Aspö is a small village on the Aspö Island in

Pargas Pargas () is a town and municipality of Finland, in the Archipelago Sea, the biggest archipelago in the world by the number of islands, 50,000. The big limestone mine in Pargas is the base of the main industry and except for the central parts, t ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Until 2009 it belonged to the municipality of

Korpo Korpo (; ) is an island located in the Turku archipelago. It is a former municipality of Finland. On 1 January 2009, it was consolidated with Houtskär, Iniö, Nagu and Pargas to form the new town of Väståboland. As of 1 January 2012, Vä ...

. Its

Finnish-language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish ...

name is Haapasaari, although this name is seldom used. The village is known for its white limestone church that has a red brick roof. The current church was built in 1955–1956; however, a church has existed in the place since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The old church was destroyed in a storm in 1949.

History

The commercially seafaring Vikings landed on Aspö during the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, 800 - 1050 AD. In the 13th century it also served as a harbour for traders. The trade route was laid between

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. In the beginning of the 20th century only about 30 people lived on Aspö. Now there are only about 10 people. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

until 1917, Aspö served as Russian naval military watchpost. In 1944 it served as the German navy base as the Germans were not allowed to anchor on

Åland Åland ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...

proper. In the 1910s the Russians had a patrol station on the island. In the 1940s it was used as a harbour for

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s. On the contrary to the year of 1941, on 1944 the Finns allowed instead of Åland proper, the German navy to use only Aspö and Nötö as the naval base ''Rotbuche'' as there was a suspicion of the Tanne West operation which would have led to the German occupation of Åland Islands. The question became actual from 20 June to 27 June, when the president of the republic of Finland, mr.

Risto Ryti Risto Heikki Ryti (; 3 February 1889 – 25 October 1956) was a Finnish people, Finnish politician who served as the fifth president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as a politician in the field of economics and as a politica ...

and the foreign minister

Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich-Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician and diplomat who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. ...

negotiated the terms continuing the war after the German arms export embargo in since April, 1944 due to the negotiations of peace with the Soviet union. A heavy naval detachment was sent via

Utö Uto, UTO, Utö, or Utō may refer to: People Given name * Uto Ughi (born 1944), Italian violinist and conductor * Uto Wunderlich (born 1946), German sports shooter Surname * Datu Uto (died c. 1900), 18th Sultan of Buayan, Mindanao * Fumiaki ...

towards Aspö. A ship called M/S Utö transports passengers between Aspö and

Nagu Nagu (; ) is a List of former municipalities of Finland, former municipality and parish of Finland. On 1 January 2009, it was consolidated with Houtskär, Iniö, Korpo and Pargas (former municipality), Pargas to form the new town of Väståbol ...

. Many men on Aspö work as maritime pilots and the women serve on the tourist branch. As for the tourist attractions there is a new chapel built 1955–1956. The chapel has been built several times since 1696, in the years 1728, 1850 and 1905. Aspö-Eik had played folk music which tradition is taken care of Bruno Johansson and his son Tore Johansson. Milking ended in the 1970s, but afterwards there has been broad for the summer times from 10 to 15 cows for tourists to see.

References

Pargas Villages in Southwest Finland {{WesternFinland-geo-stub es:Aspö