From Danube Delta to Arctic Ocean

The Struve Geodetic Arc was approved in the World Heritage List in July 2005. The Geodetic Arc is a scientific and technological landmark. It was laid out and measured in 1816-1855 under the direction of Friedrich George William Struve, a German astronomer, with the aim of determining the size and shape of the Earth.

Measurement of the triangulation chain known as the Struve Geodetic Arc comprises 258 main triangles and 265 station points. The northernmost point is located near Hammerfest in Norway and the southernmost point near the Black Sea in Ukraine. In Finland, the Struve Geodetic Arc is also known as the Russo-Scandinavian meridian arc.

A total of 34 station points have been selected for protection, six of these being located in Finland: Stuor-oivi (now known as Stuorrahanoaivi) near the Norwegian border; Avasaksa (Aavasaksa) and Tornea (Alatornio church) in western Lapland; Puolakka (Oravivuori) in Korpilahti; Porlom II (Tornikallio) at Porlammi in Lapinjärvi; and Svartvira (Mustaviiri) in the Pyhtää archipelago.

When it was originally measured, the chain went through the territory of only two countries, Russia and Sweden. Now it runs through ten states: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. These countries have been cooperating since 1993 to ensure protection of the chain and to restore its station points. The Struve Geodetic Arc is in fact the first World Heritage Site to go through such a large number of countries.


BY RISTO PITKÄNEN
ILLUSTRATION BY FLEUR WILSON