McDonald’s gets approval to build over Helsinki wartime bunker

McDonald’s has received permission to build a fast-food restaurant in Helsinki’s Länsi-Pakila district, despite a First World War troop shelter on the site, Yle reports.

The plot on Kyläkunnantie, near Ring Road I, has been cleared and excavated. Only one concrete troop shelter remains of the defence position that once stood there.

First World War fortifications have been protected as archaeological monuments since 1971. However, the protection can be lifted under Finland’s Antiquities Act if preserving a site causes unreasonable harm to land use in relation to its significance.

In the Länsi-Pakila case, the developer applied for permission to alter the protected monument. The Finnish Heritage Agency granted the permit after assessing factors including how typical and well preserved the site was and how clearly it could be understood in its surroundings.

Most of the fortification had already been destroyed by construction. A busy ring road also cuts through the former defence position. The remaining structures were considered typical and common, and only a small part of the position survived.

Before construction, archaeologists excavated and documented the troop shelter and trench structures found on the plot. The work was carried out in July to preserve information about the defence position’s structures and location, even though the site will be destroyed during construction.

Fortifications make up more than half of Helsinki’s protected sites

According to Heini Hämäläinen, a researcher at the Helsinki City Museum, ruins of this kind are not particularly rare in the city. Different types of fortifications account for more than half of Helsinki’s protected archaeological sites.

About 350 fortifications in Helsinki are protected as archaeological monuments. The city has around 650 protected archaeological sites in total.

Hämäläinen said projects involving First World War fortifications are discussed almost every week. There are likely hundreds of similar troop shelters in Helsinki.

The fortification chain built during the First World War is a significant monument from military history, Hämäläinen said. The structures are connected to an important period of change in Finnish history.

The most valuable sites include large, well-preserved areas such as Defence Position I in Mustavuori, in Helsinki’s Vuosaari district. The most important ensembles have been included among Finland’s nationally significant archaeological sites.

Suomenlinna, also known as the Viapori sea fortress, is a familiar landmark from Finnish history books. Less widely known is that the fortress also had a land front during the First World War.