Yellow façade
A grand building.
Valentin Hintikka — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Valentin Hintikka — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Valentin Hintikka — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vhnk — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Eckerö Mail and Customs House is a historic building in the municipality of Eckerö at the western tip of Finland's Åland Islands, about 25 km in a straight line north-west of Mariehamn. It looks out over the Sea of Åland, which separates the islands from Sweden. It was built in 1828 as the westernmost post house on the Finnish side of the old mail route that linked Stockholm with the city of Turku across the sea and the islands. It was designed by the architect Carl Ludvig Engel, who also designed much of central Helsinki. The building was deliberately made far larger than a small village needed, so that it would stand out from the sea; it is four times the size of its counterpart at Grisslehamn on the Swedish coast. Its long yellow façade with white windows faces a wide square, and today it houses a postal museum, an art gallery and an artist-in-residence programme. Seeing the square and building is free, and the museum may charge a fee. It is close to the ferry harbour for Sweden, and the shore behind it looks out over the sea.
A grand building.
The mail route's story.
Towards Sweden.
Storby, Eckerö, Åland
It was designed to stand out from the sea.
A postal museum and an art gallery.