Björkö (Korsholm)

Björkö is an island in

Korsholm Korsholm (; fi, Mustasaari) is a municipality of Finland. The town of Vaasa was founded in Korsholm parish in 1606 and today the municipality completely surrounds the city. It is a coastal, mostly rural municipality, consisting of a rural landscap ...

municipality, Finland. It is situated in the

Kvarken Kvarken ( sv, Kvarken, Norra Kvarken (as opposed to South Kvarken); ) is the narrow region of the Gulf of Bothnia separating the Bothnian Bay (the inner part of the gulf) from the Bothnian Sea. The distance from the Swedish mainland to the Finn ...

area of the Gulf of Bothnia. The chief settlement is called

Björköby Björköby is a village and a former municipality now part of Korsholm, Finland. It is the chief settlement on the island of Björkö. The harbour of the village is called Svedjehamn. Björköby was an independent municipality until 1973. His ...

. In addition to the main island, the Björkö area includes 350 skerries and its total area is 72 km². In 1973, the Björköby municipality merged to

. During the Swedish reign over Finland, the island was notable for being a post transport base in the archipelago on the Finnish side. Mail was ferried by the inhabitants of Björkö to the islands of

Holmöarna Holmöarna (Swedish, literally ''the islet islands'') is an island group in the Kvarken narrows of the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland. The islands form part of Umeå Municipality in Västerbotten County. The islands have 75 year-round in ...

, Sweden. They got reductions in taxes and exemption from military service for this (strategic) service. Ferry services to the regional capital

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

began in 1907 and in 1954, a causeway was built to the major island of the archipelago,

Replot Replot ( fi, Raippaluoto) is an island in the Kvarken ("The Throat"), the narrowest part of the Gulf of Bothnia in the northern part of the Baltic sea. It has about 2,100 inhabitants, almost only Swedish-speaking. The size is about , one of the lar ...

, which was connected to the mainland by a car ferry. In 1997, the Replot bridge finally connected also Björkö to the mainland by road. Finnish islands in the Baltic Korsholm Landforms of Ostrobothnia (region) {{WesternFinland-geo-stub