The Kvarken Archipelago was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2006 as the first Finnish Natural World Heritage Site.
In the 17th century, the inhabitants of Björkö were assigned the duty of conveying the mails over Kvarken. As compensation, they were granted by King Gustav II Adolf, freedom from military service and reduces taxes. This service was provided until 1809.
The post boat service is still commemorated by an annual cruise over Kvarken using the characteristic traditional type of boat. These are equipped with both sail and oars and the event attracts crews and their supporters to Björköby each year. The cruise is to Holmön on the Swedish side an each second year, the direction is reversed. A memorial has been erected at Bodback from where the first post boats were dispatched.
I bought these cards on our little weekend trip to Kvarken Archipelago.
This is my entry for Maria's "Postcards for the Weekend" on her "Connections to the World-blog" and the theme for this week is Postal/mail related.
This is my entry for Maria's "Postcards for the Weekend" on her "Connections to the World-blog" and the theme for this week is Postal/mail related.
6 kommenttia:
Very interesting! Thank you so much for posting about the history of mail in Finland. I had no idea about it.
Oh, how nice! I like the postcard and the story behind. I would like taking those boats.
I have received many postcards from Finland but I never heard of "Kvarken" and it is part of "the Archipelago National Park" ( I googled it(◕‿-) )...as I'm collecting National Parks one more to look for!
Very interesting and I really like the cards. I collect both mail related and UNESCO so these look especially good to me.
Lovely old boats, who can resist a ship with a sail. I have a few of the Åland Islands Postrodden cards but their boats for the similar tradition look smaller.
I've never heard of Kvarken or a commemorative event for postal delivery with boats. There really is so much to learn from postcards! Thanks Caijsa!
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