Omenainen (or Ominainen; sv, Ominaisholmen) is a state-owned uninhabited island in the municipality of

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 ...

(now

Pargas 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 ...

, in the central

Archipelago Sea The Archipelago Sea ( fi, Saaristomeri, sv, Skärgårdshavet) is a part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Sea of Åland, within Finnish territorial waters. By some definitions it contains the largest ar ...

. The size of the island is about seven hectares and its highest point is about 22 meters high. Trees grow there, and the beaches are rugged and inaccessible. The island belongs to the nationally valuable landscape area of Airisto–Seili, and the

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...

area to the

Själö Själö or Nagu Själö (in Swedish) or Seili (in Finnish) is a small island (about from north to south), off the main islands of Nagu, in the Archipelago Sea, off the south west coast of Finland. Själö is part of the municipality of Pargas ...

archipelago. The dead of the parishioners of

Rymättylä Rymättylä (; sv, Rimito) is a former municipality of Finland. It was, together with Merimasku and Velkua, consolidated with the town of Naantali on January 1, 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest ...

and Nagu, who the church refused to bury in the blessed land, such as

murderer Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

suicides Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...

and other

sin In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...

ners, were once taken to the island. The last deceased were buried in Omenainen in the mid-1850s. In the late 1960s, the Rymättylä parish declared the island a

burial ground A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

. In folklore, the island has a frightening reputation: it is considered

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

d and

ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

are told about it. Based on the stories, the author Maila Heikkilä published the youth book ''Yö kummitussaaressa'' ("Night on the Ghost Island") in 1986; in the book, the protagonist Janne finds a newspaper story about the ghost island called Omenainen and entices his sister Päivi to spend the night on the island with him.

References

External links

Ominaisten saari
(in Finnish)
Aerial view of the island in the map service of the town of Pargas.
(in Finnish)
A map of the Paikkatietoikkuna showing the shipping lanes around the island.
(in Finnish) Baltic islands Finnish islands in the Baltic Natura 2000 in Finland Pargas Paranormal places Reportedly haunted locations {{island-stub