Aspö is a small village on the Aspö Island in

Väståboland Pargas ( fi, Parainen) 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 centr ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Until 2009 it belonged to the municipality of

Korpo Korpo (; fi, Korppoo ) 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 ...

. Its

Finnish-language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, 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 (the other being 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 late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

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

History

The commercially seafaring Vikings landed on Aspö during the

Viking period The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

, 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 most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

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

and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. 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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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 ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1 ...

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 (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

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 Tanne (German for "fir tree") or Tann may refer to: *Tann, Hesse, a city in Hesse *Tann, Bavaria, a town in the district of Rottal-Inn in Bavaria * Tann, Switzerland, a village of the municipality of Dürnten in the canton of Zurich *Tanne, Saxony ...

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) 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 political background figure during the interwar perio ...

and the foreign minister

Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...

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

Nagu Nagu (; fi, Nauvo ) is a former municipality and parish of Finland. On 1 January 2009, it was consolidated with Houtskär, Iniö, Korpo and Pargas to form the new town of Väståboland. On 1 January 2012 the name Väståboland was changed to Pa ...

. 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 Finland {{WesternFinland-geo-stub es:Aspö