Porvoon saaristokylät (Skärgårdsbyar i Borgå)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

On the large islands of the Porvoo coast, Emäsalo, Vessölandet and Pelling, there is a wealth of well-preserved village settlement following old village lanes, among others at Bengtsby, Sondby and Londböle, and at Söderby and Österby in Pelling. Because of its pilot-farm history, the village settlement is linked to the history of seafaring in the Gulf of Finland. The building stock of the archipelago villages consists of building types from the late 19th century and the early 20th century: country houses, mäkituvat and villas, as well as schools and association houses.

The villages of Emäsalo are concentrated on the eastern edge of the island, along the road. The village of Bengtsby in Vaarlahti has preserved its old village layout especially well; most of its building stock was completed before the 1940s. The houses of the dense row village of Bengtsby lie on both sides of the road, but older settlement is also found on the eastern side of the village, near the shore. Bengtsby's old VPK house has survived in the forest on the western side of the village road. Traditional yards are found, among others, at the farms of Rönnbacka, Storspik, Humma, Spakis, Nygranni, Nybacka and Nilsas. The school building dates from the start of the century, and the Midgård association house from 1912.

On Vessölandet, the villages of Sondby and Londböle have kept their traditional, compact character well. The most notable individual sites in Sondby are the old military official's farm Skeppars with its granary storehouses from the 19th century, and the main buildings of Nedre Kärras, Backas and Nystubacken. The village's small fields surround it, bounded to the south by the sea and to the east and west by meadows lying along streams.

The settlement of the village of Pelling, an archipelago village, is concentrated at a road junction. The village scene is characterised by long, ridge-roofed country houses from the early 20th century (Vävärs, Nybondas, Smeds, Nedra Brandts). The village settlement of Österby is divided into two groups on two hills: a row village on the ridge and Yrjas hill. A small cultivated clearing remains between the groups of farmsteads. The village has an association house and an elementary school built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

History

Swedish settlers arrived on the Uusimaa coastal region in the first centuries of the 1000s.

In the 1560s the villages of Vaarlahti, Bengtsby, Orrby and Emsalö on the island of Emäsalo were located along the present road, by the sea shore. Bengtsby was the only one of the villages that was not right on the shore; its five farms were roughly at the present village site, along the road.

The Sondby village site was located at the present farms of Skeppars and Kärras, at the head of Hemviken. Sondby was a row village whose 6 farms were situated closely along the village road. In the 18th century Londböle was a rälsitila, which later developed into a group village at its present site. Already in the 18th century the villages' fields were in their present places around the villages.

Pelling is mentioned in written sources in 1431. According to the village register of the 1560s, Pelling had a total of 13 farms.