Åland

I spent the last weekend in Europe on Åland, an archipelago of 6,000 islands a few hours eastwards of Stockholm. Culturally and linguistically Swedish, these islands were lost to Imperial Russia in 1809, along with Finland. The resulting Grand Duchy of Finland gained independance in 1917 following the Bolshevik Revolution, with the Åland archipelago remaining in limbo. Finally, in 1922, the League of Nations declared that Finland would retain control over Åland, with specific guarantees that the Ålanders would be able to preserver their Swedish language and culture.

Today the islands are nuetral and demilitarizied. As a part of Finland, they use the Euro rather than the Swedish Crown -- although most stores in the tourist area of the only city, Mariehamn, accept the latter currency. In recent years the Åland post office has operated as separate and distinct from the Finnish postal system, requiring its own stamps and retaining the (substantial) revenue from the sale of the same.

A 1977 project to redevelop a major part of the Mariehamn waterfront led (in addition to the unfortunate demolition of a historic hotel) to a complex of buildings called Självstyrelsegården. The seat of Åland's autonomy (literally Self-Steering), the Lagting (law-thing) flies the region's flag above a coat-of-arms engraved in marble:

More pictures from Mariehamn are online here.