The Pargas day - a lecture and an excursion
Сегодня в школе у нас была лекция об истории Паргаса - города, где мы живем. Затем мы ездили на экскурсию по городу, с посещением гигантского известнякового карьера.
Today, instead of the two first lessons, we had a special programme about our town, Pargas.
In the morning all students and teachers gathered in the main hall of the school and listened to a guest lecturer, an elderly man who spoke a local variant of Swedish, which for me was a bit hard to understand.
He spoke about the history of the town, in particular about the development of communications - roads, bridges and telephones.
In the past, most of the traffic in Pargas and other islands was done by small boats. During autumn and spring, when the ice was too thick for boats but too thin for carrying goods on ice, archipelago villages were separated from the mainland for about eight weeks. Then came the automobile and bridges were built; also new ferries started to operate.
The man shared his memories of the time when, in order to make a phone call, it was necessary to book it in advance and to pass it through several telephone switching stations - maybe only to find out that the person with whom you wanted to talk had gone fishing.
The speaker showed many old photographs and small documentary films of Pargas, including the one that he shot himself in 1955.
Then we went on a bus trip around the town. There were about 35 of students and the guide, Magnus, who is a teacher of our school and also a professional guide.
Our route was as follows:
- Axxell (Åbolands fölhögskola). It started in 1892, and the building was a gift of the Pjukala village, where it is located.
- The Skräbböle area, with its Swedish secondary school. There are five Swedish and two Finnish primary schools in Pargas, as well as one Swedish and one Finnish higher secondary schools.
- The cement factory Finncementi and the limestone company Partek (formerly Pargas Kalk).
Then we came to "Pargas kalkgruva" - a vast lime quarry. It is 2 km long, 500 m wide and 120 m deep. Our bus went down the winding gray road cut in limestone.
Pargas lime quarry
Limestone has been quarried in Pargas at least since the 17th century by local peasants. As far as I have understood, the process of burning lime consisted of placing lime over wood and then burning it, so it swells. Lime fumes are poisonous and, when lime is ready, it is necessary pour water over it. Pargas lime was used both in Finland and Sweden, for example for building the Royal palace in Stockholm.
Now stone is crushed in the quarry and then transported to the lime factory by a conveyer belt. Some of the limestone is mixed with grey stone brought from as far as Gotland to make cement. Also lime is used for making a special kind of paper, which contains 40% of lime dust and therefore is hard to burn.
Several rock concerts have been held in the quarry, e.g. by the group Smokie. It has also been used for shooting the American film White Nights (1985), where it depicted a quarry in Siberia.
It rained, so I couldn’t take good pictures of the quarry from the bus window. We were not allowed to come out, because we did not have helmets and the driver did not want the bus to get dirty of lime.
Our next stop was the Pargas recycling station. The dump that was previously located there has been closed, and now the site only accepts industrial waste and materials for recycling: metal, porcelain (sinks and toilet pans), electrical appliances, fridges, old furniture and "problem materials", such as paints.
The recyling station guide and Magnus, the school's guide
Problem waste container
Then the bus went past the golf course, hospital, Swedish technical college, along the main street and back to our school in Pjukala.
It was an interesting trip, though the weather was rainy. I also wish I had taken paper and a pen with me to note more interesting facts.
Today, instead of the two first lessons, we had a special programme about our town, Pargas.
In the morning all students and teachers gathered in the main hall of the school and listened to a guest lecturer, an elderly man who spoke a local variant of Swedish, which for me was a bit hard to understand.
He spoke about the history of the town, in particular about the development of communications - roads, bridges and telephones.
In the past, most of the traffic in Pargas and other islands was done by small boats. During autumn and spring, when the ice was too thick for boats but too thin for carrying goods on ice, archipelago villages were separated from the mainland for about eight weeks. Then came the automobile and bridges were built; also new ferries started to operate.
The man shared his memories of the time when, in order to make a phone call, it was necessary to book it in advance and to pass it through several telephone switching stations - maybe only to find out that the person with whom you wanted to talk had gone fishing.
The speaker showed many old photographs and small documentary films of Pargas, including the one that he shot himself in 1955.
Then we went on a bus trip around the town. There were about 35 of students and the guide, Magnus, who is a teacher of our school and also a professional guide.
Our route was as follows:
- Axxell (Åbolands fölhögskola). It started in 1892, and the building was a gift of the Pjukala village, where it is located.
- The Skräbböle area, with its Swedish secondary school. There are five Swedish and two Finnish primary schools in Pargas, as well as one Swedish and one Finnish higher secondary schools.
- The cement factory Finncementi and the limestone company Partek (formerly Pargas Kalk).
Then we came to "Pargas kalkgruva" - a vast lime quarry. It is 2 km long, 500 m wide and 120 m deep. Our bus went down the winding gray road cut in limestone.
Pargas lime quarry
Limestone has been quarried in Pargas at least since the 17th century by local peasants. As far as I have understood, the process of burning lime consisted of placing lime over wood and then burning it, so it swells. Lime fumes are poisonous and, when lime is ready, it is necessary pour water over it. Pargas lime was used both in Finland and Sweden, for example for building the Royal palace in Stockholm.
Now stone is crushed in the quarry and then transported to the lime factory by a conveyer belt. Some of the limestone is mixed with grey stone brought from as far as Gotland to make cement. Also lime is used for making a special kind of paper, which contains 40% of lime dust and therefore is hard to burn.
Several rock concerts have been held in the quarry, e.g. by the group Smokie. It has also been used for shooting the American film White Nights (1985), where it depicted a quarry in Siberia.
It rained, so I couldn’t take good pictures of the quarry from the bus window. We were not allowed to come out, because we did not have helmets and the driver did not want the bus to get dirty of lime.
Our next stop was the Pargas recycling station. The dump that was previously located there has been closed, and now the site only accepts industrial waste and materials for recycling: metal, porcelain (sinks and toilet pans), electrical appliances, fridges, old furniture and "problem materials", such as paints.
The recyling station guide and Magnus, the school's guide
Problem waste container
Then the bus went past the golf course, hospital, Swedish technical college, along the main street and back to our school in Pjukala.
It was an interesting trip, though the weather was rainy. I also wish I had taken paper and a pen with me to note more interesting facts.