PART4 Historic Preservation TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1366 93 Finland's Highway and Traffic Museum: Preserving the Nation's Transportation Legacy PENTTI ELONIEMI AND ANTTI T ALVITIE The Road Museum in the Finnish National Road Administration DEVELOPMENT OF ROADS AND ROAD (FINNRA) is described. The Road Museum is a museum that NETWORK IN FINLAND preserves culturally, socially, or technically important historical bridges, road sections, and ferries in their natural settings. The "The road, be it a stony path, a dirt road or a multilane Road Museum at FINNRA celebrated its 175-year anniversary in 1974. So far, 54 road and bridge sites have been selected as freeway, is a part of the landscape where nature and culture museum displays. The number of sites will be increased slowly. meet" (P. Fogelberg, poet). The sites are marked on highway maps, and there is a short history on display in four languages at the location. A museum building will be erected to exhibit road construction and maintenance equipment and to feature culturally important road-related events. Before 1100 It is shown that keeping historically significant road sections and bridges in original form as objects for historical study is a concrete There is a common misconception that waterways were the way of preserving a country's historical memory. The paper briefly only prehistoric traffic routes. But, according to new research, relates the modest history of road transportation in Finland to traffic routes by land are much older than previously thought. her history. Finland's written history is young, and writings sur­ The first roads appear to have developed from simple paths viving from before the 12th century are scarce, even though peo­ ple have lived there for at least 9,000 years. The history of road that were cleared to make traveling easier. Heavier loads were transportation in Finland should not be looked at in comparison pulled on a litter or a sled. Ancient burial grounds show some with the accomplishments of ancient civilizations. signs that horses were ridden and used as beasts of burden as early as the fourth century (about 300 A .D .) in Finland. The oldest and most famous ancient road in Finland is the On the 175th anniversary of the Finnish National Road Giant's Road in Pohjanmaa, a county in western Finland. The Administration (FINNRA) in 1974, a motion was made to Giant's Road dates to about 600 A.D. It is a ritual road 540 create a Road Museum in Finland. Since then sections of m long that is paved with large stones. The road connects two roads and old bridges have been preserved or restored, and hills, both of which are ancient burial grounds (Figure 1). machines, implements used in road construction or mainte­ The oldest prehistoric road still in use is the so-called Harne nance, and historically interesting highway materials have been Ox Road, which connects the cities Turku and Hameenlinna set aside for road museum use. The museum building will be (Figure 2). It dates to approximately 800 A.D. and is roughly opened in Kangasala near the city of Tampere on June 12, 170 km long. Most of the road is still in use , though basically 1992. A plan has been made for future buildings in the area. as a private road. The Ox Road kept the same basic direction The main idea is to create a road and traffic museum with from the Middle Ages up until last century. Its alignment is enough room to add a car museum later. not the shortest path between the two cities, but because of At present the Road Museum has a small staff. In 1988 a the terrain it is the best route. During the Middle Ages the foundation was formed to support the project financially. The road also connected many economic and government centers. Road Museum has a small permanent show in FINNRA's The road was built specifically for long-distance travel. An­ central administration building in Helsinki. The museum has other road branches off the Ox Road at its southwest end; published studies about its mission to preserve the history of this road is called the Devil Road. road and bridge construction in Finland. So far 34 bridges and 20 road sections have been selected as museum display sites. The number of displays will be in­ creased gradually. The displays will be marked on highway Swedish Period, 1100-1809 maps and with signs along the roads on which there will be a short history of the display in four languages. At the end of the prehistoric period, roads were beginning to be built to suit the needs of the Sweden-Finland government. Bridges were also built over some of the more important P. Eloniemi, Department of Highway Construction Maintenance, waterways. The rivers in the southwestern part of Finland Finnish Highway Administration, Helsinki, Finland SF-00521. A. were rough and full of rapids, making them difficult to travel Talvitie, Viatek Group, Pohjantie 3, Espoo, Finland 02100. by. Therefore, by the time of the Middle Ages, roads had LllNAHAMARI ~........ ..•.. RAATTEE ROAD ..: ..: ....... THE ARCTIC OCEAN ....: ROAD ....: ..... THE ARM ROAD . : : ''' THE GREAT POST ROUTE ,.,.,,.,.,. VORNA ROAD ii 1111111 KURU-RUOVESI iRovanieml (PRESENT MUSEUM ROAD) UIUlllllll KOR SH OLMA-LAN SIPOHJA - OULU-KAJAANI RUSSIA ••• THE GIANT'S ROAD THE HAME OX ROAD -- DEVIL'S ROAD --- THE KING'S ROAD FIGURE 1 Some historical roads in Finland. Eloniemi and Talvitie 95 was involved in the 16th century slowed the development of the roads. In the 17th century, when Sweden-Finland was a major power, the road network in northern, inner, and eastern Fin­ land was expanded. The new roads were necessary because the population began spreading, and the kingdom gained more land in Karelia. It was during this period that the coastal road from Korsholma Castle to northern Sweden was built. When the Kajaani Castle was being built, it caused the need for a road from a northern city of Oulu east to Kajaani. In the beginning of the 17th century the government gave numerous orders to make roads fit for travel by carriage. At the turn of the 17th century, there were many wars and many bad harvests; horses almost became extinct. Traffic growth retarded dramatically. During the Russian occupation in 1741- 1743, the building of the Karelia Road was ordered; a section of this so-called Varna Road has been selected as a museum site. Toward the end of the 18th century many new roads were built in inner and eastern Finland. An example of a road from this period is the scenic Ruovesi Road in northern Harne. According to maps this road has existed since the 1790s or earlier. The 26-km road is still beautiful with all its hills and curves. The older parts of the road used to be a part of and complete a waterway system. These roads in inner Finland were primarily church roads. A four-layer stone structure has been found through archeological excavations in a swampy section of the Ruovesi Road. The unusual structure has been determined to be some sort of bridge. Much Finnish cultural history is a part of the Ruovesi Road. A famous 19th-century Finnish painter, W. Holmberg (1830- FIGURE 2 Harne Ox Road. 1860), has painted many pictures about this road; Finland's national poet, J. L. Runeberg (1804-1877), wrote poems about become more important than waterways. The roads were di­ this road when he worked as a private tutor in Ruovesi. The vided into highways and local roads (using modern terms). road has been proposed as a museum display site, but it has The medieval road network connected forts (or castles), which not been decided how much of the road will be left untouched were the government centers. According to a list made in when its reconstruction begins. Fewer than 9000 km of roads 1556, eight roads formed the trunk road network. These roads were built during the entire Swedish period. In 1807 the length were used basically for government and military purposes. of the road network was 9060 km. The most important medieval road was the Uusimaa Coastal Road, which went from Turku along the coast all the way to Viborg, now a Russian city. The road was in use during the Russian Period, 1809-1917 14th century, but it was not firmly established until the 16th century. This road already had a great deal of traffic during Road construction became important again when Finland be­ the Middle Ages. A 35-km section of the road near the eastern came an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian empire in border has been selected as a museum display site. This sec­ 1808. During this time, decisions about roads were made in tion of the road is also culturally important, because a noted Finland, and most of the taxes that were collected in Finland Finnish composer, U. Klami (1900-1961), lived on it. An­ also stayed in Finland. A budget was given by the state to be other section, Fagervik Road, has also been selected as a used for building roads. museum site. Because there were many famine years in the previous cen­ By the end of the 16th century, at the latest, there were tury, roads were built for pay in food. This was called relief more roads than what was on the historic list. A good example work, and it sped up the construction of roads in Finland. is the route from Turku to Sweden over the Finnish archi­ Hunger and disease killed many relief road builders, and group pelago. This very important route was named the Great Mail graves were built along the roadside.