Föglö

Föglö is a large archipelago municipality in Åland. It is one of the oldest known place names from the area of present-day Finland, and the island group served as the centre of the Åland archipelago for centuries. The municipality has a gallant history in the seafaring area, and due to its large, colourful wooden houses, the municipality's centre, village Degerby, is often considered as one of the most beautiful villages in the whole Åland province.

Understand
Föglö is the least Finnish speaking community in Finland. Less than 3 % of residents announce Finnish as their mother tongue.

500 year-round residents live in Föglö municipality, in addition to which there are around 700 summer-only residents. The municipal school (grades 1-9) also serves the students from neighboring Sottunga.



History
The name Föglö was mentioned in a 1241 Danish seafaring manuscript as Fyghelde, making it one of the oldest known place names within modern-day Finland. While the exact meaning of the danish name is unclear, it is thought to have its roots in the area's abundant bird life. Föglö is among the best places on the Baltic Sea to encounter open sea bird species. In fact, Föglö southern archipelago is one of the internationally recognized Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA).

Although Föglö church was largely modernized during the 1860s, its oldest surviving parts are estimated to date from the 14th century. For centuries, Föglö served as the center of the Åland archipelago. During the 19th century, the well-being of this archipelago community began to be built more and more on commercial shipping – and especially in Degerby – the street view is dominated by large "captain houses", which wealthy seafarers and ship owners built as their residences. Even though the Russians founded Mariehamn in 1861, Degerby had more residents until the 1920s.

Shipwrecks have also occurred during the centuries-old maritime tradition. There are many wrecks in the depths of the sea, but a particularly interesting one was found in 2003. Bottles of beer and champagne were found in the wreckage of this, so far unidentified ship. In 2012 the Government of Åland auctioned a few bottles of champagne at a price of more than €20,000 each. The income was completely used for marine research.

Get in
Being a set of islands, boat is the only way in. Ålandstrafiken operates a ferry from Svinö harbor in Lumparland to Degerby several times a day. Also one of the mainlines, Södra Linjen, connects Överö harbor in the north of Föglö to Långnäs harbor (Lumparland) as well as to Sottunga, Kökar, and finally Galtby in mainland Finland. The Galtby harbour has a bus connection to Turku but not for every arrival/departure.

There is a bus connection from Mariehamn to Svinö harbour by Ålandstrafiken's line 5. Ticket €2.5/adult (Sep 2023). See their timetable for details. Not all ferry arrivals/departures have bus connection, the connecting bus departures/arrivals are marked black in the timetable and "Svinö färjfäste" is your destination. In the bus timetable "Föglö linjen ANKOMST" is the time when the ferry is at the Svinö harbor.

Ferry trip Svinö-Degerby takes 30 minutes per direction (Sep 2023). There is a café onboard.

When the ferry from Degerby arrives to Svinö harbour there is just few minutes to get the bus waiting at the pier! If you want to reach it, make sure you depart the ferry before the cars.

Of course, sailing your own craft is also possible. There are two guest harbors in Degerby.

Both and  have daily ferry connections. However, Ålandstrafiken ferries call at Överö harbor only by request which must be done by phone and no later than 45 minutes before ferry's scheduled arrival to Överö. It is not possible to reserve a place for a vehicle for a trip between Överö-Långnäs in advance.

Get around
Degerby village is small enough to get around on foot without any trouble. However, the island group itself is large and the distances are fairly long on the scale of Åland. There is daily kollektivtrafik between Överö and Degerby. Using it is free of charge.