Mariehamn (Swedish: Mariehamn) is the administrative center and
the only city in the autonomous province of Åland. Mariehamn is home
to 11,746 people, or about 40% of the total population of Åland. The
city is monolingual Swedish and 83.5 per cent of its inhabitants
speak Swedish as their mother tongue. There are 5.9 per cent in
Finnish and 10.6 per cent in other languages. Mariehamn is Finland's
largest monolingual Swedish-speaking municipality.
The city
is home to the Åland Provincial Government and the Provincial
Assembly, which operate in a self-governing house
(Självstyrelsegården) designed by architect Helmer Stenros and
completed in 1978 in the city center. Mariehamn is also known as a
summer tourist city. About 1.5 million tourists visit it every year.
There are several hotels in the town and the Gröna Udden campsite is
to the southeast of the city center.
The coat of arms of
Mariehamn was designed by Nils Byman and confirmed in 1951.
Founded by Russians in 1861, named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Russian Emperor Alexander II. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Russian-language sources used the Swedish version of the city's name, Mariehamn; in the second half of the 20th century, the Finnish version, Maarianhamina, was approved as the Russian normative spelling, which is translated from Swedish and Finnish as “Mary's Harbor”.
The city is located on a peninsula and has two ports - on the western
and eastern coasts. The Western Port (Swedish: Västerhamn) is of great
international importance, as it carries out intensive ferry traffic on
the way to Sweden and continental Finland. The Eastern Port is mainly a
yacht harbour, one of the largest on the Baltic Sea.
Mariehamn
has the only airport on the islands.
The city houses the Cabinet
of Ministers and the Parliament of the Åland Islands - Lagting.
Both newspapers of the Åland Islands (Ålandstidningen and Nya Åland) are
published in the city, several radio stations and a local television
channel (TV Åland) operate.
Local legend says that the inhabitants of the Åland Islands, who were striving to found a new port, specifically proposed to Emperor Alexander II to give the settlement the name of his wife in order to get the highest consent to assigning it the status of a city as soon as possible. The official history claims that the port, on the contrary, was founded on the direct orders of Alexander II, and work on its construction under the guidance of the architect Georg Theodor von Schewitz began as early as 1859 near two small villages - Evernes (Swedish: Övernäs) and Yomala, and in 1861 (February 21) the new settlement received the status of a city and the name Mariehamn. Over time, the city significantly increased in area and included part of the territory of the Yomala community.
The Åland Islands have a long history of shipping. The museum
sailboat Pommern is anchored in the western port. The Eastern Harbor is
one of the largest yachting ports in Scandinavia and also hosts the
Dutch steamship Jan Nieveen (also called F.P. von Knorring) converted
into a restaurant.
There are several buildings in Mariehamn
designed by the Finnish architect Lars Sonck and representing the
architectural landmark of the Åland Islands: the Church of St. George
(1927), the main building of the Åland Maritime College (1927), the city
hall building (1939). The Åland Museum operates.
On November 2,
2011, a monument to Empress Maria Alexandrovna was unveiled in
Mariehamn, after whom the city is named.
During the summer, the
city is visited by a significant number of tourists, who are served by
several hotels and other accommodation facilities, including camping.
There is a consulate of the Russian Federation, a general consulate of
Sweden, as well as consular offices of some other countries.
Mariehamn is characterized by its greenery and the kilometer-long
avenue that runs from east to west. It is lined with lindens and
Mariehamn is therefore called "the city of a thousand lindens". The city
consists of a grid pattern of streets and was planned by architect Georg
Theodor Chiewitz in Turku.
During the 1960s, many of the older
wooden houses in Mariehamn were demolished and more contemporary houses
were built instead. However, many wooden houses have been preserved,
including a number of villas designed by master builder Hilda Hongell
and several of architect Lars Sonck's early buildings. Sonck also
designed Mariehamn's town hall, St. Göran's church and several other
representative buildings.
The administrative and cultural center
of Åland stretches along Österhamn, designed by the Finnish architect
Helmer Stenros. Along Österhamn there is also the city's main access
road Österleden, colloquially known as the "East exit". The building
project was called Project 77 and consists of the Åland Museum,
Självstyrelsegården and Hotel Arkipelag.
Mariehamn's municipal operations are called the City of Mariehamn.
The center for city administration is Mariehamn's city hall, where the
city council also meets. The city has a sewage treatment plant called
the Lotsbroverket and is also the principal for other operations such as
the museum ship Pommern and Mariehamns Centralantenn Ab.
During
the 2020–2021 mandate period[5], the City Board has the following
composition:
Chair: Ingrid Zetterman, Liberals
Vice chairman:
Peter Enberg, Moderat Samling för Åland
II vice-chair: Anna
Holmström, Åland Center[6]
Henrik Löthman, Åland's Social Democrats
Anders Holmberg, Unbound collection
Terese Åsgård, Moderate
Collection for Åland
Jonny Andersen Liberals on Åland
Nina
Fellman, Åland's Social Democrats
Ola Sundberg, Sustainable
Initiative
Since the municipal elections in 2019, the city
council has the following distribution of mandates:
6 The moderates
6 Åland's Social Democrats
6 The Liberals on Åland
3 Åland Center
1 Åland's Future
3 Unbound collection
2 Sustainable Initiative
Business life in Mariehamn is dominated by shipping companies and
tourist facilities, but in addition there are several department stores,
three bookstores and three banks, of which the Bank of Åland has its
head office in Mariehamn. One of Åland's largest companies, Chips Abp,
which is now part of the Norwegian Orkla group, also has its
headquarters in the city. There are also several import companies for
car and boat equipment. The originally local shipping company Mathias
Eriksson AB has expanded around most of the Baltic Sea and supplies the
ferries with goods also in Estonian and Swedish ports. In addition, they
have interests in some local hotels. The largest shipping companies
today are Viking Line and Birka Line, which is more than 90% owned by
Eckerölinjen.
A Swedish honorary vice consulate in Mariehamn was
established in 1871. It was elevated to a paid consulate in 1921 and has
been a paid consulate general since 2005.
Public transport
Within Mariehamn, the company Viking Line
operates regular bus services. In addition, there is a fixed bus
connection with the other municipalities on Åland and Vårdö with
Ålandstrafiken's buses from Bussplan.
Shipping
Ever since
Mariehamn was founded in 1861, business life in the city has been
focused on shipping and the sea. Even today, the city has a large number
of shipping companies and a large part of the population is employed in
shipping. A navigation school for the training of naval officers, among
other things, is located in Mariehamn. Many of the shipping companies
operating traffic between Sweden, Estonia and Finland have their base
here and many of the ships that operate in these waters have their home
port in Mariehamn. An important reason why most ferries between Sweden,
Estonia and Finland dock here is that Åland is counted as a third
country through exceptions in the conditions for membership in the EU.
Even though Åland is included, you can therefore continue to sell
tax-free, i.e. tax-free goods on board the ships even after July 1999,
when this was banned on ferries between EU member states.