selected for the collection of landmark works of Finnish modernism accepted by the international DOCOMOMO organisation. The well-preserved historical layering of the Santahamina military area is enhanced by ancient remains related to seafaring, settlement history and military activity.

A road leads to Santahamina from Hevossalmi in the north, and along it are the central military buildings. The extensive red-brick barracks area of the Russian garrison from the 1910s was built on the western part of the island according to type drawings prepared for the Empire. Along the edges of the parade ground is a regular group of barracks, to which two barracks designed by architect Pekka Rajala were added in the 1960s. South of the parade ground, among other things, single-storey stable and storehouse buildings, electricity and radio stations, and multi-storey barracks form an excellently preserved whole. The stone plinth of the Russian garrison's Orthodox church is east of the parade ground. The 1910s area also contains barracks and premises from the Finnish period, such as the Ilmailuvoimat buildings from the 1920s, of which mention may be made of the officers' club, a residential building, and the residential buildings on the western shore and the aircraft depot. The buildings of the Ilmailuvoimat are characterised by smooth plastered clarity of line.

The second architecturally and historically significant whole is in the northern part of the island, where along a road branching east from the main road are the buildings of the Kadettikoulu and the present-day Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu (MPKK), from three phases. The modern, simplified buildings designed by Olavi Sorta in the 1930s, the large school and canteen-assembly hall buildings, and the smaller barracks, course building, residential building and stable surround a courtyard where pine trees grow. In the wing of the three-storey school building are the gymnasium, swimming pool and sauna. The interior is enlivened by the interplay of natural and artificial light, glossy surfaces and stylised military motifs. The area has been supplemented in the north near the shore by school and dormitory buildings designed by Tyyne and Reino Lammin-Soila, completed in 1964. On the square between them and the Kadettikoulu is a pyramid-shaped grave memorial to soldiers who died in the bombardment during the Crimean War in 1855. Around it is a cemetery dating from the 1600-1700s. The lecture hall and student residence designed by Osmo Lappo, completed in 1993, is west of the Kadettikoulu. The area also includes a sports field.

The garrison's residential areas are concentrated in the northern and north-western parts of the island, in the midst of park-like tree cover. On the western side of the main road in the north are the oldest buildings of the area, the wooden military buildings from the 1850s, and red-brick residential buildings from the 1910s. On the eastern side of the road is a younger group of buildings: apartment blocks completed in the 1950-60s and designed by architect Heidi Vähäkallio-Hirvelä and architect Reino Lammin-Soila. Between them are three residential buildings from the 1980-90s. In the vicinity of the area is a water tower completed in the 1950s to type drawings.

In the eastern and southern parts of Santahamina is an exercise area, such as the sandy shore area Riviera at Suurlahti. The buildings of the area, including the powder magazines from the 1880s and the storehouses and cellars built in the 1910s, are arranged by battery along the island's shores. The road network is mainly from the Russian period. In the middle of the island is a sandy area called the Sahara, which was cleared open already in the 1820s for the artillery camps of Viapori. At the beginning of the independence era, the Sahara was used as an airfield by the Ilmailuvoimat. The grave memorial with markers of the Reds who died in the civil war prison camp in 1918 is on the edge of the Sahara.

The Russian-era gun batteries are located around the island. They are part of the Viapori fortress district, which extended to the islands in front of Helsinki. The gun batteries were supplemented during the First World War, when Santahamina became part of the sea front named Pietari Suuri, which extended from Åland to the front of Pietari and to the coasts of Estonia. The cobbled gun roads branching off the main road lead to the gun batteries. The island has abundant natural values, such as the groves in the south-western part of the island and the Riviera shore meadows with their forests. Garrison use has helped threatened species of fauna and flora survive.

Jetties from different periods are found along the shores. Fairway obstructions and wrecks are known from the waters surrounding the island, among others.

History

Santahamina lies along an ancient sailing route and has been a stopping place for seafarers, possibly also a harbour and trading place. The island has been searched for sites dating to the Viking Age, owing to the “Viking Eastern Route” that follows the Uusimaa coast and to the proximity of the medieval hillfort of Vartiokylä. No certain remains of Iron Age activity have so far been found on the island.

The village of Santahamina is mentioned in the 15th century. In the 1560s there were two farms in the village. The village was located on the island's western shore, possibly in the area of the demolished officers' club at Papinlahti, until the early 19th century. Santahamina appears frequently in written sources in the mid-16th century, when Kustaa Vaasa planned it as the site of a new town to be built as a rival to Tallinna. Helsinki was eventually founded at the mouth of the Vantaanjoki, but granary storehouses had already been built at Santahamina. A plan to move Helsinki from the mouth of the Vantaanjoki to Santahamina was made in the 1630s, but the town was in fact moved to Vironniemi. A cemetery is marked in the north of the island on a map drawn in the mid-17th century; it lies in the yard of the Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu. Archaeological excavations were carried out on the site in 2004, and they found that all the dead examined were men.

In 1808-1809, during the Finnish War, Russian forces also besieged Viapori from Santahamina. A battery of nine guns was built on the present-day Radioniemi and on a nearby islet. After the surrender of Viapori, the Russian besieging forces withdrew. Santahamina was incorporated into the Viapori fortress in the 1810s. Intensive military activity began during the Crimean War in the 1850s, when gun batteries were built on the island to protect the capital, as part of the fortification works at the approaches to Helsinki and at Viapori. Construction continued in stages until the Russian Revolution. In the 1910s the Empire carried out a military building programme extending across the whole empire, comprising both garrisons and fortifications. As a result, about ten so-called red-brick garrisons and a chain of sea and land fortifications were completed in Finland. Among these are Santahamina, Dragsvik, Hennala, Riihimäki and Kouvola, together with the chain of land and sea fortifications surrounding the capital.

The Viapori artillery began using Santahamina as a camp area as early as the 1820s and named it Leirisaari. Before the red-brick phase of the 1910s, mainly wooden accommodation and storage buildings were built in the north of the island, along the main road that had already taken shape by then. In 1906 the Viapori Mutiny began in a mine company whose barracks were in the area of the present-day Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu. A memorial relating to the mutiny stands at the northern end of the main road.

In 1918 Santahamina housed a Red prisoner-of-war camp of the Civil War. After that, a Finnish garrison was stationed at Santahamina, whose units and functions have varied. Santahamina has housed various army and artillery units and schools, including the Ilmatorjuntakoulu in 1940-1963. The Ilmailuvoimat began its activities at Santahamina in 1923-1943 and used the Sahara firing range as an airfield.

The Kadettikoulu moved from Niinisalo to Santahamina in 1940. It was decided to build a new Kadettikoulu at Santahamina, and the architectural whole was designed by Olavi Sortta, architect of the Ministry of Defence, with the assistance of the architects Kyllikki Halme and Irma Paasikallio. Construction began in 1939. The building project for the Kadettikoulu was linked from the outset to preparations for the 1940 Olympic Games, which were then in prospect. Reference was made to the need for accommodation and training facilities for athletes, and the new Kadettikoulu complex did include a swimming hall, among other things. The construction of the Finnish Defence Forces in the 1930s-1940s reflects a new architecture created by a young nation, distinct from older garrison architecture, in which international architectural influences had been adapted to Finnish conditions.