Iso Vasikkasaari is one of the outdoor islands in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

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 ...

. It is located about a kilometre east-southeast from the Nuottaniemi boat harbour in

Matinkylä Matinkylä (; sv, Mattby, ; both literally translated the "village of Matt/ Matti") is one of the major districts of Espoo, a city on the southern coast of Finland. Matinkylä sits between the Länsiväylä highway and the coast of the Gulf of F ...

. The island is officially part of Matinkylä, the shortest distance between the island and the continent is less than half a kilometre. A distinctive feature of the island is its local nomenclature related to

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

Geography

The surface area of Iso Vasikkasaari is about 24 hectares. Except for a private property lot at its northwestern corner, the island is a public outdoor area. The northern part of the island is quite cultured, while the southern part is mostly natural. The nature on the island is quite vivid. Its coast is surrounded by grass and meadows. There are alders growing on the coasts, and going inland on the southern part of the island goes via a hill growing with

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

s up to cliffs with

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.pines A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

.Hentman, Raija: "Espoo ja Kauniainen", ''Pääkaupunkiseudun retkeilyopas''. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Tammi, 2010. . The highest points of Iso Vasikkasaari are over 15 metres above sea level. There is a small grassy field in the middle of the island, east of which is a small public sandy beach at the mouth of the Bastuviken bay. West of this grassy field is an ingrown bay, with a house named Salamis located on its northwestern part. The grassy field is only a few metres above sea level, as is the entire northern part of the island, so the hills of over ten metres in height in the southern part had been islets long before the lowlands in the northern part rose up from the sea. Iso Vasikkasaari is part of Espoo's inner archipelago. There are two small islands to its north: Buguholm and Pitkäsaari. The island of Pieni Vasikkasaari, known in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

as Lilla Kalvholmen, is located to the west of Iso Vasikkasaari. The islands are separated by a narrow strait known as Pavelsons hålet. The name probably comes from an unknown

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 ...

n person named Pavelson. Pieni Vasikkasaari is mostly used for villas. About three hundred metres south-southeast of Iso Vasikkasaari is the island of Pukkisaari. The Norrströmen strait between the islands is named from the Pukkisaari point of view.Saariston osayleiskaava: Selostus
pp. 30-31. Espoo city planning centre. Accessed on 17 April 2018. To the west of the Vasikkasaari islands is the island of Alholmen and a small group of islands known as Kalvholmsklackarna.

Cultural influences and history

There is a private property lot on the northwestern corner of Iso Vasikkasaari, containing probably the most interesting building in the Espoo archipelago: a villa commissioned by the banker Abel Landén in 1897, with its architecture resembling a temple to

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...

. There is a quay for public transport boats on the Temppelisalmi coast on the northwestern part of the island. On the western coast there is a former fishing cottage, Gula Villan, currently serving as a restaurant in summer time. There is also a small wooden viewing tower on the island. There has been fishing population on Iso Vasikkasaari since the late 18th century. Landén bought the island in 1878. It was customary at the time for wealthy people to come to villa islands in early summer along with their servants. There was active social life on the islands. Most of Iso Vasikkasaari was sold to the Nygren family in the early 1920s.Iso-Vasikkasaaren huvilat
city museum of Espoo. Accessed on 17 April 2018. Iso Vasikkasaari is also known as Vasikkasaari and Kalvholmen. The earliest name is Kalvholmen, which has been in use since the 16th century. The name of the island comes from calf ("kalv" in Swedish) pastures. The name of the Salamis islet comes from the late 19th century, inspired by ancient Greek history. The islet is named after the much larger

Salamis Island Salamis ( ; el, Σαλαμίνα, Salamína; grc, label=Ancient and Katharevousa, Σαλαμίς, Salamís) is the largest Greek island in the Saronic Gulf, about off-coast from Piraeus and about west of central Athens. The chief city, Sala ...

on the Aegean sea.

References

External links

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Tiedostopalvelu.maanmittauslaitos.fi

Iso Vasikkasaari, Uusimaa, Finland — Sunrise, Sunset and Daylength

Weather forecast for Iso Vasikkasaari

Iso Vasikkasaari
at hagerlund.net (accessed on 8 December 2015)
Iso Vasikkasaari
at venelehti.fi
Iso Vasikkasaari
at the Laurinlahti yacht club {{coord, 60, 8, 24, N, 24, 45, 40, E, display=title Islands of Espoo